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Immortality infinity and the preservation of identity

Contraries, death and imperishability

contrarius; mors; mortifer; immortalis; infrigescibilis; imperdibilis; fugare; fugere

Contraries are opposed qualities or forms, such as heat and cold.

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordContraries are opposed qualities or forms, such as heat and cold.
  • In the Platonic TheologyV.1423456789 argues that a contrary form does not receive its contrary while remaining itself.
  • In this editionThe source keeps infrigescibilis and imperdibilis visibly distinct.
  • A place to readContrary forms and their bearers are compared, with the fire analogy’s limit made explicit.

Meaning

Contraries are opposed qualities or forms, such as heat and cold. Mortifer means death-bearing; immortalis deathless. Infrigescibilis is incapable of becoming cold; imperdibilis incapable of being destroyed. The paired verbs fugare and fugere distinguish driving away from fleeing.

Use in the book

V.1423456789 argues that a contrary form does not receive its contrary while remaining itself. Heat cannot become cold heat, and fire cannot be cold while remaining fire. Yet fire can perish instead of becoming cold. Ficino explicitly marks this limit of the analogy: inability to become cold is not identical with indestructibility.

The proposed inference for soul uses life as its essence or proper attendant. Soul does not admit death, and Ficino identifies immortality with imperishability. V.14.7 immediately gives the objection to that step, assigned to Strato or an Epicurean: perhaps soul does not receive death only because it disappears when the death-bearing quality arrives. Simply refusing a predicate would not establish survival.

Ficino clarifies that death as nonbeing is not literally received by either the living or the nonexistent dead. His intended claim is that no death-bearing quality can enter soul so as to end its life. Material heat is vulnerable because the matter that supports it also opens to cold, allowing heat to be expelled. A separate form lacks the shared material recipient that brings contraries together.

V.14.8 therefore returns to the already argued immateriality of rational soul. The contrary may corrupt qualities bound to the body, but cannot reach the essence supporting rather than supported by matter. The proof is consequently cumulative; it does not rest solely on substituting “indestructible” for “deathless.”

Places to read

  1. V.14.3, V.14.4, V.14.5Contrary forms and their bearers are compared, with the fire analogy’s limit made explicit.
  2. V.14.7The Epicurean objection forces a distinction between receiving death and admitting a destructive quality.
  3. V.14.8Independent subsistence excludes the common material ground of destructive opposition.

Translation in this edition

The source keeps infrigescibilis and imperdibilis visibly distinct. Death is only “in a certain sense” a contrary in V.14.3. The objection is a staged philosophical challenge, not proof that Ficino accepts an Epicurean account of the soul.

expellere / depellere

expellere / depellere. Printed forms: depellitur; depulsus; expellere; expulsa.

To drive out or expel. Cold expels heat from the matter supporting it; the ejected dependent form ceases instead of persisting independently. References: V.8.2, V.14.7. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

fovere

fovere. Printed forms: foveretur.

To cherish, warm or sustain. Heat persists only while supported in matter's bosom, so expulsion removes the condition of its being. References: V.14.7. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

frigiditas / frigus

frigiditas / frigus. Printed forms: frigiditas; frigiditatem; frigore; frigus.

Coldness or cold, a contrary to heat within the elemental model. Cold may replace heat in matter, but cannot become a cold heat or cold fire that retains the original form. References: V.4.1, V.4.3, V.8.2, V.14.4. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

fugare / fugere

fugare / fugere. Printed forms: fugant; fugatur; fugiunt.

To drive away and to flee, contrasting active expulsion with withdrawal. Opposed qualities reject one another, but common matter brings them together and permits a dependent form's expulsion. References: V.8.2, V.14.7. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

immortalis / immortalitas

immortalis / immortalitas. Printed forms: immortalem; immortales; immortali; immortalis; Immortalis; immortalitas; immortalitatem; immortalitatis.

Immortalis means immortal or deathless; immortalitas means immortality, the conclusion sought for rational souls and a recurrent attribute of higher principles. The life argument must explain why nonreception of death entails survival, rather than relying solely on the word. References: V.1.1, V.2.1, V.4.1, V.4.10, V.14.1, V.14.5. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

Not subject to death, or the corresponding enduring condition. The immortality of truth, species and an individual mind are connected but remain distinct subjects; intellectual generation is contrasted with biological succession. References: VIII.2.8, VIII.9.1, VIII.15.2. See Individual immortality and the scope of the conclusion.

imperdibilis

imperdibilis. Printed forms: imperdibile; imperdibilis.

Imperishable or incapable of destruction. Ficino identifies this with deathlessness for soul, then answers the objection that mere nonreception of death might still allow disappearance. References: V.14.5, V.14.7. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

infrigescibilis

infrigescibilis. Printed forms: infrigescibile; infrigescibilis.

Incapable of becoming cold while remaining what it is. Fire possesses this property yet can perish, so it is not equivalent to indestructibility; Ficino explicitly marks the limit. References: V.14.5. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

mors

mors. Printed forms: mors; morte; mortem; mortis.

Death, clarified as deprivation or nonbeing rather than a literal received object. The significant claim is that no death-bearing quality can enter soul and terminate its life. References: V.12.12, V.14.3, V.14.6, V.14.7. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

mortifer

mortifer. Printed forms: mortifera; mortiferam.

Death-bearing or destructive of life. The Epicurean challenge and Ficino's answer concern whether such a quality can enter an immaterial essence. References: V.14.3, V.14.7. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

opponere / oppositum

opponere / oppositum. Printed forms: opponitur; opponuntur; opposita; oppositi; oppositum.

To oppose and an opposed term, including contrary qualities and contradictory being/nonbeing. The specific opposition matters: cold and heat share matter, whereas nothing is not a substrate for being. References: V.5.4, V.8.1, V.12.2, V.12.10, V.13.7. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

Strato / Epicureus

Strato / Epicureus. Printed forms: Epicuree; Epicureus; Strato.

Strato or an Epicurean interlocutor staged as objecting to the deathlessness inference. The objection says soul might disappear without receiving anything; Ficino clarifies the intended destructive-quality claim. References: V.14.7. See Contraries, death and imperishability.

Strato and the imagined Epicurean objection (authorities and interlocutors)

Strato and the imagined Epicurean objection. The objection that exclusion of death might allow annihilation is introduced as what Strato or an Epicurean might say. It is an argumentative possibility in the source, not a historically authenticated quotation from Strato. References: V.14.7. See Contraries, death and imperishability; Generation, corruption and annihilation.