Memory, rigidity and fluidity

Use in the book

Ficino tests a corporeal soul through opposed material conditions. If rigid, it hardly receives new figures and so loses both teachability and acuity. If it does receive successive figures, their coexistence obscures their distinctions. If fluid or unstable, it cannot retain them and consequently has no memory. A material property that seems to solve one difficulty therefore generates another: receptiveness without stability does not yield recollection, while stability as resistance to alteration does not yield learning.

The final division of chapter 1 recasts this dilemma. If an image only reaches the soul’s imagined surface, as in a mirror, it can account at most for a present object, not an absent object retained for thought. If qualities penetrate its substance like tastes and odors entering water, sensation and memory become successive bodily alterations whose contents mix without discriminating judgement. The ordinary verbs “hold,” “lose,” “obscure” and “confuse” carry the explanatory burden. Memory requires distinguishable retained content, not merely the continued existence of a material change.

The argument belongs to Ficino’s case for incorporeality. It neither supplies a contemporary theory of memory nor demonstrates that every process involving material stability is incapable of information storage.

Places to read

1. VII.1.1The images of Plato, Xenophon, Alcibiades and Phaedrus test distinguishable coexistence.
2. VII.1.2Solid and fluid alternatives threaten learning and memory in different ways.
3. VII.1.3Surface reflection is contrasted with penetrating mixture and recollection of absent things.

Translation in this edition

At VII.1.2 the edition retains cepit, “has received,” against the later witnesses’ ceperit. It also retains Ubi, rendered “There,” where those witnesses make the connection causal with Nam. Neither variation licenses merging the successive objections.

accipere

accipere. Printed forms: accepta; accipere; accipit.

To take in or receive a figure, image or content. The successive-impression argument contrasts reception of new content with loss or confusion of the old. References: VII.1.1, VII.1.2. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

amittere

amittere. Printed forms: amissum; amittat; amittere; amittit.

To lose something previously possessed. Fire loses its form and proper being; the soul's imagined loss of being is tested against the persistence of essence. References: V.8.1, V.8.2, V.11.2, V.11.3. See Generation, corruption and annihilation.

To lose what was previously possessed. A new wax-like impression threatens to erase the older one, making the example a test of memory. References: VII.1.1. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

attingere / penetrare

attingere / penetrare. Printed forms: attingent; penetrabunt.

To touch or reach, and to penetrate inward. Surface contact and deep bodily penetration are alternative material explanations, each with a distinct consequence for cognition. References: VII.1.3. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

cogitare

cogitare. Printed forms: cogitare; cogitaret; cogitat; cogitationum; cogitet.

To think of something, including an object no longer present. A mere mirror-like surface reception cannot account for thinking of absent bodies, because it does not retain their images. References: VII.1.3. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

Thinking or entertaining a content, which can be true, hypothetical or invented. Ficino distinguishes common intellectual accounts from singular images and allows thoughts of possible or impossible objects without asserting their external existence. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.1.4, VIII.3.6, VIII.4.11, VIII.8.1, VIII.14.1, VIII.16.1. See Mental hands, conception, and creative understanding.

confundere

confundere. Printed forms: confundat; confundentur; confusas.

To mingle in a way that obscures distinctions. Confused images cannot distinguish the represented people; mixed qualities likewise lack a discriminating judge. References: VII.1.1, VII.1.3. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

discernere

discernere. Printed forms: discernantur; discernat; discerni; discernimus.

To distinguish or discriminate between appearances or kinds. Vivid dream images may at the time be indistinguishable from their objects, unlike the later recognition of false scenery. References: V.15.24. See Sleep and dreams.

To distinguish contents or properties from one another. The verb marks what mere coexistence of impressions does not explain, and what knowing bodily proportion still fails to reveal about soul. References: VII.1.1, VII.12.1. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

discretio

discretio. Printed forms: discretionis.

Discrimination or the ability to keep contents apart. Bodily qualities would mingle without this judgement if sensation were merely their penetration into a material soul. References: VII.1.3. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

docilitas / acumen

docilitas / acumen. Printed forms: acumen; docilitas.

Capacity to learn and keenness of cognition. A soul too solid to be impressed would lose both; they are not identified with sheer material softness. References: VII.1.2. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

facies / profundum

facies / profundum. Printed forms: faciem; profundam.

Surface and depth as rival receiving sites. The closing sensory dilemma contrasts an image touching the surface with qualities penetrating deep into a supposed material soul. References: VII.1.3. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

obfuscare

obfuscare. Printed forms: obfuscantur.

To darken or obscure each other. Successively received figures would cease to be distinguishable if their bodily impressions overlaid one another. References: VII.1.2. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

praesens / absens

praesens / absens. Printed forms: absentia; praesentia.

Present and absent relative to the perceiver. The ability to think an absent object tests the difference between retained content and a transient surface appearance. References: VII.1.3. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

retinere / servare

retinere / servare. Printed forms: retinetur; servabimus; servatur.

To retain or preserve what would otherwise disappear. The former bodily constitution is not retained after soul departs; preservation of cognitive images and visible light is discussed in other causal contexts. References: VII.1.3, VII.9.2. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

sapor / odor / aqua

sapor / odor / aqua. Printed forms: aquam; odores; sapores.

Taste, odor and water as a receiving medium. Their mixture exemplifies penetrating physical qualities whose mingling does not itself provide discriminating judgement. References: VII.1.3. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

simulacrum

simulacrum. Printed forms: simulacra.

An image or likeness, considered here as possibly touching a surface. Surface contact could explain a present appearance on the hypothesis, but not retained thought of an absent object. References: VII.1.3. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

solidus / fluxus / labilis

solidus / fluxus / labilis. Printed forms: fluxum; labile; solidum.

Solid, fluid or unstable as possible physical constitutions of a corporeal soul. Rigidity obstructs new impressions; instability prevents retaining them. The opposed difficulties form one dilemma. References: VII.1.2. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

tenere / memoria

tenere / memoria. Printed forms: memoria; memoriam; tenet.

To retain; memory as preserved, usable content. Fluid instability threatens retention, while a mere surface image cannot account for thinking of something absent. References: VII.1.2, VII.1.3. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.

Xenophon / Alcibiades / Phaedrus

Xenophon / Alcibiades / Phaedrus. Printed forms: Alcibiadis; Phaedri; Xenophontis.

Additional named persons whose images test memory and discrimination. Their reception would erase Plato’s image or confuse all the images if soul behaved simply like impressed wax. References: VII.1.1. See Memory, rigidity and fluidity.