THE TAXONOMY OF NEGATION IN PLOTINUS
THE TAXONOMY OF NEGATION IN PLOTINUS

Summary/Abstract: The problem of negation in the Greek thought was defined by three technical terms: privation (steresis), abstraction (aphairesis) and negation itself (apophasis). Plotinian negative theology is based on a method of systematic critique of the layers belonging to physical existence, which overlapp the essential beginning. Their removal will result in our true knowledge of the essence: aphairesis brings forth a way of knowing. Privation employs alpha privative – through which something composite is denied: steresis is associated with a substratum which sustains affirmation. In Plotinus, negative theology and abstraction are epistemological problems, while privation has an ontological applicability.

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