methexis (μεθεχις)

(Language: Greek)

Short Description: participation

Long Description: participation; for the Pythagoreans, the things are imitations of numbers, but for Plato, the particulars participate in their Forms; Iamblichus extended ‘participation’ into a general term for the informing the lower principles by higher ones and thus established the triad of transcendent Form, immanent universal and material particular; this general scheme of unparticipated ( amethekton), participated ( metechomenon) and participant ( metechon) terms may be applied to different levels of manifestation; the unparticipated terms operate on lower realities only indirectly, through the intermediary of the participated terms which they produce; thus the ontological levels are multiplied and divine transcendence is preserved.

Sources: The Golden Chain: An Anthology of Platonic and Pythagorean Philosophy, by Dr. Algis Uždavinys