Aither is a double-blind peer review, Open Access online academic journal. It is indexed at ERIH+ and Scopus. It is published by the Faculty of Arts of the Palacký University in Olomouc in cooperation with the Philosophical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It comes out twice a year. Every second issue is international and contains foreign-language articles (mainly in English, but also in German and French). The journal is registered under the number ISSN 1803-7860.

Aither 12/2014 (International issue no. 3):54-75 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2014.018

Veritas Rerum vs Mens Philosophorum? The Debate on the Immortality of the Soul in Italy after the Publication of the Bull Apostolici regiminis (1513): Cajetan, Pomponazzi, Spina, Prierias, Javelli

Annalisa Cappiello
Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento

The paper shows a comparison between five Renaissance authors - four Thomists (Cajetan, Spina, Prierias, Javelli) and a secular Aristotelian (Pomponazzi) - on the issue of the interpretation of the Aristotelian psychology, that is, whether it is in favor or against the possibility of providing a demonstration of the immortality of the human soul, in the light of the ecclesiastical sanction on this topic. With the papal bull Apostolici regiminis (19 December 1513), the Church had dogmatized the Aristotelian-Thomistic formulation of the ontological status of the human soul (the soul is essentially the form of the body, immortal, infused by God, multiplied for the number of men), thus endorsing the immortalistic reading of Aristotle's statements handed down by Thomas Aquinas. The present investigation seeks to develop the arguments of each of the authors and to elaborate their compatibility and distinctness. On the one hand, there are Cajetan and Pomponazzi, supporters of a mortalistic exegesis of Aristotle and of the inability to provide proof of the immortality of the soul on the basis of the Peripatetic philosophy. On the other hand, there are Spina, Prierias and Javelli, supporters of the classical Thomistic interpretation of Aristotle, albeit with some significant differences. Spina exposes the difficulty to save the agreement between reason and Revelation without the authority of the Stagirite; Prierias especially emphasizes the need to preserve the truth of faith regardless of what is considered to be the opinion of the great philosophers of the past; Javelli expressly acknowledges the limitations of the Aristotelian philosophy when there is no supervision of the Christian exegete.

Published: September 30, 2014  Show citation

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Cappiello, A. (2014). Veritas Rerum vs Mens Philosophorum? The Debate on the Immortality of the Soul in Italy after the Publication of the Bull Apostolici regiminis (1513): Cajetan, Pomponazzi, Spina, Prierias, Javelli. Aither, 6(12), 54-75. doi: 10.5507/aither.2014.018
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