LIMA VAZ AND PLATO’S ONTOLOGICAL NOETON

Abstract

This article aims to revalue the reading of Plato developed by the Brazilian philosopher Henrique Cláudio de Lima Vaz. For him, rereading Plato’s philosophy was of paramount importance and, at the same time, a path enabling the affirmation of the Being and its manifestation in the sensitive and intelligible world; the Being, that is Idea, absolute intelligibility (to noeton), expressed in the logos that develops in a logical-ontological dialectic. To recall metaphysics by restoring to philosophy its role of giving reason can redeem the esse through the perspective of an ontological dynamism reoriented towards the Absolute of the being. Thus, Plato’s ontological noeton develops in the very affirmation of Being that is. This allows for directly constructing a response to the attempt of science to counter metaphysical questions by using scientific methods, which ultimately lead to the emergence of nihilism, and the negation of metaphysics. To achieve this goal, the present work focuses on Lima Vaz’s main works on Platonic thinking. It carefully reviews the expressions and definitions used. The analysis not only allowed the demonstration and recognition of Platonic metaphysics, but also, more importantly, the expression of his search: an ontology of being related to the intelligible.­