Cause Principle Unity

More documents

Recommendations

Info

<strong>Cause</strong>, principle and unity POLIINNIO. Cum dimidia [and one half]. GERVASIO. … not only would it not follow that you, sir, are capable of judging philosophers, but what is more, it would certainly follow that you cannot help being the biggest, most bumbling beast that exists in human form; besides, there is nothing to prevent anyone who has the least knowledge of any of these tongues, even a bastard one, from being the wisest and most learned man in the whole world. Consider how useful these two have been now: one, a French archpedant, 9 who has composed the Studies in the Liberal Arts and the Animadversions Against Aristotle, and another pedant scum, this one Italian, who has besmeared many an opuscule with his Peripatetic Discussions 10 . Everyone plainly sees that the first one very eloquently demonstrates his lack of intelligence, while the second shows that he has much in him of the beast and the ass, to put it bluntly. The first shows that he has understood Aristotle, at least, but badly. If he had understood him well, he might also have had the wit to wage honourable war with him, as the most judicious Telesio of Cosenza has. 11 Of the second, it is impossible to say whether he understood Aristotle either well or badly, but it can be claimed that he has read and re-read him, taken him apart, stitched him up again, and compared him pro [for] and con [against] with a thousand other Greek authors, going to the greatest lengths not only without any profit whatsoever, but etiam [even] to great loss. Whoever wants to see how far into insanity and presumptuous vanity a pedantic way of thinking can sink us has only to read this one book, before it disappears without a trace. But here come Teofilo and Dicsono. POLIINNIO. Adeste felices, domini [you come at the right time, masters]: your arrival prevents my glowing anger from exploding into thundering judgements against the vain remarks issued by this sterile chatterer. GERVASIO. And it blocks me from mocking the majesty of this most venerable owl. DICSONO. All is well if tempers do not flare. GERVASIO. What I say, I say in jest, because of the affection I feel for the honourable master. POLIINNIO. Ego quoque quod irascor, non serio irascor, quia Gervasium non odi [That holds for me too. If I grow angry, my anger is not serious, for I do not hate Gervasio.] 9 Peter Ramus (1515–72), author of Scholae in Liberales and Aristoteliae Animadversiones. 10 Francesco Patrizi (1529–97). 11 Bernardino Telesio (1508–88). 54
Third dialogue DICSONO. Good. Let me take up my discussion with Teofilo. TEOFILO. Thus, Democritus and the Epicureans, who claim that what is not body is nothing, maintain as a consequence that matter alone is the substance of things, and that it is also the divine nature, as an Arab named Avicebron has said in a book entitled Fount of Life. They also hold, together with the Cyrenics, the Cynics and the Stoics, that forms are nothing but certain accidental dispositions of matter. I, myself, was an enthusiastic partisan of this view for a long time, solely because it corresponds to nature’s workings more than Aristotle’s. But after much thought, and after having considered more elements, we find that we must recognize two kinds of substance in nature: namely, form and matter. For there must be an absolutely substantial act in which the active potency of everything is found, as well as a potency or substratum, in which an equal passive potency can be found: in the first, the power to make, in the second, the power to be made. DICSONO. Anyone who reasons well will clearly see that it is impossible for the former continually to make everything, without there being something which can become everything. How can the world soul (I mean, all form), which is indivisible, act as shaper, without the substratum of dimensions or quantities, which is matter? And how can matter be shaped? Perhaps by itself? It seems we can say that matter is shaped by itself, if we want to consider as matter the universal formed body and call it ‘matter’, just as we would call a living thing with all its faculties ‘matter’, distinguishing it, not by the form, but only by the efficient cause. TEOFILO. No one can keep you from using the term ‘matter’ as you wish, just as the same term covers different meanings in various schools. But I know that your way of considering it is only apt for a technician or physician strictly within his practice, for example that physician who reduced the universal body to mercury, salt and sulfur, a thesis that reveals the stupidity of his desire to be called philosopher more than some divine talent for medicine. 12 The aim of philosophy is not simply to arrive at the distinction of principles which is realized physically by the separation which results from the power of fire, but also to arrive at that distinction of principles to which no material agent can, since the soul, which is inseparable from sulphur, mercury and salt, is a formal principle; that principle is not susceptible to material qualities, but totally dominates matter and is not touched by the experiments of the alchemists, whose divisions are limited 12 The reference is to Paracelsus. 55
Page 2 and 3:
This page intentionally left blank
Page 4 and 5:
CAMBRIDGE TEXTS IN THE HISTORY OF P
Page 6 and 7:
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF
Page 9 and 10:
Introduction Giordano Bruno was bor
Page 11 and 12:
Introduction existence of such a sp
Page 13 and 14:
Introduction metaphysics which is i
Page 15 and 16:
Introduction traditional cosmology.
Page 17 and 18:
Introduction it be contracted, as i
Page 19 and 20:
Introduction these are only appeara
Page 21 and 22:
Introduction substance, which Bruno
Page 23 and 24:
Introduction nature of his presence
Page 25 and 26:
Introduction All this throws light
Page 27 and 28:
Introduction (whose link with our i
Page 29 and 30:
Introduction servitude of their own
Page 31 and 32:
Introduction constituent moments, o
Page 33 and 34:
Chronology his Italian dialogues, L
Page 35 and 36:
Chronology 21 December, he said he
Page 37 and 38:
Further reading Heroic Frenzies, tr
Page 39:
Cause, Principle and Unity
Page 42 and 43: Cause, principle and unity gainsayi
Page 44 and 45: Cause, principle and unity so that
Page 46 and 47: Cause, principle and unity however,
Page 48 and 49: Cause, principle and unity permanen
Page 50 and 51: Cause, principle and unity and gloo
Page 52 and 53: Cause, principle and unity when you
Page 54 and 55: Cause, principle and unity you in w
Page 56 and 57: Cause, principle and unity and subl
Page 58 and 59: Cause, principle and unity FILOTEO.
Page 60 and 61: Cause, principle and unity FILOTEO.
Page 62 and 63: Cause, principle and unity instead
Page 64 and 65: Cause, principle and unity most par
Page 66 and 67: Cause, principle and unity the susp
Page 68 and 69: Cause, principle and unity Calepino
Page 70 and 71: Cause, principle and unity Silenes,
Page 72 and 73: Cause, principle and unity TEOFILO.
Page 74 and 75: Cause, principle and unity token of
Page 76 and 77: Cause, principle and unity things w
Page 78 and 79: Cause, principle and unity execute
Page 80 and 81: Cause, principle and unity the form
Page 84 and 85: Cause, principle and unity POLIINNI
Page 86 and 87: Cause, principle and unity mixed, t
Page 88 and 89: Cause, principle and unity it every
Page 90 and 91: Cause, principle and unity POLIINNI
Page 94 and 95: Cause, principle and unity to the t
Page 96 and 97: Cause, principle and unity nature,
Page 98 and 99: Cause, principle and unity horsenes
Page 100 and 101: Cause, principle and unity is const
Page 102 and 103: Cause, principle and unity them, no
Page 104 and 105: Cause, principle and unity before t
Page 106 and 107: Cause, principle and unity numerous
Page 108 and 109: Cause, principle and unity does not
Page 110 and 111: Cause, principle and unity Oh! I se
Page 112 and 113: Cause, principle and unity in her,
Page 114 and 115: Cause, principle and unity incorpor
Page 116 and 117: Cause, principle and unity of being
Page 122 and 123: Cause, principle and unity unfolds
Page 124 and 125: Cause, principle and unity the head
Page 126 and 127: Cause, principle and unity breadth
Page 128 and 129: Cause, principle and unity totally,
Page 130 and 131: Cause, principle and unity (althoug
Page 132 and 133: Cause, principle and unity Secondly
Page 134 and 135: Cause, principle and unity gather c
Page 136 and 137: Cause, principle and unity triangle
Page 138 and 139: Cause, principle and unity There wa
Page 141: On Magic
Page 144 and 145:
On magic incensings, sacrifices, re
Page 146 and 147:
On magic usually mentioned fields o
Page 148 and 149:
On magic subject rather than anothe
Page 150 and 151:
On magic While bronze is more simil
Page 152 and 153:
On magic apprehends all things, how
Page 154 and 155:
On magic parts of another body, but
Page 156 and 157:
On magic This philosophy is supreme
Page 158 and 159:
On magic How a magnet attracts iron
Page 160 and 161:
On magic there are many large magne
Page 162 and 163:
On magic It is easy for demons to p
Page 164 and 165:
On magic This is what alteration, m
Page 166 and 167:
On magic are expelled and replaced
Page 168 and 169:
On magic Let us now turn our attent
Page 170 and 171:
On magic On the bondings of spirits
Page 172 and 173:
On magic is due sometimes to the la
Page 174 and 175:
On magic Further, one should note t
Page 176 and 177:
On magic disturbed by things which
Page 178 and 179:
On magic readily to where the seed
Page 180 and 181:
On magic Thus, someone who is less
Page 183 and 184:
A general account of bonding Anyone
Page 185 and 186:
A general account of bonding and fo
Page 187 and 188:
A general account of bonding 12. No
Page 189 and 190:
A general account of bonding the mo
Page 191 and 192:
A general account of bonding person
Page 193 and 194:
he does not move unless he is attra
Page 195 and 196:
A general account of bonding 2. The
Page 197 and 198:
A general account of bonding such a
Page 199 and 200:
A general account of bonding in old
Page 201 and 202:
A general account of bonding it tha
Page 203 and 204:
A general account of bonding bound
Page 205 and 206:
A general account of bonding adoles
Page 207 and 208:
A general account of bonding to foo
Page 209 and 210:
A general account of bonding Mercur
Page 211 and 212:
A general account of bonding chaos
Page 213 and 214:
A general account of bonding beauty
Page 215 and 216:
Index accident and substance 6, 9,
Page 217 and 218:
Index measurement 169 motion 158-9
Page 219 and 220:
Index ubiquitous 49-50 see also div
Page 221 and 222:
Index doctorates 26-7 natural viii-
Page 223 and 224:
Index world-soul (anima mundi) xi-x
show all

Cause Principle Unity

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?