Visit: October 1 - December 9, 2023
Project Title: Sensible Substance, Soul, and Body between Pagan Platonists, Early Christian Philosophers, and Maximus the Confessor
Jonathan Greig is a senior postdoctoral fellow at KU Leuven, supported by the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), working on a project on the relation of substance (ousia) and sensible particulars in 4th- to 8th-century Byzantine Christian thinkers and the influence of pagan Neoplatonism in this relation. Jonathan completed his PhD on the first cause in late Neoplatonism (esp. Proclus and Damascius) at the LMU Munich in 2018, recently published as a monograph with Brill. He has since worked on topics related to metaphysics/logic, epistemology, and philosophy of religion in Neoplatonists and Byzantine theological/philosophical authors.
Jonathan’s project at Notre Dame is to look at the relation of soul and body in Maximus the Confessor (6th-/7th-cent. AD) in relation to his position that particulars must possess a substrate (hupokeimenon) unifying the distinct properties they possess—i.e. against a “bundle theory” conception of particulars. This stands in contrast to Maximus’ predecessor, Gregory of Nyssa, who maintains a bundle theory conception of sensible particulars, and it is likely this background to which Maximus is responding, both in his general claim about particulars and also in his conception of the unity of ensouled particulars, characterized by the distinct natures of body and soul. The project would look at both (1) the sources of Maximus’ position in both theological authorities (esp. Gregory of Nyssa) and philosophical authors (esp. Nemesius and 6th-/7th-cent. Alexandrian Platonist commentators on Aristotle), and (2) offer an in-depth analysis of Maximus’ position on the soul-body composite amidst his stance on sensible substance.
Affiliation: KU Leuven
