Julius Caesar Scaliger, Renaissance Reformer of Aristotelianism

A Study of His Exotericae Exercitationes
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-90-04-31009-4
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 26, 213 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 417 g

Reihe: Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy and Science

This monograph is the first to analyze Julius Caesar Scaliger’s Exotericae Exercitationes (1557). Though hardly read today, the Exercitationes was one of the most successful philosophical treatises of the time, attracting considerable attention from many intellectuals with multifaceted religious and philosophical orientations. In order to make this massive late-Renaissance work accessible to modern readers, Kuni Sakamoto conducted a detailed textual analysis and revealed the basic tenets of Scaliger’s philosophy. His analysis also enabled him to clarify the historical provenance of Scaliger’s Aristotelianism and the way it subsequently influenced some of the protagonists of the “New Philosophy.” The author thus bridges the historiographical gap between studies of Renaissance philosophy and those of the seventeenth-century.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Sakamoto, Kuni

Fachgebiete

• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Human- und Sozialwissenschaften
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction 1

1 Creation, the Trinity, and Prisca theologia 15

1 Introduction 15

2 God as Efficient Cause 16

3 Creatio ex nihilo 20

4 The Trinity 22

5 Prisca theologia 24

6 Conclusion 28

2 Against the World-Soul 32

1 Introduction 32

2 God’s Triune Power 33

3 The Soul and Heat 37

4 Form, the Soul, and the Platonic Idea 42

5 Platonic Sublunary God and Aristotelian Nature 45

6 The Order and Unity of the World 47

7 Conclusion 51

3 The Best Possible World 53

1 Introduction 53

2 The Number of Species 55

3 The Possibility of a Better World 56

4 Humans in the Hierarchy of Being 60

5 The Completeness of the World 63

6 Conclusion 68

4 Void and Place 71

1 Introduction 71

2 Cardano, Averroes, and “Recent Philosophers” 72

3 The Double Performance of Form 77

4 Place as Void 82

5 Against Aristotle and Scotus 84

6 Conclusion 86

5 Angels and Intelligences 88

1 Introduction 88

2 Cardano and the Naturalists 89

3 The Nature and Attributes of Intelligences 92

4 Celestial Movements and the Imitation of God 94

5 Cognition of Intelligences 98

6 Angelic Motion, Prime Matter, and the Value of Learning 103

7 On Copernicus and Melanchthon 106

8 Conclusion 108

6 Generation and Form 110

1 Introduction 110

2 Doctrinal Background 111

3 Criticism of Fernel 113

4 Spontaneous Generation 116

5 Generation from Seeds 118

6 Human Generation 123

7 The Formative and Informative Souls 125

8 Plastic Power 131

9 The Soul as the Divine Fifth Essence 135
10 Conclusion 142

7 Mixture 145

1 Introduction 145

2 Criticism of Avicenna 146

3 A New Definition of Mixture 149

4 Objections of Basson and Sennert 152

5 Form as Mixture 153

6 Creation of Mixtures 157

7 Scaliger and the Franciscan Tradition 160

8 Conclusion 162

General Conclusion 164

Bibliography 181

Index 208

Über Autor(innen)

Kuni Sakamoto, Ph.D. (2012) in history of science, University of Tokyo, is an affiliated researcher at the Center for the History of Philosophy and Science, Radboud University Nijmegen. He has published on early modern natural philosophy, with a particular focus on its interaction with theology and philology.