Artykuły

Tom 9 Nr 1 (2014)

W ciele czy poza ciałem? Relacja kontemplacji do zmysłów w filozofii Plotyna

Mateusz Stróżyński

Strony: 7 - 26

Abstrakt

In the body or out of the body? Relationship between contemplation and the senses in the philosophy of Plotinus

The subject of the paper is the relationship between contemplation and sensible experience in the philosophy of Plotinus. The point of departure is a problem posed by St. Paul in his famous question, whether his mystical trip to the “third heaven” has taken place “in the body or out of the body” 2Cor 12:1–4. This question was raised by the philosophers of late antiquity as well as by modern students of mysticism. For the purpose of the paper I distinguish between those experiences of contemplation which are devoid of any sensible content associated with the body “out of the body” and those which take place along with the normal functioning of the senses “in the body”. Another conceptual distinction is that between noetic contemplation of being and hypernoetic contemplation of what is beyond being. Scholars have usually interpreted noetic contemplation as happening “in the body,” while hypernoetic one as happening “out of the body.” In the paper I am demonstrating that in the Enneads we can find “in the body” and “out of the body” experiences on the level of noetic as well as hypernoetic contemplation.