AITIA AND LANGUAGE: A REFORMULATION OF DIONYSIAN CAUSALITY IN JEAN-LUC MARION'S PHENOMENOLOGY

This paper aims to analyze Jean-Luc Marion's reading of the concept of attia by Dionysius the Areopagite, emphasizing his interpretation of a causality concei-ved on a linguistic level. In the first place, we propose a general reading of the concept of causality in the neoplatonic tradition and its specific version in the work of Dionysius the Areopagite. Secondly, we examine Marion's early readings of the Dionysian attia in light of the concept of praise ()kivetv), as can be found in her early article "Distance et Louange" (1971), and his work L'Idole et la distance (1977). Thirdly, we consider his interpretation of Dionysian work as a "pragmatic theology of absence" in De surcroit (2001). We argue that the Marionian interpretation of the Dionysian alpha ἰtau i alpha opens up the possibility of non-metaphysical causality within phenomenology. Finally, we show tensions between this interpretation and Marion's different formulations of causality as a strictly metaphysical concept in etant donne and De surcroit.