Marcin Podbielski: Individual and Logos in Maximus the Confessor

Maximus the Confessor’s account of creation in terms of divine and created logoi is frequently interpreted as philosophically indebted to the Christian Medioplatonic view that the logoi of God function as formative principles for the created world. This interpretation views the logoi as close, in respect of their ontological function, to the Forms, which are thoughts of the Medioplatonic God. Were this interpretation correct, one could not speak, however, about the creation of individuals as such, since Forms, within Medioplatonism, are generic principles, determining the nature of things viewed as instances of species. As the Medioplatonic God is the source of order, and not of being, ideas of particulars are explicitly rejected in Medioplatonism. However, in Maximus’ Ambigua, God is explicitly characterized as the source of being of all particular things. Maximus treats the problem of individuality in the Ambigua in a very specific way, combining insights originating in Stoic metaphysics, Medioplatonic theology and Neoplatonic logic. His description of individuals offers a synthesis which is not easy to interpret. One has to decide whether his individuals are a combination of generic logoi/Forms, or a product of this combination, or only describable through this combination, and whether logoi themselves can be individualized and are distinct from things they inform.