Pain, location and reporting

Use in the book

The injured foot elicits an immediate coordinated response. Ficino denies that a non-sensing messenger can explain sensory reporting and also rejects mere bodily continuity as a complete account, since pain is not necessarily present everywhere along the body. He then grants, for testing, a soul distributed from foot through leg and knee to a chief judge in the brain.

On that model, a local soul-part knows only the affection present where it resides. The lower leg therefore feels its own distress, not the original foot’s torment; each further station repeats the limitation. The final judge would perceive only its own condition. The result would be a succession of innumerable pains rather than one immediate sensation, and no adequate recognition of the site requiring aid. The phrase quod nefas est marks Ficino’s rejection of the principal sense arriving last; it is a polemical verdict within the reductio.

The positive alternative is the whole soul’s immediate co-awareness and command. It suffers with itself, accords with itself, and deploys bodily members toward the injured part. This use of concord does not identify soul with bodily harmony. Nor should the critique of a corporeal series be paraphrased as a modern denial that nerves transmit signals: Ficino is working with a different causal and psychological model, whose local-knowledge assumptions must remain visible.

Places to read

1. VII.5.1The foot, eye, hand and mouth introduce localization and response.
2. VII.5.2Successive reporting to a cerebral judge is posed as an objection.
3. VII.5.3Distinct local affections fail to explain knowledge of the original injury and its remedy.

Translation in this edition

The apparatus retains persensio, confirmed in the principal collation, against the later perpensio. “Awareness” is therefore appropriate; “weighing” would obscure the sensory argument. It also adopts the authorial correction ut quicquid sit, removing a redundant ubique.

advertere / admovere / clamare

advertere / admovere / clamare. Printed forms: admovetur; advertitur; clamat.

To turn toward, bring near and cry out. These ordinary actions supply evidence of coordinated response rather than a merely theoretical assertion of soul’s unity. References: VII.5.1. See Pain, location and reporting.

continuatio molis

continuatio molis. Printed forms: continuationem molis.

Continuity of bodily bulk through which a physical affection might propagate. Ficino objects that pain is not always present everywhere, so bodily continuity alone fails to explain unified awareness. References: VII.5.1. See Pain, location and reporting.

cruciatus / molestia / persensio

cruciatus / molestia / persensio. Printed forms: cruciatum; cruciatus; molesta; molestia; molestiam; persensio.

Torment, distress and awareness of torment. The intermediate members’ distress is distinguished from the foot’s original pain in the proposed relay. References: VII.5.3. See Pain, location and reporting.

crus / femur / pectus / collum

crus / femur / pectus / collum. Printed forms: collo; crure; femore; pectore.

Lower leg, thigh, breast and neck as successive regions of the proposed reporting chain. The model distributes soul-parts through the body and reserves principal judgement for the brain; this is an objection to be rejected. References: VII.5.2. See Pain, location and reporting.

genu / lapillus

genu / lapillus. Printed forms: genu; lapillum.

Knee and small stone. The knee marks another hypothetical reporting station; the pebble is the concrete occasion of the foot’s injury. References: VII.5.3. See Pain, location and reporting.

imperium / adhibere

imperium / adhibere. Printed forms: adhibeat; imperio; imperium.

Command and directed employment. The whole soul calls its powers and bodily members to aid the wounded part. References: VII.5.3. See Pain, location and reporting.

internuntius / mora

internuntius / mora. Printed forms: internuntio; mora.

Intermediary messenger and delay. The soul’s whole co-awareness is described as immediate, without a relay of mutually isolated soul-parts. References: VII.5.3. See Pain, location and reporting.

membrum / particula

membrum / particula. Printed forms: membra; membris; membro; particula; particulae; particulas.

Member, organ or small bodily portion. Different organs perform different offices while one soul senses each local event and coordinates assistance. References: VII.5.1, VII.5.2, VII.5.3. See Pain, location and reporting.

offendere / dolere

offendere / dolere. Printed forms: doleat; dolor; offensus.

To strike or be hurt and to feel pain. An accidentally hurt foot introduces the problem of recognizing a localized bodily lesion. References: VII.5.1. See Pain, location and reporting.

pes / manus / os

pes / manus / os. Printed forms: manus; os; pede; pedis; pes.

Foot, hand and mouth in the coordinated response to injury. The eye turns, the hand approaches and the mouth cries out; the soul’s unified command links these distinct organs. References: VII.5.1. See Pain, location and reporting.

praesentire / praesentia

praesentire / praesentia. Printed forms: praesentiat.

To apprehend something immediately as present. The whole judging soul perceives the event without an intermediary, then directs assistance to the injured part. References: VII.5.3. See Pain, location and reporting.

referre / enuntiare

referre / enuntiare. Printed forms: enuntiat; referunt.

To convey or report an event to another judging station. These verbs belong to the objection of sensory reporting through successive soul-parts, whose adequacy the next unit denies. References: VII.5.2. See Pain, location and reporting.

statim / e vestigio / absque mora

statim / e vestigio / absque mora. Printed forms: absque mora; e vestigio; statim.

Immediately or without delay. The rapid coordinated response to injury is central to Ficino’s contrast with successive isolated reports. References: VII.5.1, VII.5.3. See Pain, location and reporting.

successio / gradatim

successio / gradatim. Printed forms: gradatim; successione.

Successive passage or a process occurring by stages. A report relayed through affected members would be a series of local states rather than immediate awareness of the original injury. References: VII.5.2, VII.5.3. See Pain, location and reporting.

succurrere / medela

succurrere / medela. Printed forms: medelam; succurrendum.

To give assistance and the remedy or care offered. Correct sensation matters practically because it identifies where bodily members must be directed to help. References: VII.5.3. See Pain, location and reporting.

vis iudiciaria

vis iudiciaria. Printed forms: vim illam iudiciariam; vis illa iudiciaria.

The judging power able to locate an affection and direct action. A divided cerebral judge would know only its own state; the positive account makes the whole judging power present to each member. References: VII.5.3. See Pain, location and reporting.