From Onomatodoxy to Aesthetics: Aleksei Losev’s Concept of Symbol

Teresa Obolevitch, Ph.D. (2005), is professor at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Krakow, Poland. She has published and edited several books and many articles, including Faith and Science in Russian Religious Thought (2019) and The Eastern Christian Tradition in Modern Russian Thought and Beyond (2022).

• ContentsList of Figures and TablesNote on TransliterationIntroduction1 The Twentieth-Century Debate over Onomatodoxy, and Its Participants1 The History of the Debate2 Aleksei Losev: the Man and His Work2 Patristic Foundations of Imiaslavie1 Apophasis and Its Philosophical Premises2 Divine Names and Energies3 Eastern Christian Symbolism4 Interpretation of the Patristic Doctrine of the Divine Name in Russian Philosophy3 Platonic Determinants of Onomatodoxy as Interpreted by Losev1 A Thesis about God’s Immanence and Platonism2 Losev’s Characterization of the Platonic “Idea”3 The One-Good as the Principle of Reality4 Platonic Symbolism4 The Structure of the Name1 Antinomy between Freedom and Necessity2 Ancient Concepts of the Inner and Outer Aspects of the Word, and Their Interpretation among the Name Glorifiers3 Losev’s Dialectic of the Name4 Synergism between Divine and Human Energies5 The Origin of the Name1 The Ontological Foundation of the Name2 The World as a Name3 The Symbolism of the Cosmos6 The Mythic Nature of the Name1 Losev’s Analysis of Mythology2 Myth and Symbol3 Absolute Mythology—Christianity4 Indispensability of Myth7 The Open Structure of the Symbol1 The “Logic” of the Symbol2 The Symbol as a Category of Expression3 The Symbol as Interpretation of Reality8 The Symbol in Aesthetics1 Losev’s Definition of Aesthetics2 The Symbol in Art3 Philosophy of Music4 The Symbol in Mathematics5 Philosophy of Expression as Philosophy Par ExcellenceAfterwordBibliographyIndex