ABSTRACT
Various problems arise: Can negative and affirmative propositions be separately identified? Or can one only say that two propositions are negations of each other, neither being ‘the’ negative one? Is negating something a special activity? Is affirming somehow prior to negating? Can language dispense with negation? A.J.Ayer, ‘Negation’, Journal of Philosophy 1952, reprinted in his Philosophical Essays,
Macmillan, 1954. (Definition, and dispensability, of negation.) J.Barwise and J.Etchemendy, The Liar, Oxford UP, 1987. (See pp. 16-17 for treatment of
‘denial’.) G.Buchdahl, ‘The problem of negation’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research,
1961-2. (Is affirmation prior to negation?) G.Frege, ‘Negation’, in P.T.Geach and M.Black (eds), Translations from the
Philosophical Writings of Gottlob Frege, Blackwell, 1952. (Is negating something a special activity?)
J.D.Mabbott, G.Ryle, H.H.Price, ‘Negation’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, supplementary vol., 1929. (What does negation presuppose?)
B.H.Slater, ‘Internal and external negations’, Mind, 1979. (Uses the distinction to solve various problems.)
. Various groups of philosophers influenced by Plotinus (AD 205-70) and claiming Platonic inspiration. Plotinus in his Enneads claimed to interpret and develop PLATO, basing himself especially on certain passages suggesting that reality is somehow derived from a single thing, called the One or the Good, which transcends existence (i.e. is on too high a plane to be said to ‘exist’) and is unknowable. Plotinus also developed an epistemology. The Neoplatonists also tried to unify Plato and ARISTOTLE. They are now often regarded as having misinterpreted Plato. Leading Neoplatonists after Plotinus include Porphyry (c. 232-c. 304), Iamblichus (c. 270-c. 330), Proclus (c. 409-c. 487), Philoponus (sixth century), Simplicius (sixth century), Boethius (c. 480-525). E.K.Emilsson, Platonism on Sense-Perception, Cambridge UP, 1988. (Plotinus’
epistemology. First chapter also contains good introduction to Plotinus’ general philosophy.)
