Counsel and settled skill · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordConsilium is counsel or deliberative planning; consultare is to deliberate; callere to be thoroughly skilled.
In the Platonic TheologyFicino anticipates a difficulty in calling natural order the result of counsel.
In this editionThe edition’s “settled skill” for habitu distinguishes this use from “possession” and “state” elsewhere.
A place to readBetter counsel than the imagined human planner is inferred from natural order.

Meaning

Consilium is counsel or deliberative planning; consultare is to deliberate; callere to be thoroughly skilled. Habitus names settled acquired proficiency. Per translationem explicitly marks a transfer of expression or metaphor.

Use in the book

Ficino anticipates a difficulty in calling natural order the result of counsel. Human deliberation can imply uncertainty, delay, departure from a plan, and reconsideration. He denies those features to the directing intelligence. “Counsel” is used by metaphor because some things are done for the sake of others, not because the maker investigates one thing from another. The accomplished craftsperson supplies an intermediate example: a perfected skill acts readily from its settled disposition, whereas the unskilled deliberate. This does not deny all human reasoning or claim that any impulsive action is expert. Its purpose is to separate intelligent purposiveness from hesitant, successive inquiry. Human rational soul will still be defined as knowing through temporal discourse.

Selected annotated passages.

Places to read

II.13.17Better counsel than the imagined human planner is inferred from natural order.
II.13.18Ficino expressly defines the metaphor and contrasts acquired skill with deliberation.
III.2.29Temporal discourse remains proper to rational soul’s operation.

Translation in this edition

The edition’s “settled skill” for habitu distinguishes this use from “possession” and “state” elsewhere. “Intuition” here translates intuitus, a direct intellectual apprehension; it need not mean an unsupported hunch.

consilium / consultare

consilium / consultare. Printed forms: consilio; Consilium; consilium; consultare; consultat.

Counsel / deliberate. Divine ordering is called counsel metaphorically; skilled action is distinguished from uncertain step-by-step deliberation. References: II.13.17, II.13.18. See Counsel and settled skill.

iners / callere

iners / callere. Printed forms: callet; inertes.

Unskilled or inactive / know thoroughly or master. The imperfect craftsperson deliberates; the accomplished one acts from settled proficiency. The contrast does not define all immediate acts as expert. References: II.13.18. See Counsel and settled skill.

mora / transgressio / retractatio

mora / transgressio / retractatio. Printed forms: mora; retractatio; transgressio.

Delay / deviation / reconsideration. Their asserted absence in the work supports the denial of uncertainty in its maker. References: II.13.18. See Counsel and settled skill.

translatio

translatio. Printed forms: translationem.

Transfer of expression or metaphor. Ficino explicitly says that calling direct intellectual ordering counsel is a metaphor, explained by acting for ends rather than successive investigation. References: II.13.18. See Counsel and settled skill.