Pietro Pomponazzi Research Articles

Commenting on Aristotle with a Knife

Drawing on a variety of sources, including manuscript notes and a wide variety of published material, this article offers the first analysis in English of Bassanio Landi’s works in their medical and philosophical context. I argue that while Landi’s output is characteristic of its sixteenth-century Paduan milieu, his approach to methodological questions in anatomy and the arts, as well as his paraphrase of Aristotle’s De anima, make it possible to locate him within the heretical tradition that stretches from Pietro Pomponazzi (1462–1525) to Paolo Sarpi (1552–1623).

Visual art as a form of individualization of collective experience: Renaissance discourse

The purpose of the article consists of exploring visual arts in the context of Renaissance discourse as a form of individualization of collective experience. The methodology consists of the application of analytical method – to determine the theoretical and methodological foundations of the study of visual art as a form of individualization of collective experience in the works of the Renaissance theorists: Alberti, G. Vasari, Marsilio Ficino, Lorenzo Valla, Pietro Pomponazzi; Renaissance artists – Giotto, Masaccio, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Santi, Titian; formalization method – to clarify visual art within the subject field of art history in the context of the culture of the Renaissance; method of comparative studies – for analyzing approaches to understanding the visual art as a form of individualization of collective experience. The scientific novelty of the work is that for the first time the essence of visual art is a form of individualization of collective experience in the context of the Renaissance discourse. Conclusions. The article explores visual art in the context of the Renaissance discourse as a form of individualization of collective experience. Clarified the meaning of the concept of visual art and painting in the framework of the subject field of art history (concepts of A. Gabrichevsky, M. Kagan, V. Vlasov, A. Hildebrand). In the socio-cultural development of the Renaissance, there is an intensive process of individualization of the artist, and there is also a tendency to intensively turn to samples of ancient art, which testifies to the visual art as the brightest form of individualization of collective experience. In the context of comparative analysis, the concepts of Cennino D'Andrea Cennini, G. Vasari, Alberti, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filarete, Piero Della Francesco, Leonardo da Vinci, Jean Peleren, Albrecht Dürer, Pietro Aretino, who described all the advantages of painting based on color, are considered; the Venetian artist Paolo Pino, author of Dialogue on Painting; Lodovico Dolci, author of Dialogue on Painting; the Tuscan writer A. Doni, who in his dialogue "About drawing" explained the priority of the Florentine tradition, in which the emphasis was on drawing, and not on coloring. Key words: visual art, renaissance, painting, collective experience, individualization

Astrological Debates in Italian Renaissance Commentaries on Aristotle’s Meteorology

Abstract From the time of Albertus Magnus, medieval commentators on Aristotle regularly used a passage from Meteorology 1.2 as evidence that the stars and planets influence and even govern terrestrial events. Many of these commentators integrated their readings of this work with the view that planetary conjunctions were causes of significant changes in human affairs. By the end of the sixteenth century, Italian Aristotelian commentators and astrologers alike deemed this passage as authoritative for the integration of astrology with natural philosophy. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, however, criticized this reading, contending that Aristotle never used the science of the stars to explain meteorological phenomena. While some Italian commentators, such as Pietro Pomponazzi dismissed Pico’s contentions, by the middle of the sixteenth century many reevaluated the medieval integration. This reevaluation culminated in Cesare Cremonini, who put forth an extensive critique of astrology in which he argued against the idea of occult causation and celestial influence, as he tried to rid Aristotelianism of its medieval legacy.

El intelecto agente en Pietro Pomponazzi: un análisis de su presencia en el "Tractatus de immortalitate animae" y en la "Apologia"

El noûs poie-tikós de Aristóteles ha sido objeto de innumerables estudios y debates a lo largo de la historia de la filosofía. Este artículo trata sobre la visión que de él tiene el aristotélico renacentista P. Pomponazzi, célebre, entre otras cosas, por suscitar una agria polémica con su tesis de que la razón natural no ofrece argumentos que puedan sostener la inmortalidad del alma. Esta tesis tiene que dar respuesta, sin embargo, a aquellos textos aristotélicos que hablan de la inmaterialidad e inmortalidad del intelecto. El autor estudia esta respuesta de Pomponazzi en el contexto de los elementos más importantes de su psicología.

Outsiders of Hagnopolis: unbelief, fear, and religion in Thomas More's Utopia

This paper deals with unbelief and its relationship with fear and religion in Thomas More's Utopia. It stresses the fact that Epicurean and radical Aristotelian theses challenged Christian notions about immortality, Providence, and divine Judgement. The examples of Niccolò Machiavelli and Pietro Pomponazzi, contemporaries of More, are set to show a heterodox connection between these theses and the notion of fear of eternal punishment. More's account of the Utopian religion, on the contrary, distinguishes between human fear and religious fear. This distinction enables him to highlight the threat to spiritual and civic life posed by those who deny the soul and divine retribution.

Astrology and Magic from the Medieval Latin and Islamic World to Renaissance Europe: Theories and Approaches

Contents: Preface Part 1 Astrology and Magic as Theories: Theories on astrology and magic (1348a 1586) in recent interpretations Imagination and its power: desire and transitive or psychosomatic imagination Pietro Pomponazzi's De immortalitate and his clandestine De incantionibus: Aristotelianism, eclecticism or libertinism? Part 2 Birth, Catastrophe, Cycles and Other Astrological Themes: 'Creating worlds and then laying them waste': the cyclical nature of history: notes on historians and on Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 'The earth was like a sponge and men lived within it': ideas on spontaneous generation of man among Islamic and Latin thinkers. Part 3 Astrologers and Magicians in their Historical Role: Astrologers' theory of history Many ends for the World: Luca Gaurico, instigator of the debate in Italy and Germany. Part 4 Methodological Notes: Alexandre KoyrA(c) and Lucien LA(c)vy-Bruhl: from collective representations to paradigms of scientific thought From Menocchio to Piero della Francesca: the work of Carlo Ginzburg From the quaestiones to the essais: on the autonomy and methods of the history of philosophy Bibliography of Zambelli's writings Indexes.

Radical Reformation and Medicine in the Late Renaissance

This paper, which presents first results of a wider book project, will reconstruct the influence of the so-called 'radical wing' of the Reformation, above all Anabaptism, Socinianism, and Antitrinitarism, on the tradition of natural philosophy that had established itself in particular in Veneto through the works of Pietro Pomponazzi, Agostino Nifo, and Giacomo Zabarella. Italian physicians and foreign students at the University of Padua developed theories that anticipated many scientific innovations of the 17th century (especially with regard to blood circulation). Often they were forced into exile, persecuted by the Inquisition and by political authorities of Protestant territories. In my article, I would like to give an overview of the education and European peregrinations of some of these heterodox physicians, in whose work medical, theological, and philosophical theory, religious dissent, conversion, and exile were remarkably entangled. I will focus on their international correspondence networks and on their relationship with political and religious authorities, with diplomats and with physicians from other confessions.

Пьетро Помпонацци: триумфы и трагедии религиозного свободомыслия

Пьетро Помпонацци: триумфы и трагедии религиозного свободомыслия

La inmortalidad del alma: historia de un argumento político

The paper examines a fundamental and little studied issue of political theology: the relationship between the defense of the immortality of the soul and the preservation of public order. It carries out a historical survey of authors such as Pietro Pomponazzi and Thomas More, who resort to political reasons in order to defend it, and David Hume, who feels that there are no political grounds to support such a relationship. Finally, the article analyzes the arguments proposed to show that its efficacy is conditioned by the historical situation.

Pietro Pomponazzi and the Rôle of Nature in Oracular Divination

Since the early decades of the sixteenth century, Pomponazzi has been a name to conjure with: to some, the first of the modern atheists; to others, a hero of the new philosophy. But how much direct influence did his work have? This question is explored in terms of the way in which oracular divination is treated. In the sixteenth century, the range of conceptual categories available to explain such phenomena was threefold: natural, supernatural or simply unreal. In some cases, such as those of demonic possession, the person was able to be examined directly. But the same conceptual triad was also applied to another kind of case, one whose subject could not be examined, since she had long been consigned to history – the Pythia or priestess of the ancient Delphic oracle, who had famously foamed and babbled during her prophetic frenzy. For some writers on divination, this subject was of particular interest, since it had been explicitly discussed by ancient sources: whether the Pythia's ravings were real or invented, natural or supernatural, could be analysed with categories borrowed from Cicero, Plutarch and, above all, Aristotle. Within the sixteenth‐century territory disputes over Aristotle's corpus, the pagan oracles, represented above all by the Pythia, offered a test case for the broader problem of the place of divination within the natural world. The central antagonist in this tussle was Pietro Pomponazzi, whose treatment of the ancient oracles, although brief, played an important part in his radical interpretation of Aristotle. For many of his contemporary readers, it was this subject, with its specific historical dimension, that highlighted the faults in his positions on nature and divination.

The Ends of Weather: Teleology in Renaissance Meteorology

Renaissance natural philosophers believed that meteorological phenomena were imperfect mixtures that lacked their own essences or substantial forms. This contention, along with the lack of any significant discussion of teleology in Aristotle's Meteorology , left Renaissance natural philosophers with several options in discussions of the final causes of weather. Some, particularly Italian scholars, contended that there were no final causes for meteorological events. In contrast, Pietro Pomponazzi argued that, while meteorological phenomena were accidental, they were purposeful as part of God's ordering of the universe, even though humans are unable to understand these purposes. Many Lutheran scholars believed that these ends could be known, arguing that their purpose derived from their being divine signs of the future and God's will.

Conjecture, Probabilism, and Provisional Knowledge in Renaissance Meteorology

AbstractFor Renaissance Aristotelian natural philosophers, ideally knowledge was certain and based on syllogistic demonstration. Many Italian scholars, such as Agostino Nifo, Pietro Pomponazzi, and Niccolò Cabeo, considered this ideal as inapplicable to the field of meteorology. Rather, because of the accidental nature of meteorological phenomena and the inherent irregularity of the weather, they believed that causal explanations of meteorology were largely conjectural, provisional, and probabilistic. Several of these natural philosophers applied the standard of "saving the appearances" to the field of meteorology because of the difficulties involved in making accurate observations. This lower epistemological standard contributed to the willingness of Aristotelians to revise meteorological theories and deviate from Aristotle's own positions.

Pomponazzi and Aquinas on the Intellective Soul

One of Thomas Aquinas’s primary philosophical concerns is to provide an account of the nature of a human soul. He bases his account on Aristotle’s De anima, wherein Aristotle gives an account of (psuchē) as divided into three distinct types: vegetative, sensitive, and intellective. Aristotle defines an intellective soul as proper to human beings and the only type of soul that may potentially exist separated from a material body. Aquinas argues that an intellective soul is indeed separable from its body and conceives of it as essentially, or unqualifiedly (simpliciter), immortal and separable from its body, and relatively (secundum quid) mortal and conjoined to its body. Pietro Pomponazzi (1462-1525), a Renaissance philosopher concerned with ridding neo-Aristotelianism of Platonic or Averroistic influences, criticizes Aquinas’s account as not being properly Aristotelian and having been influenced by Platonism. In this paper, I will present summaries of Aquinas’s arguments concerning an intellective soul’s essential immortality, as well as Pomponazzi’s criticisms of Aquinas’s position. I then propose ways in which Aquinas may respond to these criticisms.

A Reinterpretation of the Fifth Lateran Council Decree Apostolici regiminis (1513)

The promulgation of the Fifth Lateran Council decree Apostolici regiminis (1513) traditionally is understood as having been motivated by opposition to teachings on the soul, taught by Pietro Pomponazzi and certain secularAristotelian philosophers of the day. The decree is also construed as representing the Catholic church's formal dogmatic declaration of the individual immortality of the rational soul.This article argues that while Pomponazzi and his colleagues are likely to have been the decree's primary antagonists,Apostolici regiminis is not a dogmatic declaration on immortality but rather a dogmatic condemnation of the so-called doctrine of the double truth. Building upon this notion, the article proposes certain revisions to the traditional understanding of the decree and its historical context.

Francisco Vallés and the Renaissance reinterpretation of Aristotle's Meteorologica IV as a medical text.

In this paper I describe the context and goals of Francisco Vallés In IV librum Meteorologicorum commentaria (1558). Vallés' work stands as a landmark because it interprets a work of Aristotle's natural philosophy specifically for medical doctors and medical theory. Vallés' commentary is representative of new understandings of Galenic-Hippocratic medicine that emerged as a result of expanding textual knowledge. These approaches are evident in a number of sixteenth-century commentaries on Meteorologica IV; in particular the works of Pietro Pomponazzi, Lodovico Boccadiferro, Jacob Schegk, and Francesco Vimercati. Vallés' conviction that Meteorologica IV is relevant to medical knowledge depends on his understanding of Aristotle's theory of homeomerous substances and their relation to composite substances. The application of Meteorologica IV to medical topics became commonplace in the following years, and this Aristotelian book became widely known as a bridge between natural philosophy and medicine.

Pietro Pomponazzi’s De immortalitate and his clandestine De incantationibus

The importance of Aristotelianism during the Renaissance is one of the points most emphasized in the past twenty years by American historians. In the Faculties of Arts, professors were obliged to illustrate Aristotelian texts and commentaries; but, of course, they did not subscribe to all of the original doctrines of Aristotle: so Van Steenberghen, Kristeller and C. B. Schmitt consider most of them, above all Pietro Pomponazzi (1462-1525), as »eclectics«. Having emerged unscathed from the dispute on his treatise »De immortalitate animae« and on its apologies, Pomponazzi circulated two handwritten treatises which were even more subversive of orthodox beliefs on fate and on the natural causes of prodigies and incantations. From a Stoic point of view and thanks to his readings of Bessarion, Ficino and Giovanni Pico, he analyzed the Neoplatonic theses on chance and determinism, astrology and magic, and the position of man in the universe. His late treatises deal with these questions (free will as attributed to the individual by Christian doctrine and by numerous philosophers, or, instead, the conditioning to which man’s body, or his passions, or — according to a more radical thesis — his entire personality is subjected by the influence of the stars; the great conjunctions of the stars and the cyclical nature of history; the spontaneous generation of man; the capacity of the astrologer and the natural magician to produce incantations and prodigies, etc.).

The Execution of John Fisher Viewed through Italian Eyes: A Letter of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga

News of the beheading of Cardinal John Fisher on June 22, 1535, broke dramatically on a Europe already struggling with momentous religious change.' A little more than a month later Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga wrote to his brother Federico II, Duke of Mantua, about the execution of the English prelate. This letter has not been previously published.2 The letter reveals the understanding of the execution by one who was a leader of the imperial faction in the College of Cardinals. It shows that details of the execution were not altogether clear and that there were already different accounts of the execution itself. Thus, the letter indicates the character of the information about the execution that was available to the papal court and how at least one cardinal at the court responded. The writer of the letter, Ercole Gonzaga (1505-1563), was the second son of Francesco Gonzaga and Isabella d'Este.3 He had been reared in the opulent Renaissance court of Mantua. His early education came from the humanist and philosophical circle of which his parents were patrons. Pietro Pomponazzi instructed him in philosophy at the University of Bologna. He learned Greek and Latin and even studied some Hebrew. Isabella d'Este,who harbored great hopes for the ecclesiastical career of her son, ensured that he received the cardinal's hat in 1527 at the age of twenty-two. Cardinal Gonzaga moved firmly into the imperial camp in the College of Cardinals after 1530 in keeping with his brother's foreign policy. For many years he resided in his diocese and carried out a reform of his clergy and the laity in the manner of his colleague, Gian Matteo Giberti of Verona. At the end of his life Gonzaga presided over the concluding sessions of the Council of Trent as papal legate from 1561 until his death in March of 1563. Between 1528 and 1537 he resided at the papal court, where he acted essentially as the chief Mantuan agent in Rome. He was present at the consistory on July 26,1535, when the pope announced the death of Fisher to the assembled cardinals. The transcription presented here is from one of two identical accounts sent by Cardinal Gonzaga soon after the news of Fisher's death reached Rome. It is of the letter that he sent to the Duke Federico of Mantua dated July 31,1535, found in the Archivio di Stato di Mantova.4 The same account is contained in a letter sent to the Gonzaga ambassador in Venice, Giovanni Agnello, dated July 27.5 Cardinal Gonzaga's account of the imprisonment and execution of Fisher is based largely on a letter of the papal nuncio in France, Rodolfo Pio da Carpi.? The nuncio wrote with news of the death as he had learned it from the Admiral of France, the Sieur de Brion, Philippe Chabot,7 and the English ambassador to France, Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk.8 A version of the nuncio's account is found in his letter to the papal secretary, Ambrogio Recalcatis.9 The most complete information on Fisher's imprisonment and the substance of his interrogations comes from an anonymous biography written a generation after his death.'o Further, nearly all of the descriptions of the imprisonment, trial, and execution contained in the earliest life of Fisher are based upon an eyewitness description by William Rastell, the nephew of Thomas More. Gonzaga's letter, while conveying much of the information available in these other accounts, differs from them in notable ways. Indeed, Gonzaga's letter contains a number of details which, while perhaps not strictly accurate, may authentically reflect the way in which Fisher's brother cardinals received the news. Moreover, Gonzaga described the interrogations and the execution in a terse and unadorned narrative style that heightened the drama. First, Gonzaga emphasized Fisher's fidelity to the of Peter in a way that is more explicit than in the letter of the nuncio. Gonzaga includes a statement of loyalty to the pope by Fisher in his interview with Thomas Cromwell: .. . there is no other head of the Church than Saint Peter and his successors Such a statement is lacking from the letter by Pio da Carpi. …

The Machiavellian Cosmos (review)

464 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 3t:3 JULY 199 3 contrast with the Thomist tradition, on the important philosopher-theologian Antonio Trombetta, and on Saint Anthony of Padua himself. There is also a long and rich general study on the attitude of Franciscans toward Averroism from the thirteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Bonaventure and Ockham are among the figures analyzed. In the revised and expanded edition of his introduction to Paduan Aristotelianism, Poppi presents once again his valuable essay on the lineaments of the history of the Paduan school of philosophy and his survey of studies on Aristotelianism during the Italian Renaissance for the years 1958-1969. To them he has added some forty pages in which he discusses more recent scholarship on Renaissance Aristotelianism and on the study of Aristotle at Padua in particular. There are separate notes concerning Pietro d'Abano, Pietro Pomponazzi, Iacopo Zabarella and Galileo Galilei. As with all of Poppi's books and editions, these two books belong on the shelves of any research library frequented by scholars who are seriously interested in the history of late medieval and Renaissance philosophy and theology. A fine command of the sources and an ever thoughtful and balanced judgment mark Poppi's scholarship. EDWARD P. MAHONEY Duke University Anthony J. Parel. The Machiavellian Cosmos. New Haven: Yale University Press, 199u. Pp. 2o3. Cloth, $3o.oo. In his The Machiavellian Cosmos Anthony Parel destabilizes the modernist reading of Machiavelli's writings by arguing that Machiavelli's "new" approach to politics and history is based on traditional astrological and premodern anthropological theories. In doing so he suggests that, while Machiavellians like Bacon, Hobbes, and Locke may reach the same conclusions as Machiavelli himself, they nonetheless base their positions on assumptions of causation very different from those of the early sixteenth-century Florentine. After dealing in an introductory chapter with astrological thought from the ancient world down to the sixteenth century, Parel endeavors to locate Machiavelli within that tradition. Bringing together Machiavelli's scattered references to the effect of heavenly bodies on the action of countries and individuals, Parel maintains that, for Machiavelli, the existence of both is significantly governed by the movement of the stars, especially by the conjunctions of particular ones in the case of the former. At the same time, whereas the stars are directly responsible for the ordered, stable aspects of the universe , fortune explains the fortuitous and chance character of much that happens. In an inexplicable way fortune has the power to manipulate deterministic influences at will and arbitrarily to favor or disfavor countries and individuals. Within such a cosmos the area of human freedom available to v/rtfi, the particular human capacity by which we pursue the summum bonum of human beings, riches and glory, must be very limited. Machiavelli's frequent identification of virtft with animo or BOOK REVIEWS 465 spirit--in contemporary usage referring to the life of the body and contrasting with anima or soul--emphasizes the materialistic origins of this human power. Its ties to the body become even clearer since, accordinng to Parel, virtfLlargely derives from and is conditioned by three other elements, the particular mixture of humors which constitute our nature, ingegno (natural talent), and fantasia (imagination), all given us at birth or conception. Therefore, tied as it is to the body, the individual's virile, both in origin and throughout the course of life, is subject to the movements of the heavens. Because the historical situation on which the human actor wishes to impose his will is similarly conditioned by the stars, it is a matter of fortune whether the astrological "time" harmonizes with his humors and temperament. Individuals vary in their ability to act with flexibility, but the range of even the ideal prince is limited. Because on a larger scale the responsibility for the rise and fall of empires falls to fortune as well, autonomous activity on the part of individuals, particularly political leaders, is still more restricted than Machiavelli's anthropology would imply. According to Parel, Machiavelli conceives of political regimes as the effects of the conflicts between the humors of their constitutive groups. As opposed to the tendency to impose on Machiavelli...

La filosofia nello Studio francescano del Santo a Padova, and: Introduzione all'aristotelismo padovano (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 463 is thoroughly dealt with in Chapter i of the book, entided "Alfarabi's Method of Writing," and is pursued throughout the book. The remaining four chapters treat issues pertinent to medieval political philosophy. Chapter ~, for example, deals with the question, "'Do individuals need practical virtues in addition to theoretical ones in order to tap their human potential, i.e., in order to be perfect or happy?" (95). This chapter, in other words, deals with the question whether happiness is attainable through theoretical activity (the Aristotelian view), or through practical activity (i.e., active involvement in political life), or through a combination of both. The author rejects the first two alternatives, interpreting Alfarabi as maintaining that "theoretical and practical perfection must together constitute the true human end" (94)- In Chapter 3, the author presents an analysis of the (Platonic) concept of philosopher-king and asks the question, "Do cities or nations need to be governed, at least in part, by philosophers for a political community of excellence to be realized?" (95)- Galston concludes that according to Alfarabi, a ruler of excellence does not necessarily have to be a philosopher. Chapter 4 deals with the "Cities of Excellence," a major theme in Alfarabi's political writings, and one he discussed in his two major political works, AImadinah al-fadilah (The Virtuous--or Excellent--City) and Al-siyasah al-madaniyyah (The Political Regime). The fifth and final chapter of the book deals with the question of "whether and in what fashion political knowledge properly rests on the totality of theoretical inquiry" 08o). Dr. Galston's book represents a comprehensive study of Alfarabi's political works. Her knowledge of Alfarabi's texts as well as of the contemporary secondary sources is remarkable. She also puts Alfarabi's political philosophy in an accurate historical context . The issues discussed in this book are extremely difficult and the very attempt to resolve them in one work--especially on the basis of her hypothesis 0o), the bottom line of which is that each of Alfarabi's political treatises should be read and understood only in conjunction with the others (11)--makes the reading of this book an extremely difficult task. Nevertheless, Dr. Galston's work is a welcome contribution, and it represents a major step towards a better understanding of Alfarabi's political philosophy, despite the fact that it raises as many questions as it answers. SHUKRI B. ABED Universityof Maryland, CollegePark Antonino Poppi. La filosofia neUoStudio francescano del Santo a Padova. Padua: Centro Studi Antoniani, 1989. Pp. 989. Paper, L. 35,ooo. Antonino Poppi. Introduzione all'aristotelismopadovano. Seconda edizione riveduta e ampliata. Padua: Editrice Antenore, 1991. Pp, 144. Paper, N.P. Antonino Poppi, himself both Franciscan and professor of philosophy at the University of Padua, has made two further valuable contributions to our knowledge of the history of philosophy at that venerable seat of learning. In the first book, he presents studies on the role of the Franciscans in Paduan cultural life from the Middle Ages to the last century, on various aspects of the history of Scotism at Padua, including a 464 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 3t:3 JULY 199 3 contrast with the Thomist tradition, on the important philosopher-theologian Antonio Trombetta, and on Saint Anthony of Padua himself. There is also a long and rich general study on the attitude of Franciscans toward Averroism from the thirteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Bonaventure and Ockham are among the figures analyzed. In the revised and expanded edition of his introduction to Paduan Aristotelianism, Poppi presents once again his valuable essay on the lineaments of the history of the Paduan school of philosophy and his survey of studies on Aristotelianism during the Italian Renaissance for the years 1958-1969. To them he has added some forty pages in which he discusses more recent scholarship on Renaissance Aristotelianism and on the study of Aristotle at Padua in particular. There are separate notes concerning Pietro d'Abano, Pietro Pomponazzi, Iacopo Zabarella and Galileo Galilei. As with all of Poppi's books and editions, these two books belong on the shelves of any research library frequented by scholars who are seriously interested in the history...

Pomponazzi’s Critique of Aquinas’s Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul

POMPONAZZI'S CRITIQUE OF AQUCNAS'S ARGUMENTS FOR THE :IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL JOHN L. TRELOAR, S.J. Marquette University Milwaukee, Wisconsin I. lntJroWi.wtion IN 'JiHE COURSE of hls discussion on the immortality of the soul, Pietro Pomponazzi systematically critiques the Pfatonic, Avel'IJ'IOist, and Thomistic positions concerning this perennial problem iin the philosophy of human nature. Pomponiazzi's Tractatrus de irnrmortalitate animae 1 is inteirestin !g from three methodological standpoints: (1) the criteria Pomponazzi uses to ev:aluate the various positions, (2) Pomponazzi 's attempt to redefine the probtlem of immortality in fo:gica;l terms, and (8) his analysis of previous positions. In this Renaissance treatise one finds an excellent example of the infliuence of method on the dev:elopment of an idea. This article wiihl eX'amine and ev:aluate Pomponazzi's analy,s:i.s of Thomas A:quiinas's aJ.'gument for the immortality of the soul showing how Pomponazzi''S irefo:rnnula;bion puts the Thomistic argument in a context completely differoort fmm whait Thomas himself intended. Although this ipaper treats a historical pr01blem, its mai:i.n oibject is to show how the fo:tmulation of phifosophical critema and ,questions influences how one handles a topic 1 and 1 The standard Latin text of the Tractatus is: Petrus Pomponatus, Tractatus de immortalitate animae, ed. Gianfranco Morra (Bologna: Nanni and Fiammeghi, 1954). The English translations used in this article are from Ernst Cassirer et al., eds. The Renaissance Philosophy of Man (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948). A complete translation of the Tractatus by William Henry Hay II, revised by John Herman Randall, Jr., and annotated by Paul Oskar Kristeller, appears on pp. 280-381. 458 454 JOHN L. TRELOAR, S.J, what one says about prewous solutions to a problem. This article, then, studies a rphi1osophica1l methodology as much as it arppraises Pomrponazzi and Aquinas.2 Eady in the Tractatus de immortalitate animae Pomponazzi 'es'tia;bJishes the dual cr1iter:ia for judging the adequacy of au p!i.'evious arguments ]or the immortaJl~ty of the ,soul. First, "Leaving aside revefaition and miracles, and remaining entirely within natmal limits," 3 what can be said concerrning the immortality of the soul? Second, "what ... was Aristotle's opin~on on the same question " ?4 These criteria function as the limiting conditions that determine the adequacy of any argument :for immortality; Pomponazzi employs these criteria riJgm~ously to test whether previious a1rguments are adeqU'ate. Pomponazzi's attempt to l'edefine immo:rtality in strictly 1ogicail terms also influences his critique of pl'evious authoi's :and his own generail condusions. He picks u:p Fieino'.s notion that the human being is of an ambiguous nature, that is, part spirit 1and pa:rt oorpore1 al.5 This, of course, is new neither with Ficino nor with Pomponazzi, for the concept of a twofold nature goes hack at least as ia1· as Plwto. Plomponazzi',s use of 1this concept of a twofold nature, however, is unique. He casts the whole 2 In his book Renaissance Thought and Its Sources (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979), Paul Oskar Kristeller says, "Among the many problems and concepts that have occupied the thinkers of the past, and especially those of the Renaissance, the doctrine of immortality seems especially remote from the discussions and concerns of our time" (p. 181). He argues in this essay that, "The problem is still with us, and we may hope that it may yet lead to new answers that are more in accordance with our knowledge and our sensibilities than those transmitted to us by the thinkers of the past, especially those of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries" (p. 196). s "Primum scilicet, quid, revelationibus et miraculis semotis, persistendoque pure infra limites naturales, hac in re sentis." Immortalitate, p. 36 (p. 281). All references to the Traatatus de immortalitate animae will appear in this form. The first page reference is to the Latin text and the page number in parentheses is to the English translation cited above. 4 "Alterum vero, quamnam sententiam Aristotelis in eadem materiam fuisse censes." Imrnortalitate, p. 36 (p. 281). 5 See Marsilius Ficino, " Five Questions Concerning the...