Special Issue Introduction

Abstract

In the mid-sixteenth century, Girolamo Cardano emerged as one of the major opponents of the view that Aristotle (or philosophy in general) advocated for the soul’s mortality. Cardano argues passionately that not only had Aristotle held the soul to be immortal, but so had Hippocrates, whom Cardano considered the greatest physician of antiquity. Cardano no doubt thought that he was bolstering the agreement of philosophy and theology. Yet, his manner of doing so was rather disturbing to censors of the Roman Inquisition and Index. Jonathan Regier, in his contribution to this volume, “A Hot Mess: Girolamo Cardano, the Inquisition, and the Soul,” considers Cardano’s doctrine of celestial heat, a principle of life and generation in the cosmos. Regier examines how and why Cardano drew this doctrine from the Hippocratic corpus. He then goes on to discuss the nature of this celestial heat in Cardano’s De subtilitate, Cardano’s best known work of natural philosophy. There, Cardano seems with only the slightest qualification to equate all souls with this celestial heat. Regier considers this position in detail, especially as it manifests in discussions of human desire and love, and he examines the response of an important Vatican censor.