Analysis, mangling, and fictive construction

Use in the book

In the bodily hypothesis, dividing a genus would leave half in one half of the right side of mind and half in the other; difference would be treated similarly. The resulting procedure would destroy the universals it was supposed to explain. Ficino calls it mangling rather than analysis. If the universal instead remains whole throughout the division, the opponent has abandoned its dependence on a determinate bodily quantity. An infinity of supposed duplicated genera would then be a mental contrivance rather than an independently established natural plurality.

This criticism does not mean that all mental making is false. Elsewhere mind makes concepts, definitions, artistic exemplars and images of possibilities. A construction is called figmentum rather than knowledge when it departs from the nature of its object while claiming to know that object. VIII.16 openly allows the mind to imagine things that may never exist, or even be impossible; such scope demonstrates a cognitive power, not the truth of every imagined content.

Composition and resolution also become complementary operations: mind sees mixed things in their simple principles and simple things in mixtures. It can isolate a point without length or beauty without deformity. These separations concern objects as understood and do not claim that a knife could produce the same pure constituents from a bodily specimen.

Places to read

1. VIII.4.5, VIII.4.6True union must correspond to things; spatial cutting destroys rather than analyzes universals.
2. VIII.5.2Analysis restores simple intelligible content from a composite presentation.
3. VIII.7.1Composition and resolution are paired cognitive operations.
4. VIII.16.1Invented possible and impossible objects exhibit breadth of thinking without becoming verified existents.

Translation in this edition

The apparatus deliberately retains the sharp opposition “mangling”/“analysis.” A single English “division” for dilaniatio and resolutio would suppress the reason the opponent’s account fails.

compositio / mixtum

compositio / mixtum. Printed forms: compositionem; mixta; mixtis; resolutionem.

Composition and mixtures, paired with analysis of simple constituents. Mind sees mixtures through their principles and principles in mixtures; its operation does not reproduce their material blending. References: VIII.7.1. See Analysis, mangling, and fictive construction.

dilaniatio / lacerare / discerpere

dilaniatio / lacerare / discerpere. Printed forms: dilaniatio; discerptemus; disperdemus; lacerentur.

Mangling, tearing and scattering, contrasted with reasoned analysis. If universal contents were bodily pieces, subdividing them would destroy the account rather than illuminate it. References: VIII.4.6. See Analysis, mangling, and fictive construction.

figmentum / machinatio

figmentum / machinatio. Printed forms: figmento; figmentum; machinatione.

A fabrication or contrivance unsupported by the thing it purports to know. False union and arbitrarily multiplied genera differ from genuine intellectual analysis; not every imaginative fiction claims scientific truth. References: VIII.4.5, VIII.4.6. See Analysis, mangling, and fictive construction.

materia (additional forms)

materia (additional forms). Printed forms: materiam.

Matter as the receiver from which intellect separates its accounts. Mental separation does not physically destroy material objects; the concluding infinite potency is matter under God rather than an independent rival principle. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.1.2, VIII.1.5, VIII.4.12, VIII.11.1, VIII.14.1, VIII.15.1. See Analysis, mangling, and fictive construction.

relinquere / dimittere

relinquere / dimittere. Printed forms: dimisso; relinquetur; relinquit.

Leaving behind, setting aside or leaving a remainder. Intellect sets aside this determinate man to know humanity; in a rejected bodily model, literal halves of genus would be left in different regions. References: VIII.1.4, VIII.1.5, VIII.4.6. See Analysis, mangling, and fictive construction.

resolutio / divisio

resolutio / divisio. Printed forms: divisio; divisionem; resolutio; resolutionem; resolvendo; resolvimus.

Explanatory analysis and division, distinguished from mutilating a spatial object. The analysis of a composite seeks principles; its stopping point indicates simplicity, whereas unlimited bodily cutting ruins a definition. References: VIII.4.4, VIII.4.6, VIII.4.12, VIII.5.2. See Analysis, mangling, and fictive construction.

segregare / restituere

segregare / restituere. Printed forms: restituere; restituit; Segrega; segregat.

Setting aside or restoring, used of the mind's analytic power. Mind sets aside nonknowing parts in the argument and restores pure intelligible content from admixture in its objects. References: VIII.5.2. See Analysis, mangling, and fictive construction.

Plotinus (authorities and interlocutors)

Plotinus. The volume reports angelic production, lower-soul immortality and descent in passages where Ficino’s own endorsement varies. Other passages use Plotinus on vegetative power, active perception or a tentative analysis of being. Attribution and assent are not interchangeable. References: V.13.1, V.14.8, V.14.9, VI.10.1, VII.6.3, VIII.4.12. See Divine production and the third essence; Platonist disagreement and descent; Seminal power, fish eggs and the tree; Sensation as attentive activity; Analysis, mangling, and fictive construction.

Proclus (authorities and interlocutors)

Proclus. Ficino reports Proclus in several settings, including angelic soul-production, the dispute over irrational immortality and a tentative analysis of being. VIII.15.2 explicitly leaves the stronger thesis of essential self-production to Proclus; VIII.15.3 retains formal self-causation rather than efficient self-creation. References: V.13.1, V.14.8, VIII.4.12, VIII.15.2, VIII.15.3. See Divine production and the third essence; Platonist disagreement and descent; Analysis, mangling, and fictive construction; Self-causation: formal cause and efficient cause; First Cause, principal causes and causal dependence.