Vital motion, action and passion

Use in the book

After answering the integrated-whole objection, Ficino clarifies what psychic self-motion means. It is not soul acting upon itself and being acted upon as distinct poles of a transitive event. Motio here is the natural alternation of its essence through successive affections, with no other thing pushing it along. Fire’s being hot provides the comparison: it is hot without an external heater or one part donating heat to another. The comparison concerns intrinsic exercise, not a claim that soul is literal fire.

The causal argument then distinguishes an agent’s act within itself from its communication of act. If soul gives the animal power to pass from rest into activity, it must exercise that vital progression first and more fully in itself. Heat is hot before heating another matter; animate bodies conceive within themselves before bringing forth offspring. Causal priority and the temporal imagery of generation support the claim that the source possesses what it communicates. Soul’s own unfolding from potency into act is consequently called self-motion, without making it the creator of its previously absent essence.

VI.12.11 explicitly attributes to the Platonists the distinction between action and passion. Motion in soul is action because it occurs in its source and forms and moves body. In body the movement is received and therefore passion. The relation is extended to universal soul and the world’s body without turning cosmic matter into a primary self-mover. “Perfect” and “imperfect” in this comparison describe source and derivative activity within the genus of motion. They do not imply that every human judgement is infallible.

Asked by what kind of motion the soul is chiefly moved, the Platonists answer neither a corporeal motion, nor an imaginable motion, nor a cognitive motion, but one according to vital essence. The reasons correspond to the exclusions: soul is incorporeal, lacks bodily figure, and, in the source’s stark wording, “does not know itself.” The account must retain that last phrase rather than silently making primary life continuous reflective consciousness. It immediately goes on to contrast mind in potency with life in act. Particular understanding is not always being exercised, whereas the essence lives throughout. Particular vital powers and acts can also vary, lapse or go astray while the soul remains alive.

This resolves the apparent contradiction that soul is always moved and not always moved. Essential vital actuality persists; intellectual and other determinate operations need not. The distinction is among essence, powers and acts, not among several separate souls. It also means that “perfect motion at its source” cannot be translated as every operation always correctly performed. The later catalogue includes explicit reflection on oneself as one psychic activity, so the local denial of cognitive primary motion should not be generalized into a denial of every possible self-knowledge throughout the work.

The expression “life generating and producing itself” is introduced as the Platonists’ own wording and read through this inward vital unfolding. It does not retract VI.1.6’s incorporeal producer. Nor is it identical with the finite self-generation rejected in VI.12.14, which would require the same thing both to possess and lack the being it creates and to precede itself as its own begetter. VI.12.20’s further qualifications concerning psychic generation and corruption likewise prevent a literal contradiction. The unresolved interpretive pressure of non cognitivo, ignorat enim se ipsam remains visible, but its immediate context supplies a disciplined limit on both overconfident self-transparency and overconfident denial of self-awareness.

Places to read

1. VI.12.10Self-motion is natural succession rather than transitive self-affection.
2. VI.12.11Action in soul and passion in body establish causal asymmetry.
3. VI.12.12Essential vital activity is distinguished from intermittent and fallible powers and acts.

Translation in this edition

“Life generating and producing itself” is introduced as the Platonists’ words. The edition keeps the difficult non cognitivo, ignorat enim se ipsam without doctrinal expansion. Read it with the immediate contrast between life in act and mind in potency, rather than silently replacing it with a thesis of uninterrupted reflective consciousness.

actio; passio

actio; passio. Printed forms: actione; actionem; passionem.

Activity in its source and movement received in body. The Platonists distinguish these causal roles and extend them to universal soul and the world’s body. References: VI.12.11. See Vital motion, action and passion.

adventitius

adventitius. Printed forms: adventitiam; ex se ipsa possidet vitam.

Added or received from outside, contrasted with life possessed through oneself. The passage describes life as intrinsic to soul’s nature without retracting its dependence on an incorporeal producer. References: VI.12.12. See Vital motion, action and passion.

agens; patiens

agens; patiens. Printed forms: ab agente in patiens; agat et patiatur.

Agent and recipient in a transitive causal passage. Ficino denies that psychic self-motion requires acting upon oneself in this manner. References: VI.12.10. See Vital motion, action and passion.

anima universalis

anima universalis. Printed forms: animae universalis; universi corporis.

Universal soul and the body of the universe. The analogy scales the action/passion distinction to the cosmos while keeping the two distinct. References: VI.12.11. See Vital motion, action and passion.

ex otio in actum

ex otio in actum. Printed forms: a potentia in actum; ex otio in actum.

From rest into activity; from potentiality into act. Soul must first exercise inwardly the vital progression it communicates to the animal. References: VI.12.10. See Vital motion, action and passion.

ignorare se ipsam

ignorare se ipsam. Printed forms: ignorat enim se ipsam.

It does not know itself, the text’s stated reason for excluding cognitive primary motion. The phrase is preserved without silently adding uninterrupted self-awareness; the following contrast concerns essential life and intermittent cognition. References: VI.12.12. See Vital motion, action and passion.

intermittere; aberrare

intermittere; aberrare. Printed forms: aberrare; intermitti.

To be interrupted and to go astray. These possibilities apply to powers and acts while the essence’s vital activity continues. References: VI.12.12. See Vital motion, action and passion.

motus vitalis

motus vitalis. Printed forms: motu secundum essentiam vitalem; non intellectuali; sed vitali.

Motion belonging to the essence as life, rather than continuous thought. Essential living persists while cognitive and other powers may lapse or err. References: VI.12.12. See Vital motion, action and passion.

operatio; actus

operatio; actus. Printed forms: actu; actum; actus; operatio; operationem; operationes; operationum.

Operation and act or actuality, distinguishable from the essence and power producing them. Some acts occur successively or lapse while essential vital actuality remains; the movement from potency to act must not be equated with adding a physical piece. References: VI.2.12, VI.4.6, VI.7.1, VI.9.2, VI.12.12. See Vital motion, action and passion.

per se; quodammodo; proprie

per se; quodammodo; proprie. Printed forms: ceu; per se; proprie; quasi; quodammodo; revera; tamquam.

Through oneself, in a qualified manner, properly, in truth and as if: markers of mode and qualification. Ficino distinguishes primary self-motion from bodily apparent self-motion and analogies from literal identity; these small modifiers carry the limit of the claim. References: VI.1.5, VI.2.9, VI.5.4, VI.12.8, VI.12.20. See Vital motion, action and passion.

semper; numquam; saepe; quandoque

semper; numquam; saepe; quandoque. Printed forms: aliquando; diu; diutissime; numquam; quandoque; saepe; saepenumero; semper; umquam.

Always, never, often, sometimes and for a long time: scope of a temporal claim. The essential life always present differs from thought sometimes exercised, while ordinary persistence over time is not identical with absolute immutability. References: VI.2.1, VI.2.7, VI.2.10, VI.2.16, VI.12.12, VI.13.6, VI.13.9. See Vital motion, action and passion.

turgere; concipere; edere

turgere; concipere; edere. Printed forms: concipiunt; partus edant; turgent.

To swell with seed, conceive and bring forth offspring. The birth sequence illustrates a cause’s prior internal unfolding before its outward effect, not creation of soul’s essence by itself. References: VI.12.10. See Vital motion, action and passion.

vicissitudo; vices

vicissitudo; vices. Printed forms: affectionum variat vices; naturalem essentiae illius vicissitudinem.

Natural alternation of essence in successive affections. Self-motion names soul’s inward unfolding, without a separate agent pushing a recipient part. References: VI.12.10. See Vital motion, action and passion.

vita se generans

vita se generans. Printed forms: anima est vita se generans et producens.

Soul as life generating and producing itself, in the reported Platonist formulation. Read with inward vital progression, not as a finite thing creating its own previously absent being. References: VI.12.12. See Vital motion, action and passion.