The Conception of the Inner Senses from the Perspective of Late-Antique Theories of Perception

The subject of the article is the idea of a subtle perception which is present in the late-antique tra-dition. The starting point is an attempt to capture the original meaning of the Christian conception of the inner senses in the theory of Origen and placing it in a wider historical, cultural, and above all theoretical context. The article takes up the various points of reference of the conception of the inner senses: 1) the problem of subtle perception in the shape adopted in the Neoplatonist tradition against the background of the development of the idea of the subtle body, and also 2) the issue of cognitive presentation (φαντασίακαταλυτική) in the sense of the Stoical theory of perception. The analysis carried out mainly from the perspective of the research conducted by R. Sorabji and E.R. Dodds shows that an analogous conception of subtle senses was developed by the particularly mature Neo-platonist tradition. Whereas the Christian conception which developed in monastic circles was influ-enced, to some extent by the stoical solutions.

The subject of the article is the idea of a subtle perception which is present in the late-antique tra-dition. The starting point is an attempt to capture the original meaning of the Christian conception of the inner senses in the theory of Origen and placing it in a wider historical, cultural, and above all theoretical context. The article takes up the various points of reference of the conception of the inner senses: 1) the problem of subtle perception in the shape adopted in the Neoplatonist tradition against the background of the development of the idea of the subtle body, and also 2) the issue of cognitive presentation (φαντασίακαταλυτική) in the sense of the Stoical theory of perception. The analysis carried out mainly from the perspective of the research conducted by R. Sorabji and E.R. Dodds shows that an analogous conception of subtle senses was developed by the particularly mature Neo-platonist tradition. Whereas the Christian conception which developed in monastic circles was influ-enced, to some extent by the stoical solutions.