What is Eidetic Phenomenism? Analysis and Perspectives on a Historiographical Category of Medieval Thought, Based on the Studies of Giulio d’Onofrio
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6093/1590-7937/13015Keywords:
Early medieval thought, Speculative theology, Platonic-Christian epistemology, Cognitive power, Intersubjective empathyAbstract
The article reconstructs and elaborates the notion of eidetic phenomenism as developed by Giulio d’Onofrio, presenting it as a medieval theory of knowledge grounded in the progressive co-participation in truth. Through an examination of exemplarism, the doctrine of the soul’s multiple faculties, and Boethius’s epistemology, the study outlines a plural, dynamic and hierarchically structured conception of cognition, in which each faculty contributes anagogically to the ascent toward the intelligible. Rooted in Christianized Neoplatonism and reshaped within the monastic tradition up to Dante, this framework offers a dialectical integration of the Aristotelian-Peripatetic model, assigning an active role to the subject in the production of knowledge. On the methodological level, eidetic phenomenism enables a renewed reflection on the concordia intellectuum as a form of intersubjective empathy in the pursuit of truth, thus establishing a fertile dialogue between medieval epistemology and contemporary phenomenology.
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