Plotinus (Philosophy)

San Juan de la Cruz es considerado cabal e intencionalmente uno de los poetas a lo divino, cuya literatura representa una de la joyas más preciosas que integran el tesoro de nuestra lengua materna. Por su parte, dentro de la historia del pensamiento occidental, Plotino ha sido quizás uno de los más grandes intelectuales que ha establecido la visión unitiva como un principio relevante de su propio sistema filosófico. ¿Es que acaso el santo Carmelita pudo haber leído al pensador neoplatónico? A partir de la pericia erudita, hoy es posible afirmar que las Enéadas de Plotino gozaban de prestigio durante el siglo de oro español, en particular en las aulas de la Universidad de Salamanca, cuya biblioteca había recibido en 1532 una encomienda de libros provenientes de Venecia, entre los que se destaca la edición de 1492 de los textos de Plotino, en la célebre traducción latina de M. Ficino. Asimismo, San Juan de la Cruz fue rector del Colegio de Alacá durante el semestre de 1571-1572, donde aquella edición ocupaba un lugar privilegiado entre las obras de referencia. Aun cuando sea imprudente sostener taxativamente una influencia directa, a lo sumo es dable plantear una cierta analogía estructural en función de algunas temáticas recursivas que permiten vincular conceptualmente la mística sanjuanista con la filosofía plotiniana. Sobre la base de esta línea metodológica, en esta ocasión se estudia la imagen lírica de la "blanca palomica" a fin de elucidar cuáles son los fundamentos inteligibles que le subyacen.

Η παρούσα εργασία επιχειρεί να συγκρίνει τα πλατωνικά κείμενα (Συμπόσιον, Φαῖδρος) με την πραγματεία Περὶ νοητοῦ Κάλλους του Πλωτίνου αναφορικά με το ζήτημα της ομορφιάς. Ειδικότερα, η έρευνα επικεντρώνεται στην Ιδέα του Κάλλους και στον τρόπο με τον οποίο αυτή παρουσιάζεται στην διοτιμική κλίμακα (Συμπόσιον) και στον μύθο του πτερωτού άρματος της ψυχής (Φαίδρος) αλλά και στην πλωτινική πραγματεία.

The philosophical concept of apocatastasis denotes a return to the beginning, restoration of the primal order of things, restitution of the ideal unity, which on the basis of the law of necessity or the original sin has been lost. In philosophical thought, it is possible to indicate two basic levels on which the return is considered, the level of macro-scale of cosmos and the level of the creation, especially the level of human beings. Thus, it is possible to define a cosmological and personal aspect of the philosophical concept of apocatastasis. In order for the concept to take place, there have to be met certain conditions, such as e.g. an idea of the perfect nature of the beginning and the degradation of the cosmos in the course of history, the cyclical nature of time, the concept of cosmological justice, the evil taken as a lack of good or the idea of kinship between human and god. The article describes the main modes of the concept of apocatastasis in philosophical thought and analyses major requirements that are and have to be met on the way to the concept of eternal return.

My theme is ‘life-writing’, understood as the shaping of one's life through the contemplation of values, although this activity is mostly unreflective. To become an art so that one's life can be shaped in greater accord with clearly held values, this process must become reflective. These values have an inescapably ethical dimension, because as we necessarily poetize our surrounding world, we contribute to our personal and communal ethos the character that arises from the culturally shaping power of guiding ideals. Even the immoralist cultivates life within an ethos where obscure feelings connect with some thing or other, whereby certain aims will then appear more valuable than others.

To understand how we cannot help but shape our lives according to dimly or clearly intuited values, I compare Coleridge’s primary imagination, the ‘shaping spirit’ ‘necessary for all human perception’ with Kant’s ‘blind though indispensible function of the soul, without which we would have no cognition at all, yet of which we are scarcely ever conscious’. With Coleridge, we find in imagination an impulse to connect profound but obscure presentiments and ideas with our surroundings. This impulse propels great art and everyday aesthetics alike. Whether we pursue merely what attracts us, or seek value beyond this, all lives are freely shaped, without excuses, as the existentialists say, but not always in the most pellucid consciousness. Our choices inevitably engage us in the poetic art of life-writing. Cast in medias res, we necessarily improvise. But this is no argument against lives being moral-aesthetic works, spontaneous compositions in value.

Сознание принято считать понятием, принадлежащим исключительно новоевропейской философии, и начинать его историю с XVII в., с Декарта. В связи с этим встает вопрос: насколько правомерно рассматривать тему сознания применительно к античной философии и, в частности, к философии Плотина? Среди исследователей довольно широко распространено мнение, что поскольку в словоупотребление древних греков не входил термин, соответствующий современному понятию «сознание», то и такой «вещи» как сознание они не знали. А значит, несмотря на пространные рассуждения о душе, уме и мышлении, о сознании древние не говорили ровным счетом ничего. Чтобы выяснить, так ли это, нам придется совершить краткий экскурс в историю понятия сознания и попытаться хотя бы в общих чертах уяснить себе, что же именно подразумевает под ним новоевропейская философия.

Plotinus confronts us with a "unification of rationalism and
mysticism" (Bréhier). Also Tarkovsky’s "spiritualist"
penchant flows out of a religious, "non-modern" attitude.
But Tarkovsky and Plotinus are also heirs of a rationalist
tradition strongly marked by scientific formalism. Tarkovsky was well aware of the philosophical problems linked to the subjectivism of perception. He intended to modify the final result obtained by the materialist deconstruction of subjectivist empathy carried out before by the Eisensteinian materialism-formalism. Plotinus was confronted with problems of the same order. He aspires a "mystical union," Plotinus could be classified
as a subjectivist. Still, the "mystical union" of Plotinus’ design is not as simplistic as that which is usually advanced by subjectivism. I detect the development of Russian formalism towards a Plotinian "formalism" realized by Tarkovsky. The conception of the image as "an organic link between idea and form" culminates in an aesthetics of non-symbolic images communicated without passing through the intermediary of the intellect, directly representing the Intelligible.

Εκτενής Βιβλιοκριτική του βιβλίου:
Plotinus Ennead VI.4 and VI.5: On the Presence of Being, One and the Same, Everywhere as a Whole («The Enneads of Plotinus with Philosophical Commentaries»). Εισαγωγή, αγγλική μετάφραση, υπόμνημα Eyjolfur Kjalar Emilsson & Steven Keith Strange. Las Vegas/Zurich/Athens: Parmenides Publishing 2015, 305 σ., 36 €.
Η κριτική αυτή βασίστηκε σε πρωτογενή αγγλική βιβλιοπαρουσίαση της έκδοσης, η οποία δημοσιεύθηκε στην ετήσια έκδοση του περιοδικού Dionysius, τ. 33 (Δεκέμβριος 2015), του Dalhousie University του Καναδά.

This paper posits Plotinus' conception of beauty as not only one of the answers to the question on how to fill the lacuna created by the demise of religious sublimity and awareness in many. But is the most persuasive and transforming way for individual spiritual transformation and by extension the transformation of the world. It focuses on Plotinus' concept of beauty, from the perspective of the human person. Attention has been given to Plotinus' aesthetics mostly within the general scope of Platonism, focusing on the notion of beauty as form (intellectual beauty) and on the question of whether or not beauty is conceived as symmetry both in Plato and Plotinus. This paper claims that the notion of beauty for Plotinus is an ecstatic experience of the soul. Thus, for Plotinus, beauty is not just aesthetical, it is more so a spiritual experience in the soul. This focus on Plotinus' notion of beauty is considered important as an alternative way for the cultivation of the interior life, in a world that is increasing becoming secularized. It is also relevant because the philosophical focus on beauty has largely been on the object out there. Even when a subjective focus is given on the concept of beauty, it is not largely focused on the spiritual transformation of the human person. Hence, this paper, is an analytical exposition of Plotinus' works on beauty.

The Major Arcana of the Tarot  Marseille offer an effective illustration of Neoplatonic Christian philosophy, together with the moral and spiritual crossroads at which we stand.  In particular, the Tower, the Wheel, the Lover, the Hanged Man, and the World offer (together) an effective illustration of the choice that confronts us between putting on the mind of Christ and entering the kingdom, NOW, or continuing to play the wheel of fortune in pursuit of personal power, pleasure, and prestige.  The "easy yoke" of the Master is also discussed in the context of the Magician:

“Learn at first concentration without effort; transform work into play; make every yoke that you have accepted easy and every burden that you carry light!” ("Meditations on the Tarot:, Letter I, “The Magician”).

Readers are also invited to "Play the Fool" as they continue on their pilgrimage.

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions

Here are some comprehensive notes breaking down Plotinus' philosophy of temporality and eternity in Ennead III.vii. They aim to situate Plotinus' work within the context of ancient and late ancient philosophy more broadly. Some special comments are included in order to relate Plotinus back to his precursors (Plato, Aristotle, Epicureans, Stoics) and 'followers' (Augustine, Boethius). Topics discussed include: the nature of eternity (aiōn) as atemporality (rather than everlasting duration); the possibility of defining the nature of time (in terms of diastasis and 'ways of life'); the ongoing opposition between atomism and continuum theory; and the relationship of temporality to the Three Primary Hypostases (One, Nous, Psyche).

Much of chapters 2 to 6 is in agreement with publications from the last twenty years (including those of the reviewer); so for example Frede’s points that neither Aristotle nor the Stoics had a notion of free-will; that in Epictetus (for the first time) the notions of freedom and will were combined; that an indeterminist notion of free-will occurs first in Alexander. The achievement of these chapters lies in the way Frede carefully joins them together and uses them as a basis for some substantive criticism and rewriting of the history of free-will regarding late antique Pagan and Christian authors, in particular Plotinus, Origen and Augustine.

L’ouvrage de Pierre Hadot, "Plotin ou la simplicité du regard", dont nous nous apprêtons à faire la recension concerne sa dernière édition de 1997. Les changements qui sont intervenus dans la rédaction de cet essai aussi transportant que riche sur la vie et l’œuvre de Plotin, ne sont pas anodins. Comme le dit explicitement l’auteur dans sa postface, ses propres traductions et commentaires, accompagnées des nouvelles traductions des Ennéades de Plotin, l’ont fait évoluer dans la « représentation » (p. 196) qu’il se faisait du disciple d’Ammonius (p.16). Ces précisions mettent en exergue deux aspects : le premier, celui d’une continuité dans le traitement, par Pierre Hadot, de l’œuvre plotinienne, et, la seconde, l’importance de la problématique relative aux rapports entre « l’Esprit aimant » (p.197) et « l’Esprit pensant » (p.198), entre l’Esprit et l’âme et surtout, entre l’âme et le monde sensible (corps et choses). C’est pourquoi, au lieu de commenter servilement le cheminement de l’auteur divisé en sept chapitres, nous pensons lui faire mieux honneur en présentant son livre autour de la mise en tension de deux thèmes : d’abord, l’ascèse du voir, et, ensuite, le problème gnostique. La façon dont P. Hadot présente de la philosophie plotinienne manifeste en effet une certaine complicité du regard avec son antique prédécesseur, complicité qui ne manque pas, comme toutes, de dévoiler une certaine tonalité subjective dans l’appréciation de ce lointain et inconnu ami, ainsi qu’une certaine critique, une distance fraternelle entre deux points de vue, l’un, antique et l’autre, inévitablement moderne.

This study spans the entire life and work of the Russian philosopher Lev Shestov (1866-1938). It offers keys to understanding his thought, while also tracing the historical itinerary of his work. Shestov’s thought is not only interesting in itself, as a “philosophy fighting against philosophy,” but also because it reveals an entire world of cultural connections in its extraordinarily keen exploration of other “souls.” The reader will find in Shestov some of the sharpest analyses of authors such as Shakespeare, Nietzsche, Tolstoi, Dostoevskii, Luther, Plotinus, Pascal, Kierkegaard, and many others. This study will better determine the controversial and fascinating philosopher’s place in the history of Russian and Western thought.

A brief exploration of the relationship between the ‘ideas’ or principles of all existing things as they are held in the divine intellect, and the Logos itself. I shall be pointing out that Balthasar’s assumption that pagan Neo-Platonism is pantheistic is misleading, and that Plotinus’s system is closer to Maximus than has been recognized by recent commentators. Issues about ‘Creation’, ‘the Fall’ and ‘the Incarnation’ make some difficulties for this proposal, which I acknowledge and attempt to deconstruct.

Bu çalışma Plotinos'un söyleminin niteliği, Plotinos ile Antik Yunan felsefi geleneği ve dinî söylem arasındaki ilişkilere dairdir. Plotinosçuluğun özgün yanlarını, yerleştiği gelenekle sürekliliklerini ve çatışmalarını onun özgün "kurtuluşçuluğunu" serimleyerek tartışmaktadır.

Kitabda Şərqin və Qərbin bir çox böyük filosofları müqayisə
olunur; müxtəlif dövrlərdə və müxtəlif coğrafi məkanlarda yaranmış
fəlsəfi təlimlərdə eyniyyət və fərq məqamları üzə çıxarılır.
Məqsəd filosofların həyatı, yaradıcılığı və təlimləri haqqında
məlum bilikləri oxuсulara çatdırmaq olmadığından, əsər dərslik,
dərs vəsaiti və ya ensiklopedik bir topludan daha çox, dünya fəlsəfi
fikrinin ayrı-ayrı məqamlarının müəllif mövqeyindən şərhidir.
Fəlsəfə ilə peşəkar səviyyədə maraqlananlar üçün nəzərdə tutulmuşdur.

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions
Key words: mythological mosaic, House of Aion, Nea Paphos, Late Antiquity, Roman art, allegorical narrative, allusive language of mythological pictures, wordplay (Marsyas-Messias), Jesus Christ, anti-Christian polemic, Dionysos, Cassiopeia, Apollon, Nereides, Abstract Personifications, Greek Mythology, ΚΥΠΡΟΣ

The aim of this paper is to highlight the importance of ἕξις in Plotinus’ virtue ethics. It is argued that since ἕξις signifies a quality of being in a permanent state of possession and virtue is defined as an ἕξις that intellectualizes the soul, therefore, it is suggested that virtue is an active ἕξις of the soul directed higher to the intelligible world in permanent contemplation of the Forms.

Abstract: Eckhart proposed that the ultimate of ultimates was not a perceptible God reachable through mystical experience, but an inconceivable and unfathomable ‘something’ beyond all human possibility.  His proposition rests on an important distinction between the mutually exclusive paths of mysticism and spiritual knowledge. Eckhart’s teaching is analysed as if it were an independent metaphysical proposition, detached from its historical and scholarly context. The overall explanatory perspective is that of a dedicated interest in metaphysical gnosis, as part of a quest for the resolution of the human condition. Eckhart provides some valuable assistance in this regard, identifying the ‘Intellect’ – the principial force behind ordinary intellection - as a crucial spiritual capacity. Eckhart is likely to remain misunderstood and misinterpreted because those who are attracted to his teachings have no authentic metaphysical grounding of their own, and are therefore unable to recognise and appreciate – let alone elucidate - the key features of a spirituality that extends beyond mystical experientialism.

By looking at the similarities between various philosophies which influenced Augustine's life - e.g. Platonism, Valentinianism and Manichaeism - and Augustine's developing theology, we will develop a preliminary hypothesis as to how Augustine came to his views on time and predestination. In this essay we argue that Augustine had been influenced by extra-biblical sources, rather than by biblical sources to form his blueprint theology.

In Plato's Phaedo, the complex web of arguments concluding that the soul is immortal is closely connected to the issue of personal identity. If this were not so, a proof that my soul is immortal would have little interest for me. And yet, insofar as the issue of personal identity focuses on subjectivity, personal identity is difficult to pin down. For personal pronouns like 'I' and 'me' are indexical. That is, they are purely contextual, varying across occurrent desires and beliefs which on each occasion generate a new subject. The connection among these subjects is a delicate matter for the obvious reason that the one doing the connecting is yet another subject of yet another occurrent state. If, in order to avoid the problem, or at least to lessen it, one uses the personal pronouns to refer not to the subject of an occurrent state but to the biological entity that the human being is, then personal immortality seems to vanish. As Aristotle reasons, if the soul is the first actuality of a body with organs, then the question of immortality is immediately solved. 1 The soul cannot survive the destruction of that of which it is the first actuality. And though Aristotle emphasizes the reasonableness of saying that, for example, it is the human being who weaves or walks, and not the soul, nevertheless even he repeatedly refers to the soul as the subject of cognitive and affective states. Despite the fact that Aristotle seems to explicitly deny what Plato explicitly affirms, that is, the immortality of the soul, once we consider their account of personal identity, it turns out that their positions are very close indeed. For Plato's strategy for proving the immortality of the soul is to identify the immortal soul with the subject of intellection. This is clear in Phaedo in the so called Argument from Recollection, the point of which is that our ability to make certain cognitive judgments in our present embodied state would not be possible if we had not had disembodied cognition of Forms. 2 The subject of intellection of Forms is the only subject adduced throughout the course of the proofs.

Program 2021-2022 :
The research project "Platonisms of Late Antiquity: Philosophical and Religious Interactions" aims to create a regular meeting place for scholars working on the interactions between philosophical and religious thought during the Roman Empire and Late Antiquity.
It seeks to better understand, on the one hand, the impact of religious thought on the emergence and construction of Neoplatonic philosophies and, on the other hand, to identify the philosophical sources of religious thought, in particular those found in the Gnostic, Hermetic and Chaldean Oracles texts.
It takes over a previous collaborative project, "Plotinus and the Gnostics", broadening its field of research in terms of chronology (before and after Plotinus) and in terms of the corpus studied (Medioplatonic, Hermetic, etc.), and is directly linked to the theme of the database https://platonismes.huma-num.fr/

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Mercredi 15 Décembre 2021 : Aeons, Fullnesses, and Lesser Gods
Workshop animé par Dylan Burns et George Karamanolis

Vendredi 11 Février 2022 :  Plotin, les Gnostiques et les Chrétiens
Jean-Marc Narbonne : L’hypothétique ‘Grand traité de Plotin (30-33)’ : un état de la question.
Izabela Jurasz : L’âme composée à partir des éléments (psukhê ek tôn stoikheiôn) dans la critique de Plotin (33 [II 9] 5, 16-19). Une nouvelle hypothèse.

Vendredi 18 Mars 2022 : Le Traité 10 de Plotin et les Gnostiques
Workshop animé par Luciana Gabriela Soares Santoprete, Anna van den Kerchove, Jean-Daniel Dubois et Daniela Taormina

Vendredi 1 Avril 2022 : Divination and Theurgy 
Andrei Timotin : Trois théories antiques de la divination : Plutarque, Jamblique, Augustin.
Crystal Addey : Platonic Philosopher-Priestesses and Female Theurgists.

Mardi 10 Mai 2022 : Hermeticism, Mithraicism and Neoplatonism
Christian Bull : The Hermetic Sciences in the Way of Hermes: Worldview and Practices.
Andreea-Maria Lemnaru-Carrez : Mithra dans l’Antre des Nymphes de Porphyre.

This is a supplement to my two published books, "Plotinus The Platonist: A Comparative Account of Plato and Plotinus’ Metaphysics" (Bloomsbury, 2014), and "Plato and Plotinus on Mysticism, Epistemology, and Ethics" (Bloomsbury, 2017), wherein I argue that the philosophies of Plato and Plotinus do not essentially differ on more than 100 philosophical claims (for the complete list of 180 philosophical claims, including the Supplement, see Appendix II for where I address them in my two books and this supplement). However, since Bloomsbury Publishing gave me word count restrictions for each book, I needed to cut out portions of my original research in order to get the manuscripts down to size. Thus, I have put the material together that I was not able to publish, in order to show even more areas in which Plato and Plotinus do not essentially differ, and to cite the passages to leave the accuracy of my claims to the readers’ judgments.

This is a more elaboret and developped version of the first paper published in Polish : M.T. Olszewski, Uwagi na temat mosaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr), Menander XLII, 9-10, 1987, pp. 421-438 (translated to English : The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory (In Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus), see on academia.edu

The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographical and iconological programme of five panels mosaic from the House of Aion at Nea Pahos in Cyprus. He proposes reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; ; 3. Apollo and Marsyas; 4. The Dionysian thiasos; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception (Leda and a Swan)  and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis (the apotheosis of Cassiopeia).
The author rejects the interpretation of W.A. Daszewski, (Dionysos der Erlöser, Mainz am Rheim 1985) proposed in 1985 and his order of interpetation the five mythological pictures (1. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 2. Leda and Zeus; 3. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia; 4. Apollo and Marsyas 5. The Dionysian thiasos). Daszewski would like see in Dionysos - a newly born supreme god, the universal savior.
see also a new article: M.T.Olszewski, The iconographic programme of the Cyprus mosaic from the House of Aion reinterpreted as an anti-Christian polemic, in: Et in Arcadia Ego. Studia memoriae professoris Thomae Mikocki dicata, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw 2013, pp. 207-239, Pls 74-86.

The masculine/feminine notional pair represents far more than a mere biological, anthropological and social reality. Its omnipresence qualifies it as a fundamental, structural, quasi-Kantian category, shaping the vast majority of (external and internal) phenomena, perceptions and representations. It is also the foundation of religious representations and ideas, and an essential conceptual tool in the history of philosophy. Unsurprisingly, therefore, at the dawn of Western thought, the Pythagoreans included it amongst the ten fundamental binary concepts alongside finite/infinite, impair/pair, unity/multiplicity, good/evil, light/darkness, right/left, rest/movement, straight/curved and square/oblong 1. It is from this very general and conceptual vantage point, as a metaphysical and ontological principle, that we will attempt to analyse the role and status of the feminine in the Kabbalistic tradition. For various reasons that will become self-evident at the end of this reading, a reflection upon the feminine principle offers privileged access to understanding the ontological tenets of this tradition and, at least partly and schematically, its genealogy.

Recent developments within phenomenology have brought to light the indebtedness of phenomenological scientific philosophy to Ancient Greek philosophy. The recent trend that builds on the ancient precedents found in the theories of forms, for example, has demonstrated the importance of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle for contemporary manifestations of the development of phenomenological eidetic science. This thesis builds on three parallel developments in the phenomenology of time that equally indicate the significance of the ancient Hellenic exact mathematical science of spherical cosmology for the further propagation of phenomenological philosophy. The hypothesis of the infinite sphere gives phenomenology an external foundation capable of accounting for the constitution of the phenomenal universe, possible worlds, and the harmonic continuum of life spanning the inner and outer cosmos. Phenomenological cosmology offers a unified metaphysical framework for first philosophy and the special sciences, with particularly interesting implications for empirical cosmology and theoretical physics. Phenomenology of the spheres brings these phenomenological cosmological insights together in the geometric comprehension of the infinite sphere.

While the contemporary world has been heralded as being “post-racial”, we can look all-around to see evidence that this assertion is not only flawed but false. Religion is generally blamed as the key culprit for the escalating conflicts igniting the world over which threatens peace. Yet, rarely is secularism and the void created in its midst carefully analyzed in this context. The historical roots of this problem are more remote than postmodernism and modernism. However, secularism has fractured the way that human identity has been understood throughout time which eclipses the integral relationship between human diversity and religious pluralism.