Ascent

Use in the book

The account of purification lists ascent to the generating cause among its benefits, together with restoration of proper essence and reception of power, life, and activity. Ascent is therefore part of a reciprocal relation: return toward the source accompanies gifts received from the whole.

Places to read

1. I.49.65.10Purification brings ascent to the originating cause and renewed participation in life.

Translation in this edition

“Ascent” preserves the image without requiring a literal upward journey through measured space.

Use in the book

Book I announces an ascent “as far as God.” Its steps are not movements through physical space but ordered comparisons of body, quality, soul, angel, and God. Ficino argues that a lower level's limitations require a superior source: bodily passivity points toward quality, quality's dependence toward an incorporeal form, the soul's temporal operation toward angelic stability, and the angel's multiplicity toward divine unity. The ascent also has a cognitive aspect. The mind moves from particular forms to universal forms, from natural through mathematical to metaphysical objects, and from dimensions through points and numbers to unity. The narrative language of climbing therefore joins a method of reasoning with a transformation in what the reader attends to. Ficino places earlier philosophers at different stopping points in this ascent. His classifications organize the argument rather than provide a comprehensive history of those philosophers.

Further passage references. Book I title; I.1.3–I.1.72345; I.3.12–I.3.162345, I.3.33; I.6.1

Places to read

1. I.1.3–72345Five grades and named philosophical stopping points organize the announced ascent.
2. I.3.12–162345Mental abstraction and increasingly independent principles give the ascent cognitive and ontological aspects.
3. I.3.33The reader is urged beyond bodily form to the third essence.
4. I.6.1–623456The ascent must pass beyond even immobile angelic mind to simple unity.

Translation in this edition

The future programme and repeated exhortations should remain distinct from proofs already delivered. Ficino’s distribution of earlier philosophers among stopping points is his philosophical classification, not a comprehensive history of their doctrines.

apex

apex. Printed forms: apicem.

The summit. A form divided in body is denied the status of nature’s summit; the spatial noun summarizes a hierarchy of causal independence. References: I.3.31. See Ascent.

ascendere / descendere

ascendere / descendere. Printed forms: ascendendo; ascensus; descendendo; descendit.

To ascend or descend in an ordered hierarchy. Upward comparison increases perfection, while gifts and multiplicity descend from higher sources. References: II.1.6, II.3.2, II.3.3, II.7.2. See Ascent.

ascendo / gradus

ascendo / gradus. Printed forms: ascenderimus; ascenderunt; ascendimus; ascensus; gradus.

To ascend; a step, rank or degree. The movement passes through grades of being and forms of cognition, not measured spatial steps. A degree of heat is a different local use of gradus. References: I.1.4, I.1.7, I.3.1, I.3.15. See Ascent.

diverto / dirigo

diverto / dirigo. Printed forms: dirigere; divertit.

To turn aside toward, or direct toward. Plato’s inquiry repeatedly turns toward the soul’s form; his purified mental gaze is directed toward the divine sun. Direction belongs to the contemplative image. References: Proem.4, I.1.6. See Ascent.

hactenus / hucusque

hactenus / hucusque. Printed forms: Hactenus; Hucusque.

Thus far or up to this point. The transition acknowledges the soul-level result before denying that it can be the first principle; progress is retained even when a higher explanation is sought. References: I.5.1, I.5.2. See Ascent.

tollo / traho / transfero

tollo / traho / transfero. Printed forms: tollit; trahit; transfert.

To lift, draw and transfer. A spark and falling wood illustrate physical direction; the mind’s self-transfer toward substantial unity uses analogous movement vocabulary for cognition. References: I.2.2, I.3.13. See Ascent.

transcendo / proveho

transcendo / proveho. Printed forms: provehamur; transcendamus.

To pass beyond and to advance. These hortatory verbs move the reader from corporeal form to incorporeal third essence; the ascent is explanatory rather than bodily travel. References: I.3.33. See Ascent.

Anaxagoras and Hermotimus (authorities and cited works)

Anaxagoras and Hermotimus. Ficino presents them as reaching angelic mind but stopping below the final ascent to God. I.1.5; I.6.1. See Ascent; Angel.

Cynics (authorities and cited works)

Cynics. Paired with Stoics as investigators who reached quality and effective power in Ficino's introductory ascent. I.1.3; I.3.1. See Ascent; Quality.

Cyrenaics (authorities and cited works)

Cyrenaics. Grouped with followers of Democritus and Epicurus as confining inquiry to bodily bulk. This is Ficino's argumentative classification. I.1.3; I.2.8. See Body and bulk; Ascent.

Heraclitus (authorities and cited works)

Heraclitus. Grouped with Marcus Varro and Marcus Manilius as reaching rational soul in the ascent. I.1.4; I.5.2. See Ascent; Soul.

Hermotimus (authorities and cited works)

Hermotimus. See Anaxagoras and Hermotimus above; I.1.5; I.6.1.

Manilius, Marcus (authorities and cited works)

Manilius, Marcus. With Heraclitus and Marcus Varro, placed at the soul level in Ficino's introductory classification. I.1.4; I.5.2. See Ascent.

Plato and the Platonists (authorities and cited works)

Plato and the Platonists. The principal philosophical authorities and interlocutors. Ficino presents their account in relation to Christian truth but also marks specific attributed doctrines, numerical excursions, and reservations. Proem.1–11234567891011; I.6.1; III.1–2; IV.1.40–522345678910111213, IV.1.96. See Philosophy and theology; Ascent; Soul; God.

Stoics (authorities and cited works)

Stoics. Paired with Cynics as reaching effective quality and power, a level Ficino argues must be surpassed. I.1.3; I.3.1. See Ascent; Quality.

Varro, Marcus (authorities and cited works)

Varro, Marcus. Grouped with Heraclitus and Marcus Manilius at the soul level of the introductory ascent. I.1.4; I.5.2. See Ascent.