A post-Heideggerian treatment of Maximus the Confessor as a case study of equiprimordial principles in discourse with the putative transcendentality of topology.

Cullan Joyce (CTC, UD)

The paper will analyse some elements within the idea of topology (i.e. place as a irremovable characteristic of Dasein) in later Heidegger examining how it can clarify important elements of Maximus the Confessor's thought.

The paper examines the transcendental claim of topology (i.e. that any description of Dasein must include it being in a place, in connection to the claim that it is always already in-the-world), then focuses on one consequence of this transcendental claim, namely how its transcendetal status leads to the redefinition of a given order of experience for the subject. The paper describes this redefinition in two ways: 1) topology, as an analysis, causes the de-centralisation of the subject's experience of itself, 2) it leads to the opening up of an appreciation of a multiplicity of orders of experience, that hitherto have been in the background in Heideggerian thought. 

Tracing these two implications, the paper gives a summary of three case studies being used in a larger project examining Maximus' thought. It shows how these function in a similar way to topology as a transcendetal but with considerable variation in scope and characterisation: 

1) Creation: Examining the function of the concept of Diastema (spacing/ distancing) in Maximus' account of creation's character.  The concept describes how constitutive principles operate equi-primordially with each other to form the unity of creation. 

2) Cosmic Perichoresis: It examines how Maximus understands ontological categories operate interdependently to constitute the 'world' of present experience. 

3) Temptation and physis (the natural character of something): This examines how Maximus appreciates the multiplicity of contexts within which intention operates. His example of the interaction between temptations and natural meanings (physis) shows how, within the interaction between subjects and world, multiple meanings can co-operate in a non-contradictory way.  

These three elements co-operate and intertwine together to form a general overview of Maximus' understanding of experience. 

These observations are offered as an overview of Cullan's project of utilising Maximus to rethink through a particular post-Heideggerian metaphysics and so represent a work in progress.