Temperament and harmony

Use in the book

V.15.8 attributes to Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus the view that true life is bodily temperament or something consequent upon it. Ficino rejects this through the mind’s purported capacity to withdraw attention from sense and become more effective at understanding unchangeable objects. A form wholly dependent on a bodily subject could not improve by turning from that very subject.

The next step contrasts a composite accident, the harmony of humors, with the principles of simple substances. If soul were merely the harmony, Ficino argues, it could not know, desire and grasp those principles. V.15.12–1723456 then tests three possible relations between mind and intelligibles rather than assuming one arrangement throughout: principles in mind, mind in principles, or both self-subsisting. Each is used to resist material-temperament identity.

V.15.18 adds a practical contrast. Mind may be disordered in thought or conduct while the body is harmonious, or harmonious while the body is disordered. The closing verbal play says anyone missing the distinction is out of harmony with truth. This is both an argument and rhetoric; it should not be turned into a clinical rule that mental state is never affected by bodily illness.

The crucial target is identity or total dependence, not every correlation of body and mind. Earlier V.3 expressly allows affection of the soul’s operative faculty.

Places to read

1. V.15.8, V.15.9, V.15.10The reported temperament theory faces withdrawal and simple-object arguments.
2. V.15.12, V.15.13, V.15.16, V.15.17Three relations to intelligibles exclude reduction to bodily harmony.
3. V.15.18Mental and bodily concord can vary independently in Ficino’s counterexample.

Translation in this edition

The edition’s “bodily constitution” for complexio prevents a modern color-of-skin reading. Its musical vocabulary retains the consonare/dissonare play. The claims belong to Ficino’s historical philosophical physiology and are not contemporary medical advice.

Aristoxenus / Dicaearchus

Aristoxenus / Dicaearchus. Printed forms: Aristoxenus; Dicaearchus.

The named proponents of life as temperament or something following temperament in Ficino's report. The subsequent withdrawal and intelligible-principles arguments target this reduction of soul to bodily mixture. References: V.15.8. See Temperament and harmony.

commixtio

commixtio. Printed forms: commixtione.

Mixture or blending, the constitution of the body from four natures in the historical model. A mixture-dependent form cannot, Ficino argues, turn away from its own material subject to grasp immaterial principles. References: V.15.10. See Temperament and harmony.

consonantia / harmonia

consonantia / harmonia. Printed forms: consonantia; harmonia; harmoniae.

Concord or harmony, used as a proposed bodily explanation of mind. The argument tests its dependence on mutable body, then contrasts bodily and mental concord in experience. References: V.15.10, V.15.12, V.15.16, V.15.18. See Temperament and harmony.

consonare / dissonare

consonare / dissonare. Printed forms: consonante; consonet; dissonante; dissonat; dissonet.

To be in harmony or discord, used of body, mind and agreement with truth. Their cross-combinations resist reducing mental order to bodily order and produce the paragraph's closing wordplay. References: V.15.18. See Temperament and harmony.

consuetudo

consuetudo. Printed forms: consuetudine; consuetudine in hanc sententiam compulsos; consuetudinem.

Familiarity or habitual association. Bodily familiarity can distract attention; withdrawal from it is used as evidence against identity with bodily temperament. References: V.14.2, V.15.9. See Temperament and harmony.

Long habit or familiarity that shapes judgement. Ficino attributes corporealist conviction to bodily habituation rather than rational persuasion. References: VI.2.1, VI.2.10. See Habit, purification and intellectual experiment.

humores

humores. Printed forms: humorum.

Bodily humors, whose concord constitutes a physiological mixture in the reported account. Their harmony is classified as a composite accident, contrasted with the simple principles understood by mind. References: V.15.10. See Temperament and harmony.

mancipare

mancipare. Printed forms: mancipatus.

To enslave or subject as under another's ownership. Mind is denied to be enslaved to bodily harmony when its relation to intelligibles is considered. References: V.15.12. See Temperament and harmony.

temperatio / complexio

temperatio / complexio. Printed forms: complexione; complexionem; temperatio; temperationem; temperationi.

Bodily temperament or constitution formed from mixture. Ficino denies that rational mind is identical with this bodily organization or wholly dependent upon it. References: V.8.1, V.15.8, V.15.9, V.15.10, V.15.17, V.15.18. See Temperament and harmony.

Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus (authorities and interlocutors)

Aristoxenus and Dicaearchus. Ficino reports their account of life as a bodily temperament. Aristoxenus also figures in the classification of dependent soul-principles and in the later musical-harmony objection. The rejection concerns harmony as the sufficient producer or identity of soul. References: V.15.8, VI.1.5, VII.10.1. See Temperament and harmony; Constitution, localized point and harmony; Harmony and the strings.