Containing, receiving and lacking · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordContinere and complecti can mean to contain or embrace; capere can be to receive or apprehend.
In the Platonic TheologyThe first member of a kind is said to contain the following members and to lack none of that kind’s perfection.
In this edition“Apprehend” is suitable for intellectual capere; “receive” better displays the illumination analogy.
A place to readCausal fullness contrasted with partial reception

Meaning

Continere and complecti can mean to contain or embrace; capere can be to receive or apprehend. Capax is receptive or capable of receiving. Carere, deesse, and indigere indicate absence or need, with different constructions. None implies that an incorporeal mind is a physical receptacle.

Use in the book

The first member of a kind is said to contain the following members and to lack none of that kind’s perfection. The claim concerns causal fullness, not a box containing every individual. Conversely, inferior luminous things do not receive the entire fullness of light. In the eye analogy, a bodily eye is a capacity receptive to light, not light itself. Enlarging the eye increases its reception without abolishing its dependence; likewise, the imagined pure mind receives truth more abundantly but is still distinct from truth. The vocabulary therefore helps distinguish possession from identity. God’s simplicity is argued in part through complete self-presence: a composite would not embrace its whole self in each member and would be absent from itself in some respect. These are steps in Ficino’s argument, not literal anatomical descriptions of God.

Places to read

I.3.3Causal fullness contrasted with partial reception
I.6.6Embracing the whole self versus lacking oneself in the hypothetical composite God
I.6.7–92 3Receptivity remains after the eye or mind is imagined enlarged
I.6.10–122 3Mind needs truth, whereas truth does not need a receiving mind

Translation in this edition

“Apprehend” is suitable for intellectual capere; “receive” better displays the illumination analogy. The changing English should not conceal the shared relation of reception. “Comprehend” elsewhere can mean encompass rather than supply a separate technical cognitive faculty.

capax / capio

capax / capio. Printed forms: capax; capiat; capit.

Receptive or capable of receiving; to receive or apprehend. The eye can receive light and mind truth while remaining distinct from what they receive; greater capacity does not erase dependency. References: I.1.6, I.6.7. See Containing, receiving and lacking.

contineo / complector

contineo / complector. Printed forms: complectitur; continet.

To contain or embrace. A kind’s first principle contains its subsequent perfections; this is causal plenitude, not an inventory of physical objects stored inside it. References: I.3.3. See Containing, receiving and lacking.

instituo

instituo. Printed forms: instituta; institutus.

To constitute or establish for a purpose. Sight is constituted to comprehend light and mind to perceive truth; their purpose shows dependence on the object they receive. References: I.6.8, I.6.10. See Containing, receiving and lacking.