The Problematic Union of the Human Soul and Earthly Body in Marsilio Ficino. Preliminary Notes to Book XVI, Cahper 1-7 of the  Cover Image
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Проблемът за душата в земно тяло при Марсилио Фичино. Предварителни бележки към Книга XVI, Глава 1–7 от "Платоновата теология".
The Problematic Union of the Human Soul and Earthly Body in Marsilio Ficino. Preliminary Notes to Book XVI, Cahper 1-7 of the

Author(s): Zornitsa Radeva
Subject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Издателство »Изток-Запад«
Keywords: prisca theologia; Renaissance philosophy; Marsilio Ficino; Platonic Theology; human soul; earthly body

Summary/Abstract: The current paper attempts to present a preliminary perspective, which should serve as a necessary condition for an adequate detailed analysis of Marsilio Ficino’s discussion of the problematic union between human soul and earthly body in Book XVI, Chapter 1–7 of his opus magnum, the Platonic Theology. This perspective consists of three main statements, namely: 1. The human body as an earthly husk, which conceals the divine origin of our soul, constitutes an essential part of Ficino’ concept of man. The main task of the Renaissance thinker in the discussion in Book XVI lies in an attempt to look through this husk, which finds its parallel in the disclosure of divine truths concealed behind the quaint images of prisca theologia. 2. The chosen mode of discussion, the quaestiones, allows the adducing of many “reputable opinions”: as regards its form, such a treatment is in certain continuity with the scholastic tradition; as to its content, it reflects the reception of platonic texts, which has conditioned to a great extent the thought of the first translator of the Platonic corpus in the Latin West. 3. Ficino argues above all against the Epicurean thesis of the mortality of the soul existing in a perishable body, while at the same time, paradoxically, he is in fact going to integrate (but that should constitute the subject of a separate study) the Epicurean notion of the subtle bodies of the gods in his own conception of human and divine animate beings.

  • Issue Year: 2012
  • Issue No: 18
  • Page Range: 147-168
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: Bulgarian