DiotimosReading Desk

Learning memory reflection and moral formation

Teaching without loss

docere; oblivisci; transitus; ratio artificiosa; rationum coetus; separari

Docere is to teach; oblivisci to forget; transitus a passage or transfer.

From the book

Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II

Marsilio Ficino · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordDocere is to teach; oblivisci to forget; transitus a passage or transfer.
  • In the Platonic TheologyV.15.15 asks where rational art would go if it separated from its living subject.
  • In this editionThe English “structured reason” for ratio artificiosa emphasizes ordered skill, not artificial falsity.
  • A place to readThe example belongs to one member of the larger three-way division.

Meaning

Docere is to teach; oblivisci to forget; transitus a passage or transfer. The relevant contrast is between communicating knowledge and relocating a finite item so that its former possessor loses it.

Use in the book

V.15.15 asks where rational art would go if it separated from its living subject. It cannot be nowhere, given the assumed permanence of its principles, nor in something lifeless, since life is said to ground reason. If it passed from one life to another, teaching would be the best candidate for such transfer.

But the teacher does not forget a truth by teaching it. Ficino takes this to show that the rational art does not travel out of one soul into another in the manner of a material object handed over. The image supplies an accessible test within the argument for inseparability. It is not the trivial claim that nobody ever forgets anything after giving a lesson; the asserted causal relation is that communicating a truth does not itself consume the teacher’s possession.

The conclusion serves the first of V.15.12’s alternatives, where principles are in the mind. V.15.17 explicitly moves to the others. This local role matters: the example supports immaterial communication and an enduring subject rather than establishing, by itself, the entire proof of immortality.

Places to read

  1. V.15.12, V.15.17The example belongs to one member of the larger three-way division.
  2. V.15.15, V.15.16Teaching without forgetfulness tests transfer and supports inseparable rational art.

Translation in this edition

The English “structured reason” for ratio artificiosa emphasizes ordered skill, not artificial falsity. No external pedagogical theory is required to follow the example; its force lies in the difference between sharing and losing.

docere

docere. Printed forms: docendo; docet.

To teach or communicate understanding to another. Teaching does not itself make the teacher forget, so the principles do not relocate away from their original living subject. References: V.15.15. See Teaching without loss.

oblivisci

oblivisci. Printed forms: obliviscitur.

To forget. The denial concerns loss caused by the act of teaching, not an assertion that no person ever forgets any fact. References: V.15.15. See Teaching without loss.

transitus

transitus. Printed forms: transit; transitus.

Passage or transfer from one bearer to another. Ficino tests but rejects a material-style transfer of rational art from one life to another through teaching. References: V.15.15. See Teaching without loss.