Abstract EN:

Our research is a thorough examination concerning the topic of the ineffable in Damascius’ treatise entitled "Problems and Solutions Concerning First Principles". The analysis of this central theme allows us to situate Damascius’ thinking into the general framework of Late Antiquity and of the Neoplatonic tradition. In this purpose, we had to distinguish the different levels of discourse at work in Damascius’ thought: the usual level in which we express ourselves; the limit level, where Damascius identifies the maximal difficulties of thinking; then, a level where these difficulties and paradoxes become themselves suggestive and indicate what they can no longer express; and finally, the anti-discursive level, where the principle is evoked despite its unspeakable character. The first chapter of our research examines how the absolute principle (i. E. The ineffable) results, in Damascius’ work, from the fundamental paradoxes of the principle and of the thinking that aims to know its source and its ultimate foundation. The challenge of the second chapter of our investigation has been precisely to analyze in detail the para-discursive methods assumed by Damascius, and his endeavor of surpassing totality, that is to say, the radical incoordination of the principle: the first principle must remain absolutely uncoordinated to the all. This analysis allowed us to approach the central theme of Damascius’ thought, namely the ineffable. In the third chapter of our thesis, we have clarified the definite way the ineffable intervenes into Damascius’ discourse, and the particular manner in which Damascius succeeds to indicate this principle without using the grid of the totalizing thought.