The sickness of the soul in the Late Antique philosopher Evagrius of Pontus: between ignorance and "philautía"

Abstract

The theme of the sickness of the soul is in the mind of late antique Christian philosopher, Evagrius of Pontus, a frontier topic between the two major thematic areas in which his work can be divided: the psycho-spiritual and metaphysics. Reflect and try to define the origin and status of disease in Evagrio implies, in effect, pay attention to a transversal topic of his work: the ignorance. The consideration of this psycho-spiritual condition (that in the evagriana metaphysics is the immediate consequence of the original fall of nous of the Unit and the reason for its union with a body), it is necessary to achieve a coherent conceptual definition of the concept of disease in Evagrius. Similarly, understanding how the ignorance is the source of passionate disorder that operates in the states of mental imbalance, implies considering their causal link with immoderate love of self or philautia. In the scheme evagriano the philautia is, in turn, the common origin of evil and destabilizing thoughts that are the characteristic cognitive activity of the disease state and that Evagrius calls logismoi