Discord and the soul’s persistence · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordThe discord vocabulary ranges over opposed opinions and affections, disagreement of elements and humors, and discordant parts of soul and body.
In the Platonic TheologyChapter 15 sharpens the argument: harmony, strictly considered as harmony, admits nothing dissonant while remaining harmony.
In this editionAnimus and anima alternate for the same subject and are both rendered “soul” in this argument.
A place to readStrict harmony, psychic discord, the bodily-discord objection and its reply complete Book VII.

Meaning

The discord vocabulary ranges over opposed opinions and affections, disagreement of elements and humors, and discordant parts of soul and body. Habitus in “natural state” concerns the soul’s enduring condition here, not automatically an acquired moral habit.

Use in the book

Chapter 15 sharpens the argument: harmony, strictly considered as harmony, admits nothing dissonant while remaining harmony. Soul, however, is continually pulled by discordant opinions and affections and remains a genuine, vital soul. This contrasts persistence of the subject with failure of harmonious agreement within it.

An objection distinguishes psychic discord, which does not kill, from elemental and humoral discord, which supposedly does. Ficino replies by ranking kinds of dissonance according to their closeness to soul. Disagreement of opinions and affections is proper and inward: it affects souls, not lifeless bodies, and assails the souls of mortals generally. Since this does not overthrow their life and sensation, he argues, the more foreign discord of humors will not dissolve the soul’s natural state. If that state were simply humoral concord, even slight humoral dissonance would undo it.

The scope is the soul’s identity and persistence, not bodily invulnerability. The argument should not be paraphrased as medical advice that disturbances of bodily constitution cannot harm a living human being. Earlier chapters freely describe bodily injury and the dissolution of animal organization. Here Ficino opposes identifying the soul with the harmony whose disruption would, by definition, end that harmony. The concluding claim permits extensive discord of soul and body while a true living soul persists.

Places to read

VII.15.1Strict harmony, psychic discord, the bodily-discord objection and its reply complete Book VII.

Translation in this edition

Animus and anima alternate for the same subject and are both rendered “soul” in this argument. The three nested domains of discord must remain separate. The strength of the move from nearer to more foreign dissonance belongs to Ficino’s reasoning and should not be silently replaced by a modern biological inference. The Latin omnes mortalium... animos means the souls of mortals; the English “every mortal soul” should not be taken as an assertion that soul is mortal.

animi mortalium

animi mortalium. Printed forms: omnes mortalium pulsat animos.

The souls of mortals: mortalium is a genitive identifying the people whose souls are assailed. The phrase describes the reach of discord among human beings; it does not itself assert that soul is mortal, despite the facing English’s potentially ambiguous “every mortal soul.” References: VII.15.1. See Discord and the soul’s persistence.

dissonantia / discordia / dissensio

dissonantia / discordia / dissensio. Printed forms: discordia; Dissensio; dissensio; dissonantia; dissonantibus; dissonat; dissonent; dissonum.

Dissonance or disagreement, with its domain supplied by context. Opinions and affections, humors and elements, and parts of soul and body are three distinct domains in the final argument. References: VII.15.1. See Discord and the soul’s persistence.

naturalis habitus / dissipare

naturalis habitus / dissipare. Printed forms: dissipabit; dissiparetur; habitum; naturalem; naturalem habitum; statu.

The soul’s natural state and its possible dissolution. Ficino denies that humoral discord dissolves soul as such; if soul were merely humoral concord, slight discord would undo it. References: VII.15.1. See Discord and the soul’s persistence.

opinio / affectus / distrahere

opinio / affectus / distrahere. Printed forms: affectibus; distrahi; opinionibus; opinionum.

Opinions, affections and being pulled apart by their disagreement. The soul remains a true, vital soul despite its internal conflicts, unlike harmony qua harmony. References: VII.15.1. See Discord and the soul’s persistence.

permanere / perseverare

permanere / perseverare. Printed forms: permanere; permanet; perseveret.

To remain or persist as what one is. The contrast concerns persistence of soul amid discord, not a claim that bodily disorder has no harmful consequences. References: VII.15.1. See Discord and the soul’s persistence.

proprius / intimus / alienior

proprius / intimus / alienior. Printed forms: alienior; intima; Propria; propria intimaque.

Proper and inward, contrasted with more foreign. Ficino ranks psychic discord as closer to soul than humoral discord and argues from the former’s failure to destroy soul to the latter. References: VII.15.1. See Discord and the soul’s persistence.

soli et omni

soli et omni. Printed forms: soli et omni animo.

Belonging only to soul and to every soul in the argument’s scope. The phrase qualifies the inner discord of opinions and affections, distinguishing it from alterations of lifeless bodies. References: VII.15.1. See Discord and the soul’s persistence.