Epistemology & Philosophy of Science

Volume 48, Issue 2, 2016

The "Hazy Outline" of Dissimilar Images
The Symbolic World of Corpus Areopagiticum

The symbolic world of Corpus Areopagiticum is considered here from the prospect of the dichotomy in similar and dissimilar similarity (the images). The dissimilar images are divided into decent, average andthe distant ones. The similarand dissimilar images of Areopagite describe the world system by cataphatic and apophatic approach. The apophatic one seems to be noticeably more important for the author, as in denial (what God is not) or as in applying of unworthy predicates concerning him, his fundamental transcendence and unknowability become more expressive. Similarand dissimilar images are both the divine names from the NewTestament and the Old Testament respectively. They allow the agent of cognition get closer to the understanding of the universe structure. The divine names correspond to the so-called universal concepts which are considered in the works of contemporary linguistic conceptualistics. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic characters of the Scripture belong to the dissimilar images, such as parts of the human body, wild animals etc. The most distant dissimilar images should be analyzed as the manifestations of the human passions applied to the naming or description of God. This is the most controversial aspect of the dissimilar similarities because of their provocative character for a profane reader. Thomas Aquinas, one of the ardent admirers of the Corpus, has denied it while considering the theory of images ("The Mystical Theology"). The works of Areopagite have become an example of combining the Eastern and Western traditions ofargumentation which still remains within the framework of the Christian experience.