Objects of Plato’s аpophaticism

Abstract

The article discusses the theme of Plato’s apophatic discourse. A specific feature of Plato’s dialectics is the ability to perceive two opposite points of view on objectivity. This formulation of dialectical aporias is the stimulus and key for the further movement of thought. However, when some ultimate concepts are reached, it stops, ending with a negative conclusion — about the impossibility of recognizing something even as existing. Neoplatonists came to the conclusion that such objectivity has a transcendental character, and they argued about two transcendences — the One and Matter, as forms of absolute fullness and emptiness from one’s own nature. Modern researchers interpret the corresponding passages from Plato differently. They believe that these are either examples of an anomaly of discourse, forced to fall into recursion and negation with incorrectly chosen norms of thought, or some kind of search for future themes of the foundation of knowledge and science. The article shows that another way is possible: the three subject areas of the apophatic in Plato’s dialogues (the one, the good, the non-existence) are possibly associated with three planes of judgment about any being. The first of them is about what must somehow be conceived completely in itself and apart from being, the second is about what allows beings to be, the third is about what makes it separate, different from everything else.