Abstract
Following the medieval tradition, Renaissance philosophy approaches the intellect against the background of a twofold perspective, viz., an ontological and an epistemological perspective. The very problems, therefore, formulated during the Renaissance are to a great extent “medieval.” The ontological perspective focuses on the intellect’s state of being, e.g., what is the intellect and what is its relation to the human soul? The epistemological perspective concentrates on the intellect’s function or operation, e.g., how does the intellect work in order to render understanding possible? Both of these approaches are inextricably interwoven with one another. The solutions offered to these problems make use of familiar medieval currents, such as Aristotelianism, Averroism, (Neo-)platonism, Thomism, Scotism, etc. – without being, however, exclusively bound to one of them. Renaissance philosophy, moreover, considers all of these currents in order to offer a coherent picture of the intellect. Some of the main problems discussed include, among others, whether the intellect belongs to the individual soul or whether it is supra-individual; whether the soul perishes with the body or is immortal; whether intelligible species are required for understanding. Regardless of the so-called “eclectic” approaches in Renaissance philosophy, the discussions are notably shaped by the Averroist interpretation of Aristotle’s psychology.
References
Primary Literature
Ficino, Marsilio. 1959. Opera omnia. Riproduzione in fototipia a cura di M. Sancipriano, con presentazione di P.O. Kristeller [= Reprint of edition Basel 1576]. 2 vols. Turin: Bottega d’Erasmo.
Nifo, Agostino. 2011. De intellectu, ed. Leen Spruit. Leiden: Brill.
Pomponazzi, Pietro. 1990. Tractatus de immortalitate animae. Abhandlung über die Unsterblichkeit der Seele, ed. Burkhard Mojsisch. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
Vernia, Nicoletto. 1998. Quaestiones de pluralitate intellectus contra falsam et ab omni veritate remotam opinionem Averrois et de animae felicitate. In Quaestiones. Ristampa anastatica delle rispettive edizioni originali. Premessa di E. De Bellis, 44–58. Casarano: Editrice Eurocart.
Secondary Literature
Blum, Paul Richard. 2007. The immortality of the soul. In The Cambridge companion to Renaissance philosophy, ed. James Hankins, 211–233. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Brenet, Jean-Baptiste. 2003. Transferts du sujet. La noétique d’Averroès selon Jean de Jandun. Paris: Vrin.
Brenet, Jean-Baptiste. 2008. Ame intellective, âme cogitative; Jean de Jandun et la duplex forma propria de l’homme. Vivarium 46: 318–341.
Casini, Lorenzo. 2007. The Renaissance debate on the immortality of the soul. Pietro Pomponazzi and the plurality of substantial forms. In Mind, cognition and representation. The tradition of commentaries on Aristotle’s De anima, ed. Paul J.J.M. Bakker and Johannes M.M.H. Thijssen, 127–150. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Cassirer, Ernst. 1999. Das Erkenntnisproblem in der Philosophie und Wissenschaft der neueren Zeit, vol. 1, ed. Tobias Berben. Darmstadt: WBG. Reprint.
Hankins, James. 2007. Humanism, scholasticism, and Renaissance philosophy. In The Cambridge companion to Renaissance philosophy, ed. James Hankins, 30–48. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Hasse, Dag N. 2004. The attraction of Averroism in the Renaissance: Vernia, Achillini, Prassicio. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Special Issue: Philosophy Science & Exegesis 47: 131–147.
Kärkkäinen, Pekka and Henrik, Lagerlund. 2009. Philosophical psychology in 1500: Erfurt, Padua and Bologna. In Psychology and philosophy. Inquiries into the soul from late Scholasticism to contemporary thought, ed. Sara Heinämaa and Martina Reuter, 27–45. Dordrecht: Springer.
Keßler, Eckhard. 1988. The intellective soul. In The Cambridge history of Renaissance philosophy, ed. Charles B. Schmitt, Quentin Skinner, Eckhard Keßler, and Jill Kraye, 485–534. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Keßler, Eckhard. 2008. Die Philosophie der Renaissance: Das 15. Jahrhundert. München: C. H. Beck.
Kuksewicz, Zdzislaw. 1995. Der lateinische Averroismus im Mittelalter und in der Früh-Renaissance. In Philosophy and learning. Universities in the Middle Ages, ed. Maarten J.F.M. Hoenen, J.H. Josef Schneider, and Georg Wieland, 371–386. Leiden: Brill.
Leinkauf, Thomas. 2001. Vernunft-Verstand. IV. Renaissance und frühe Neuzeit. In Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, vol. 11, ed. Joachim Ritter (†), Karlfried Gründer, and Gottfried Gabriel, 796–809. Darmstadt: WBG.
Michael, Emily. 1992. Averroes and the plurality of forms. Franciscan Studies 52: 155–182.
Michael, Emily. 1993. The nature and influence of late Renaissance Paduan psychology. History of Universities 12: 65–94.
Michael, Emily. 2000. Renaissance theories of soul. In Psyche and Soma: Physicians and metaphysicians on the mind-body problem from antiquity to enlightenment, ed. John P. Wright and Paul Potter, 147–172. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Nardi, Bruno. 1945. Sigeri di Brabante nel pensiero del Rinascimento italiano. Rome: Edizioni italiane.
Rubini, Paolo. 2015. Pietro Pomponazzis Erkenntnistheorie. Naturalisierung des menschlichen Geistes im Spätaristotelismus. Leiden: Brill.
Schmitt, Charles B. 1983. Aristotle and the Renaissance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Spruit, Leen. 1995. Species intelligibilis: From perception to knowledge: Renaissance controversies, later Scholasticism, and the elimination of the intelligible species in modern philosophy, vol. 2. Leiden: Brill.
Vanni Rovighi, Sofia. 1951. Introduzione. In Le Quaestiones de anima di Taddeo da Parma, ed. S. Vanni Rovighi. Milan: Vita e pensiero.
Vitali, M.C. 1981. Taddeo de Parme et les deux rédactions des ‘Quaestiones De anima’ de Jean de Jandun. Mediaevalia Philosophica Polonorum 28: 3–13.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Jeschke, T. (2019). Intellect, Renaissance Concept of. In: Sgarbi, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Renaissance Philosophy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_1055-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_1055-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-02848-4
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Intellect, Renaissance Concept of- Published:
- 17 October 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_1055-2
-
Original
Intellect- Published:
- 28 January 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02848-4_1055-1