IMC 2025: Sessions

The third session in this strand focuses on the philosophy of The Mirror of Simple Souls, a condemned text written by the 13th-century mystical author Marguerite Porete (d.1310). The first paper will suggest that the Mirror’s central proposal does not imply adherence to strictly Christian religious precepts, although, indeed, Marguerite does not herself present her proposal as non-Christian. It will argue that what Marguerite proposes is a path of philosophical mysticism whose completion is not the outcome of religious faith, but of a double realisation on the part of the soul. According to Marguerite, instrumental to this path is a moment at which the soul becomes aware of both God’s greatness and her own smallness. It is this double realisation that propels her into the mystical state, which Marguerite calls “annihilation.” The paper argues that this is ultimately an intellectual act that does not depend in its essence on grace, but is susceptible to come about independently of any divine help.

The second paper focuses on the will, its relation to reason, and the theoretical grounding of acts of self-sacrifice, hotly debated topics among scholastic philosophers of the late thirteenth century. The paper will argue that these same themes are present in Marguerite Porete’s great work of apophatic mysticism, the Mirror of Simple Souls. The seven-stage ascent of the soul in this text relies on a number of theological, metaphysical, and psychological theses with considerable philosophical import. One such theme is self-sacrifice. In Porete’s time, scholastic philosophers raised questions about a self-sacrificer’s motives: whether they’re self-directed or other-directed. The paper suggests that Porete embraces a pluralist view where acts of self-sacrifice have different motives in different contexts.

The third paper argues that The Mirror of Simple Souls employs the language of the Wesenmystic to present a rejection on God and nothingness that challenges Western ontological totalitarianism, in Levinas' terms, and subverts the metaphysical tradition. Through her mystagogical rhetoric and allegorical dialogues, Marguerite Porete proposes a way to approach what is beyond what is: the divine, the non-being, the nothingness. To do so, she articulates the need to transcend the limits of rational thought and abandon all will and exertion of virtues. The paper seeks to follow the path traced by Marguerite Porete's philosophy of nothingness and reason critique, embedding it in the history of metaphysics, to delve into her pursuit of ontological poverty and extreme annihilation of being in the approach to God as Nothingness.