Permanence and the hour test · Lexicon

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordPermanere remains or persists; perdurare endures; perseverare continues.
In the Platonic TheologyFicino reports a Platonist interrogation of the claim that a fully developed bodily condition stays unchanged for an hour.
In this edition“Stand unchanged” often makes the local stare clearer than bare “stand.”
A place to readThe hour and half-hour dilemma concerns unchanged bodily power

Meaning

Permanere remains or persists; perdurare endures; perseverare continues. Stare in this argument is to stand unchanged, not merely occupy an upright posture. Complexio is bodily constitution or temperament. The relevant sameness concerns the constitution’s power, not simply an observer’s ability to keep giving it the same name.

Use in the book

Ficino reports a Platonist interrogation of the claim that a fully developed bodily condition stays unchanged for an hour. If its power differs at the end, it did not remain unchanged. If it is equal, equal powers produce equal effects, so it should last another hour, and the same reasoning repeats. Since bodily constitutions do not persist forever, the argument denies a completely stable interval. Its purpose is to support quality’s lack of sufficient independent activity and to locate the needed stability in a higher cause. The test relies on the premise that the same power must yield the same persistence; it should be presented as Ficino’s reasoning rather than a directly observed measurement of continuous change. Book I later insists that motion nevertheless requires some persisting subject and a stable ordering power. The two passages distinguish changing bodily states from their underlying and causal continuities.

Places to read

I.4.2The hour and half-hour dilemma concerns unchanged bodily power
I.5.1Soul’s stable essence is distinguished from successive activity
I.5.7–92 3Change requires a persisting subject and regularity in motion

Translation in this edition

“Stand unchanged” often makes the local stare clearer than bare “stand.” The phrase vix momentum is “scarcely a moment,” not a measured minimum duration. The argument’s hour is a hypothetical test interval.

adultus / affectio corporis

adultus / affectio corporis. Printed forms: adultam; affectio corporis.

A fully developed bodily condition. The hour test begins with a mature condition, not merely one still developing; the adjective is a supplied source-correction noted in the apparatus. References: I.4.2. See Permanence and the hour test.

hora / par / impar

hora / par / impar. Printed forms: hora; impar; par.

Hour, equal and unequal. The repeated question compares a condition’s power at the beginning and end of a hypothetical interval to test complete persistence. References: I.4.2. See Permanence and the hour test.

incipio / desino

incipio / desino. Printed forms: desinunt; incipiunt.

To begin and end. The claim that bodily conditions scarcely persist is used to deny their full independent act of existing and acting. References: I.4.2. See Permanence and the hour test.

permaneo / perduro / persevero

permaneo / perduro / persevero. Printed forms: perdurabit; permansisse; perseverant.

To remain, endure and continue. The hour argument concerns wholly unchanged power, not merely everyday continuity of a body under changing states. References: I.4.2. See Permanence and the hour test.