Rethinking the One: A.F. Losev and Twentieth-century European Henology

Abstract

The attention of modern philosophy to the ancient concept of the One has led to the emergence of an independent intellectual stream – henology. Although the concept came out from European studies, within Russian philosophy it is best developed by Alexey Losev, Losev characterized “The One” as fundamental category of philosophical knowledge. In this article analyzes the importance of the topic and pays attention to its value for modern ontology and the state of metaphysics in general. It is noted that the discussion of the Oneness is built around one aspect – the crisis of metaphysics and solutions to this problem. Due to the fundamentality of the question, it revolves around the figure of Plato and the Platonic philosophy, but goes different ways. It is noted that, on the one hand, apologists for the One find in Platonism new and valuable ways to justify the position on the impossibility of overcoming metaphysics – the apophatic henology. On the other hand, postmodernists criticise Plato for idealism and apology of hierarchical worldview. In this point of view, concept of the One closes to totalitarian mythologies. It is shown that the concept of henology is contradictory, there are several disputable positions about that. Some authors tend to understand the One only as radical structurally indistinguishable apophatic, others, following the tradition of Christian metaphysics, on the con­trary, as a complex system of apophatic and cataphatic character. It is made the conclusion that the systems of henologists in the XX century are united by the attention to ontology in general. Henology thus unites in its dialogue european and russian thought, metaphysical and post-metaphysical, bringing back twentieth-century thinkers to contemplate the foundations of being.