А Fragment from Unreleased Part of the “Philosophy of the Name” by A.F. Losev: [Dialectics of the Occurrence of the Entity in Descending Order]

Abstract

Earlier, the journal Voprosy Filosofii (2018, No. 10) already published some ex­cerpts from the previously unknown, newly identified draft book by A.F. Losev “Philosophy of the Name” (1927). As follows from archival data, the author in the early 1920s planned to deploy an extensive theoretical part called “On the dialecti­cal nature of the name” (24 paragraphs), which, as a result, was not included in the book. For this publication, the initial part of paragraph is chosen, in the gen­eral plan of the book called “Dialectics of Foreign Affairs from Above”. The pas­sage is of undeniable interest to the philosophy historian, at least by the virtuosity with which A.F. Losev demonstrates the possibilities of building a synthetic “dia­lectic name”, combining several structural-typological approaches: the famous constructions of Plato’s dialogue “Parmenides” (eight “unity”), neoplatonic “qua­trains” or tetractids (One, One existing, Formation, Becoming) and Hegelian triads (Inside-yourself, For-yourself, In-yourself-and-for-yourself)