Assertion, report, and reservation

Use in the book

Book IV often reconstructs what the Platonists will reply or hold. These formulas locate an argument within an attributed philosophical account even where Ficino develops it forcefully. A temporary conversation with the Pythagoreans is expressly opened and closed. Its twelvefold scheme cannot be treated as an unmarked continuation at exactly the same evidential level; “perhaps” further qualifies the twelve ruling minds. Earlier forsitan allows some multiplicity immediately from unity without conceding the immediate production of destructive contraries.

The chapter's concluding reservation has wider scope than a minor aside. Everything related concerning sphere-souls according to the Platonists' opinion is to be affirmed only after careful examination and approval by Christian theologians. The condition is not reported as already fulfilled. The final Epinomis quotation itself leaves two alternatives: a soul present to each body or dwelling within it. Strong arguments, reports, tentative numerical elaboration, and conditional doctrinal endorsement therefore coexist. They must remain distinct.

Places to read

1. IV.1.23 and IV.1.33a tentative possibility and an explicitly Platonic causal hierarchy
2. IV.1.40–522345678910111213the marked Pythagorean conversation, its qualified twelve minds, and its closure
3. IV.1.88–91234differing Peripatetic positions and a reconstructed Platonic response
4. IV.1.96conditional theological affirmation and the presence/indwelling alternative
5. IV.2.12Ficino's own “I believe” regarding Proteus is distinguished from recurrence claims assigned to Zoroaster and others

Translation in this edition

“Only when” at IV.1.96 translates the restrictive tunc demum... cum. The English does not say that approval has occurred. The article's title is an analytical finding aid, not a technical phrase coined by Ficino.

accipere / concedere

accipere / concedere. Printed forms: accepimus; accipiamus; concedemus.

To take, adopt, or grant a proposition for the argument. Adopting the initial grades, testing a proposed angelic sphere-life, and taking twelve rulers are different argumentative acts rather than identical unconditional endorsements. References: IV.1.1, IV.1.29, IV.1.50. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

addere / mittere / omittere

addere / mittere / omittere. Printed forms: Adde; Mitto; omittam.

To add a consideration or leave one aside. These guide the exposition: an additional mediating argument, a compressed species claim, and a deliberately passed-over generation claim have different prominence. References: IV.1.14, IV.1.32, IV.1.86. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

ambigere / disserere

ambigere / disserere. Printed forms: ambigunt; disseruerunt.

To doubt; to discuss or argue about. Ancient Peripatetic silence on elemental life is distinguished from the doubts of some later Peripatetics. References: IV.1.89. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

confabulari

confabulari. Printed forms: confabulari; confabulati sumus.

To converse together for a time. The verb explicitly opens and closes the Pythagorean excursion; its boundaries qualify the intervening numerical elaboration. References: IV.1.40, IV.1.52. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

confiteri / asseverare

confiteri / asseverare. Printed forms: asseverabunt; confitebuntur.

To admit; to assert firmly. Future tenses stage a philosophical disagreement rather than quote a recorded contemporary exchange. References: IV.1.22. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

confiteri / tradere

confiteri / tradere. Printed forms: confitentur; tradunt.

To acknowledge; to transmit or teach a claim. Ficino assigns celestial animation to philosophical authorities and a doctrinal-permissibility claim to Augustine and Aquinas. References: IV.1.88. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

forsitan / forte

forsitan / forte. Printed forms: forsitan; forte.

Perhaps; a qualification of the asserted possibility. Some immediate multiplicity is tentatively allowed at IV.1.23; twelve governing minds remain qualified within the numerical excursion. References: IV.1.23, IV.1.52. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

negare

negare. Printed forms: negabunt; negant; neget.

To deny a claim or withhold an identification. The Platonists deny that cosmic life is God; opponents deny life to whole elements; a rhetorical question challenges denial of celestial animation. References: IV.1.22, IV.1.71, IV.1.96. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

propositum / institutum

propositum / institutum. Printed forms: institutum; proposito.

Purpose or projected undertaking; the established order of exposition. The general route-plan is different from the announced Platonic order to which the numerical excursion gives way. References: IV.1.52, IV.2.14. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

quaerere / persuadere

quaerere / persuadere. Printed forms: persuadet; quaerat.

To ask or investigate; to persuade through a reason. A question about elemental ascent prompts the Platonist reply, while a stated argument supports inward productive life. References: IV.1.5, IV.1.74. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

sub propria persona

sub propria persona. Printed forms: sub propria persona.

In one's own person or speaking voice. Ficino represents Plato as speaking in his own voice in the Epinomis quotation. This remains Ficino's attribution and does not certify modern authorship of the work. References: IV.1.96. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

tunc demum affirmanda

tunc demum affirmanda. Printed forms: tunc demum affirmanda.

To be affirmed only then, under the following condition. The sphere-soul account remains conditional upon careful examination and Christian theological approval, not stated to have occurred. References: IV.1.96. See Assertion, report, and reservation.

vult / lubet

vult / lubet. Printed forms: lubet; vult.

Holds or wishes; pleases. Ut vult Plotinus assigns a view to Plotinus, while whenever one pleases permits an arbitrary stopping-point in a thought experiment. References: IV.2.11, IV.2.24. See Assertion, report, and reservation.