This_one_there · From the paradox of individuality to the logic of representation. Individuals and descriptions in Byzantine thought (4th-12th centuries)

An individual is a unique, non-repeatable entity which is discernable from all other members of the same species. A theory of individuality is an explanation of the mode of being of the individuals.In the Aristotelian philosophical tradition, which is one of the essential components of Byzantine thought, individuals have a particular status; as primary substances they are both: the ontological foundation of reality and the first object of perception - I see Petros, not humanity - ; but at the same time, according to Aristotle, they cannot be defined as individuals (one can only define the species to which they belong), and there can therefore be no science of them (but only of universals). To resolve this tension, commentators of Aristotle active in the Neoplatonic school of Alexandria advanced the solution that individuals cannot be defined but can be described. The Greek term chosen for description (hupographê) has, according to our research hypothesis, strongly contributed to linking the logical and ontological problematic of individuality to that of representation, so important in Byzantium. By studying the reception of the main explanation of individuality – the solution proposed by Porphyry that individuals are constituted by a unique bundle of non-essential properties –, the elaboration of the Christian concept of hypostasis to designate the individual, the epistemic role of accidental properties in the process of recognizing a given individual and the question of the reference of the proper name, this project aims to reconstruct the theoretical issues of individuality as discussed in Byzantium. It will confront them with the practice of literary and material portraits in order to verify the central hypothesis of the project, which is that the philosophical enquiry about individuality was in Byzantium, in a unique way, strongly influenced by the debate about and practice of representation and that the same logic prevails in description and portrait.