Receiving forms without losing one’s own

Use in the book

Water takes on fire's heat by relinquishing its own coldness. Where one bodily quality remains while another is introduced, its strength can decline: water mixed with wine preserves some sweetness but dilutes it. These examples establish the contrast between bodily reception and intellectual reception.

Mind receives the forms of bodies by knowing them without losing or weakening its own form. Indeed, it becomes more accomplished through their reception. Ficino identifies the natural form of intellect from its activity: its characteristic operation is understanding, and a more perfect understanding makes its intellectuality more evident. The forms of other things therefore perfect rather than replace its own nature.

The chapter adds that mind can penetrate substances, compose mixed objects from principles and resolve mixtures into their simpler constituents. It is said to be all things in each through knowledge while also standing beyond bodily things in order to distinguish them from incorporeals. This language of presence is cognitive and explanatory, not the claim that a thinker materially becomes every body in the world.

The resistance-to-destruction inference depends on that peculiar mode of receiving: an external body's contrary alteration cannot be assumed to describe what happens when mind knows it. The chapter's powerful conclusion remains part of Ficino's metaphysical argument, not a denial of fatigue or injury in embodied human experience.

Places to read

1. VIII.7.1Heated water and diluted wine contrast bodily replacement with perfected intellectual reception.
2. VIII.13.2Knowing water, fire and evils does not make mind materially water, fire or evil.

Translation in this edition

Ficino introduces intellectualitas with ut ita dixerim, “if I may speak so.” That modest lexical qualification is worth preserving. The forms “put on” and “put off” retain an image that a flat translation as “change” would lose.

accipere / suscipere

accipere / suscipere. Printed forms: accepta; acceptas; acceptis; accipiendo; Accipit; accipit; suscipi; suscipiat; suscipiendis; suscipit; suscipitur.

Receiving a form, whose result depends upon the recipient's mode of being. Water, mirror and intellect do not all receive in the same way; true intellectual reception need not change mind into a material object. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.2.8, VIII.4.1, VIII.4.5, VIII.7.1, VIII.13.1, VIII.13.2. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

amittere / deicere

amittere / deicere. Printed forms: amittere; amittit; deicitur.

Losing a form or being cast down from a settled state. Mind's reception of forms is argued to preserve its own nature, unlike heated water or a bodily recipient altered into something else. References: VIII.7.1, VIII.13.2. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

augere / augmentum / incrementum / decrementum

augere / augmentum / incrementum / decrementum. Printed forms: augent; auget; augetur; augmentum; decrementum; incremento; incrementum.

Increasing, increase and decrease, whose quantitative or intellectual mode must be distinguished. Adding homogeneous grains or drops changes amount, while receiving forms can increase intellectual perfection without making mind physically larger. References: VIII.2.3, VIII.2.5, VIII.2.8, VIII.3.6, VIII.4.3, VIII.16.1. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

corporeus / corporalis

corporeus / corporalis. Printed forms: corporali; corporalibus; corporalis; corporea; corporeum.

Bodily in being, location or mode of operation; the adjective's particular contrast must be supplied locally. Bodily nourishment, extended forms and corporeal reception are different applications of a shared material restriction, not interchangeable physical mechanisms. References: VIII.1.3, VIII.2.1, VIII.2.7, VIII.2.8, VIII.3.1, VIII.3.8, VIII.4.1, VIII.5.1, VIII.5.2, VIII.6.1, VIII.7.1, VIII.8.1, VIII.9.1, VIII.12.1, VIII.13.2, VIII.14.1. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

habere / possidere

habere / possidere. Printed forms: habeant; habeat; habebitur; habemus; habentur; habere; habet; habetur; habituram; possidet; possidetur.

Having or possessing, whose mode may be habitual, actual, cognitive or bodily. Possession of a form in mind need not be material containment; the virtue arguments also distinguish preparation from already having the completed quality. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.2.7, VIII.2.8, VIII.3.3, VIII.3.4, VIII.3.5, VIII.3.6, VIII.3.7, VIII.4.1, VIII.4.3, VIII.4.5, VIII.4.8, VIII.4.9, VIII.4.11, VIII.4.12, VIII.5.1, VIII.6.1, VIII.8.1, VIII.10.2, VIII.11.1, VIII.12.1, VIII.13.1, VIII.14.1, VIII.15.2, VIII.16.1, VIII.16.3, VIII.16.4. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

induere / exuere

induere / exuere. Printed forms: exuerit; exuit; induet; indui; induitur.

To put on and to take off, clothing metaphors for receiving or relinquishing a mode. Matter clothes itself in forms; the soul's supposed exchange of spiritual being is raised and rejected. References: V.4.4, V.11.7, V.13.12. See Spiritual matter and identity.

Putting on and taking off, the clothing verbs applied to bodily qualities. Water takes on heat by relinquishing coldness, establishing the contrast with mind's reception of forms without loss of its own nature. References: VIII.7.1. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

intellectualitas

intellectualitas. Printed forms: intellectualitas.

Natural intellectuality, a qualified name for intellect's own form. Its perfection is indicated by more accomplished understanding, so receiving more forms strengthens rather than replaces it. References: VIII.7.1. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

modus / pactum

modus / pactum. Printed forms: modo; modos; modum; modus; pacto.

Manner, mode or way; adverbial modo can also mean only or now, including repeated now-at-one-time/now-at-another alternatives. The comparison of bodily and intellectual reception depends on mode of operation. In VIII.2.3, modo... modo instead marks changing ease and difficulty of an art using its instruments; pacto names the way something occurs. References: VIII.1.1, VIII.1.2, VIII.1.5, VIII.2.3, VIII.2.4, VIII.2.8, VIII.3.1, VIII.3.4, VIII.3.6, VIII.3.8, VIII.4.3, VIII.4.4, VIII.4.6, VIII.4.9, VIII.4.11, VIII.4.13, VIII.6.1, VIII.7.1, VIII.10.1, VIII.10.2, VIII.12.1, VIII.13.1, VIII.13.2, VIII.14.1, VIII.15.1, VIII.16.1, VIII.16.2, VIII.16.3, VIII.16.4. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

permanere / manere / remanere

permanere / manere / remanere. Printed forms: manent; manet; permanens; permanere; remanente; remanet.

Remaining or persisting through an alteration of circumstance or possession. Art can remain while tools change, soul while virtue is absent, and forms together within mind without displacement. References: VIII.1.2, VIII.2.3, VIII.2.6, VIII.3.1, VIII.3.6, VIII.7.1. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

reddere

reddere. Printed forms: redderetur; reddit.

Making or rendering something a certain way, with the result specified by its complement. Bodily form makes a recipient materially like its source, while mind makes represented content simple or turns knowledge of evils into an intellectual good. References: VIII.13.1, VIII.13.2, VIII.16.2. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

remittere / perficere

remittere / perficere. Printed forms: perfecta; perfectior; perfectissima; perficit; remittit.

Weakening or bringing to greater perfection. Unlike a bodily mixture, intellectual reception need not lessen the recipient; it can increase the excellence of the mind's proper operation. References: VIII.7.1, VIII.13.2. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

secernere / discernere

secernere / discernere. Printed forms: discernere; Penetrat; secernere.

Separating, discriminating and penetrating into the substance of objects. Mind must distinguish bodily from incorporeal things to perform the comparison, supporting the claim that its mode is not merely bodily. References: VIII.7.1. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.

vinum / dulcedo / sapor

vinum / dulcedo / sapor. Printed forms: dulcedo; dulcis; sapor; vino.

Wine, sweetness and flavour in the example of dilution. Water mixed with wine can share sweetness while making the flavour weaker; cognitive reception instead improves intellectuality. References: VIII.7.1. See Receiving forms without losing one’s own.