PhilosophersMarsile Ficin

Marsile Ficin

Translated Plato for Europe and made love a desire for beauty that rises from the body to God.

Platonism1433 · 1499 ItalyFigline Valdarno (near Florence)

Life

Italian philosopher and priest (1433-1499), leader of the Platonic Academy of Florence under Medici patronage. He translated Plato's works into Latin (printed in 1484), the Corpus Hermeticum and Plotinus, making Platonism available to Renaissance Europe. He makes love a desire for beauty that lifts the soul from the body to God, and defends the immortality of the soul.

Main works

1484

Commentary on Plato's Symposium (De amore)

Love is the desire for beauty that lifts the soul to God: the origin of 'platonic love'.

1482

Platonic Theology

A demonstration of the soul's immortality through Platonic philosophy.

1476

On the Christian Religion

He reconciles Plato's wisdom with the Christian faith.

Positions

click a row to see the evidence

Does God exist?God

AtheismTheism

Stated

God is the first and highest good, and the soul finds rest only in him.

Ficino, Theologia Platonica (1482)

Where does knowledge come from?Source of knowledge

Empiricism (from experience)Rationalism (from reason)

Interpretation

As a Platonist, he holds that the mind knows by ideas it carries within, which the senses only awaken.

Ficino, Theologia Platonica (1482)

Is the mind more than matter?Mind and body

MaterialismDualism

Stated

The soul is immortal and immaterial, the link between the sensible and the divine.

Ficino, Theologia Platonica (1482)

Can reason judge everything, faith included?Faith and reason

Primacy of faith / the heartReason alone judges

Interpretation

Platonic philosophy and Christian faith are two paths to the same truth, so he harmonizes them.

Ficino, De christiana religione (1474)

Does life have a given meaning?Meaning of life

No given meaning (absurd, to be created)Objective meaning (nature, God, the Good)

Interpretation

Human life has a given aim: the soul's ascent through love of beauty up to God.

Ficino, Commentary on Plato's Symposium (1469)

Similar and opposite philosophers

how it is computed

Closest

Boèce God sees everything in an eternal present: knowing what we will do does not force us to do it.

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet Bishop and orator, he reads universal history as the work of Providence guiding the empires.

Moses Maimonides Jewish physician and philosopher: of God we can say only what he is not, and the finest praise is silence.

Alexander Pruss Philosopher and mathematician who defends the principle of sufficient reason and cosmological arguments.

Furthest

Richard Rorty Talk of sensations might one day disappear, replaced by the language of neuroscience.

Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach Man is part of nature: everything in him is necessary; freedom is an illusion.

Argument

Love is the desire for beauty, and it rests only in GodMarsile Ficin · 1469

What is love?An ascent to beauty 3