LA PUISSANCE DE L'INTELLIGIBLE

La nature des Formes intelligibles d''Antiochus a Plotin.
L''ouvrage propose une histoire de l''interpretation de la nature des Formes intelligibles d''Antiochus a Plotin. Il met en lumiere l''importance du refus plotinien de l''artificialisme me
dioplatonicien qui considere les Formes comme des pensees du dieu et subordonne leur causalite a celle du demiurge, fabricant du monde. En considerant les Formes comme des realites vivantes et intellectives, Plotin bouleverse le sens de la causalite
paradigmatique de l''intelligible. Il reprend les concepts de la theologie aristotelicienne, les detourne et les met au service d''une theorie de la causalite des intelligibles qui repond aux objections du Stagirite contre l''hypothese des Formes. S'
'appuyant sur l''identite de l''intellect et des intelligibles, il montre que c''est precisement en restant en elles-memes que les Formes exercent une puissance generative, productrice du sensible.

The nature of intelligible Forms from Antio
chus to Plotinus.
The nature of intelligible Forms received different interpretations from various ancient Platonists. This book sketches the history of these interpretations from Antiochus to Plotinus and shows the radical transformation this th
eory underwent in the hands of the latter. Pre-Plotinian Platonists considered the Forms as "thoughts of god" and made the causal role of the Forms depend on the craftsman-god. Plotinus rejected this "artificialist" model. Instead he considered the F
orms as living and intellective realities and thereby turned the paradigmatic causality of the intelligible on its head. The Forms are themselves active and the demiurge is no longer needed as a causal agent separate from the Forms. Plotinus incorpor
ated key concepts of Aristotelian theology and included them in a doctrine of the causality of the Forms, thus overcoming Aristotle''s objections against Platonic Forms.