Abstract

The philosophical thought of Damascius (about 456–540), the last head of the Platonic Academy, forms also the last original speculative system of ancientneoplatonism. Within his sceptical metaphysics the refl ections on the essence, on the principles, on the possibilities, and on the limits of knowledge are of immense importance and constitute a fundamental contribution to epistemology in general. Damascius works on the recognizability of the absolute, the one, andthe being. He distinguishes – on the basis of his theory, that between the levels of reality exists a necessary, irreversible, and non-reciprocal progression of difference – in an innovative terminology between recognizable and recognized object, between intended and realized object of knowledge, between being,phenomenon and subjective perspectives on the phenomenon. He makes the pioneering distinction between the formal and the material aspect of the objectof cognition; and Damascius investigates the difference between the being itself and the being’s relations to the other. Not only his detailed distinctions butalso his formation of new concepts, contents and their integration in neoplatonic henology, ontology, and theory of causation make Damascius an outstandingfigure in the history of philosophy.