LA «RETORICA DELL’ASSOLUTO» E LA SUA FUNZIONE IN PROCLO E DAMASCIO: OLTRE L’APOFATISMO

This paper aims to examine the semantic and rhetorical strategies used by Proclus and damascius in order to show the absolute transcendence of the First Principle, the archè tôn pánton, which can also be understood as the «absolute». these linguistic and rhetor- ical strategies appear organized in a system that constitutes an effective «rhetoric of the absolute». Its aim is not merely to demonstrate that the authentic First Principle is prior to everything and therefore different from everything and beyond every kind of determination and predication, but in particular to convince and in the same time to persuade that the «absolute» cannot be grasped in a rational and conceptual way, because it is beyond every relation and meaning. It is consequently above every kind of thinkability.