The Reception of the Absolute. Averres before Levinas ?
Brenet, Jean-Baptiste
The Reception of the Absolute. Averres before Levinas ? - 2023.
53
In his Long Commentary on Aristotle’s treatise On the Soul, Averroes challenges the position of Alexander of Aphrodisias on the notion of the Absolute. He criticizes him for maintaining that the human soul, despite its finitude, can conceive of separate substances, incorruptible by nature. The Intellect, conforming to the intelligible in the act of intellection, that would indeed require the conception of an absurd transmutation of the finite into the infinite. In his eyes, therefore, the Alexandrian system is collapsing; unless we postulate, says the Commentator, a kind of reception of the Absolute which is not a reception and thus derogates from the process of formal assimilation. This revolutionary perspective would break the framework of Aristotelian psychology. Averroes is not seeking this, but in the course of his critiques he opens up a conceptual possibility which will be that, in part, of contemporary thought. This is suggested with the example of E. Levinas.
The Reception of the Absolute. Averres before Levinas ? - 2023.
53
In his Long Commentary on Aristotle’s treatise On the Soul, Averroes challenges the position of Alexander of Aphrodisias on the notion of the Absolute. He criticizes him for maintaining that the human soul, despite its finitude, can conceive of separate substances, incorruptible by nature. The Intellect, conforming to the intelligible in the act of intellection, that would indeed require the conception of an absurd transmutation of the finite into the infinite. In his eyes, therefore, the Alexandrian system is collapsing; unless we postulate, says the Commentator, a kind of reception of the Absolute which is not a reception and thus derogates from the process of formal assimilation. This revolutionary perspective would break the framework of Aristotelian psychology. Averroes is not seeking this, but in the course of his critiques he opens up a conceptual possibility which will be that, in part, of contemporary thought. This is suggested with the example of E. Levinas.
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