Animation, first light and regress

Use in the book

If the alleged soul-body is inanimate it cannot give animal life; if animate it requires a soul. Asking the same question about that soul produces an endless regress. Ficino’s deliberately jarring comparison with wisdom being wise or foolish marks the difference between a principle and a thing described through it. Similarly, first light is neither darkness nor something illuminated by another in the same derivative way as its recipients. The explanatory series must terminate in what properly animates and vivifies.

The opponent then tries “animal body” instead of “animated body,” and “living” instead of “vivified.” Ficino returns to the decisive question: is it soul precisely because it is body, or through a further nature? The former would make all bodies souls; the latter locates soul in what exceeds corporeality. The argument does not abolish the soul’s dependence on an incorporeal author established in VI.1.6. It denies that the animating principle needs another soul to animate it in the same derivative sense as the body.

Places to read

1. VI.5.1, VI.5.2The animate/inanimate dilemma forces an explanatory regress.
2. VI.5.3The first-light analogy locates a nonderivative animating principle.
3. VI.5.4, VI.5.5Changing predicates fails to avoid the distinction between body and its life-giving nature.

Translation in this edition

The English intentionally does not flatten all five predicates into “living/dead.” The apparatus records the authorial correction operationes in VI.5.4, keeping the inference broader than a narrow phrase about principles of life.

animale; vivens; vivificatum

animale; vivens; vivificatum. Printed forms: corpus animale; vivens; vivificatum.

Animale means animal or animate in nature; vivens means living; vivificatum means made alive. The opponent’s changed wording fails unless a nature beyond mere body supplies the relevant life. References: VI.5.4. See Animation, first light and regress.

animatus; inanimis

animatus; inanimis. Printed forms: animatum; Animatumne; inanime; inanimis.

Animated or lacking soul. Both answers fail when applied to soul as a supposed body: one cannot give life, the other demands another soul. References: VI.5.1, VI.5.2, VI.5.3. See Animation, first light and regress.

dicere; nominare; appellare

dicere; nominare; appellare. Printed forms: appellabat; appellabimus; appellatur; dicam; dicat; dicatur; dicendum; dicere; dices; dici; dicitur; dixeris; dixerit; Dixerit; nominamus; nominant; nominatur.

To say, call or assign a name, in report or definition. Naming the life-giving form soul and reporting what an opponent calls soul are different acts; a change of words alone does not solve the causal problem. References: VI.1.1, VI.2.1, VI.2.2, VI.2.13, VI.2.20, VI.4.5, VI.5.1, VI.5.3, VI.5.4, VI.9.4, VI.11.1, VI.12.12, VI.12.13, VI.12.16, VI.13.11. See Animation, first light and regress.

esse; habere; fieri

esse; habere; fieri. Printed forms: erit; erunt; es; essent; esset; est; fiat; fieri; fiet; fit; fiunt; fore; foret; fuisse; habeant; habeat; habebit; habent; habere; haberet; habet; Habetis; sint; sit; sunt.

Being, having and becoming, distinguished by their grammatical constructions. To be soul, to possess life, and to become living are not interchangeable claims; the animate/inanimate and act/potency arguments repeatedly depend on those relations. References: VI.1.6, VI.2.3, VI.2.6, VI.2.9, VI.2.10, VI.2.13, VI.2.19, VI.4.6, VI.5.1, VI.5.2, VI.5.4, VI.6.3, VI.7.1, VI.7.2, VI.7.3, VI.9.1, VI.11.1. See Animation, first light and regress.

natura praeter corporis rationem

natura praeter corporis rationem. Printed forms: natura praeter corporis rationem.

A further nature beyond the defining account of body. The conclusion names this life-giving nature soul and life, completing the reply to the opponent’s change from animated to animal body. References: VI.5.5. See Animation, first light and regress.

primum lumen

primum lumen. Printed forms: illuminatum; obscurum; primum lumen.

First light, illuminated and dark. The analogy distinguishes source from derivative illumination, just as soul is distinguished from what receives animation. References: VI.5.3. See Animation, first light and regress.

qua ratione

qua ratione. Printed forms: alia quadam ratione; qua corpus est.

In virtue of being body or in virtue of a different explanatory account. The repeated test distinguishes what belongs to corporeality as such from the source of animal life. References: VI.5.4. See Animation, first light and regress.

referre; quiescere

referre; quiescere. Printed forms: quiescam; referam.

To refer to a further cause and come to rest at a conclusion. The regress must terminate in a principle animating through itself rather than another animated body. References: VI.5.3. See Animation, first light and regress.

sapientia; sapiens

sapientia; sapiens. Printed forms: insipientem; sapientem; sapientia.

Wisdom, wise and unwise. The deliberately jarring predicates illustrate the difference between a principle and what is qualified through that principle. References: VI.5.2. See Animation, first light and regress.

utrum; an; numquid; num

utrum; an; numquid; num. Printed forms: an; An; Num; Numquid; numquid; utrum.

Question markers distinguishing alternatives and challenging a premise. The animate/inanimate, dense/subtle and motion arguments stage choices before rejecting them; rhetorical questions are part of their dialectic, not unqualified assertions. References: VI.2.12, VI.4.4, VI.5.1, VI.6.1, VI.6.4, VI.12.4. See Animation, first light and regress.

vita; vivere

vita; vivere. Printed forms: vita; vitae; vitam; vivant; vivens; viventia; vivere; viveret; vivit; vivunt.

Life and living, distinguished from receiving life through another. Soul is a source of bodily life and possesses intrinsic vital activity, while the tests of an allegedly living soul-body expose its dependence on a further principle. References: VI.5.1, VI.6.2, VI.6.4, VI.11.1, VI.12.12. See Animation, first light and regress.