Valentina Zaffino

"Totum et unum" propone un'indagine sulle fonti antiche del pensiero di Giordano Bruno, mettendo in luce la derivazione classica del monismo dell'autore. Bruno, opponendosi ad Aristotele, descrive il principio divino come immanente alla materia e sostiene la tesi dell'unità assoluta del Tutto, che è uno, immobile, immutabile ed eterno in se stesso, ma mutevole e corruttibile nelle forme accidentali di cui si compone. Riprendendo il pensiero dei presocratici, la cosmo-logia platonica e l'henologia plotiniana, Bruno afferma che la materia è animata dal principio vitale in essa stessa contenuto. Pertanto non esistono dualità, ma i contrari coincidono tra loro e si completano nell'unità del reale.

V. Zaffino, Per una rilettura delle categorie rinascimentali. Werner Beierwaltes e la questione sull’uomo, in M. Marianelli, L. Mauro, M. Moschini, G. d’Anna (ed.), Anima, corpo, relazioni. Storia della filosofia da una prospettiva antropologica, vol. II Filosofia Moderna, Città Nuova, Roma, 2023, pp. 85-88

This paper examines whether Giordano Bruno’s philosophy should be considered pantheist or immanentist—two philosophies that scholars regard as partly equivalent. However, this paper distinguishes them and argues that Bruno either identified the whole of nature with God or recognized a primary principle that is immanent, yet distinguishable, from matter. In terms of Bruno’s interpretation of the Aristotelian notions of form and matter, the difference between an immanentist view and a pantheist one lies in the role that form (or act) assumes with regard to matter (or potency). This paper maintains that Bruno interpreted and adapted Aristotle’s philosophy to find his own immanentist metaphysics, which is built on the traditional Aristotelian system. This argument was based on the reconstruction of how he used Aristotelian thought as an instrument to subvert Aristotelianism. In particular, Bruno attested that intellect exists within nature, but it is not co-extensive with the whole nature. Finally, the paper highlights how Bruno applied Aristotle’s language, method, and themes to criticize the fundamentals of Aristotelian philosophy and the related traditions.

Marsilio Ficino and the Anti-­Averroist Debate on Providence. This article
aims to reconstruct Aristotle’s influence on Marsilio Ficino’s Theologia Platonica, focusing especially on the theme of providence. First, it highlights the “platonization” that Aristotelianism underwent during the 15th century, not least at the hands of Ficino himself. Despite Averroes’ misguided interpretation of various Aristotelian treatises, Ficino nonetheless countenanced the possibility of philosophical harmony between Plato and Aristotle, although the latter had a propaedeutic function with respect to the study of the former. Second, this article focuses on the notion of providence, at least as it was understood by Ficino. Therefore, the research considers how in explicit reference to the pseudo-­Aristotelian treatise De mundo, Ficino credited Aristotle with a
providentialist theory, accepting a thesis which during the Renaissance was believed to be Aristotelian. Ficino’s acceptance and reinterpretation of this position is here investigated in detail.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the influence of Plato’s Timaeus on Giordano Bruno’s philosophy of nature, also considering the Late Ancient tradition and Renaissance Hermetism. Moreover, the importance of such influence will be studied with regard to Bruno’s anti-Aristotelian issues of matter and of the infinity of worlds. In particular, Bruno declares to deduce from Timaeus of Locri and from Plato the theory of the continuous and mutual transmutation of the elements and the theory of homogeneity of matter. Furthermore, according to Neoplatonic tradition, Giordano Bruno attests that Plato admitted a multiplicity of worlds, and Bruno finds in the Timaeus an important source for a pluralistic cosmology; as a consequence of this, he will claim his theory of the existence of an infinite number of infinite universes.

Key words: Giordano Bruno, Timaeus, matter, form, causes, cosmos.

Il Commento alla Fisica di Aristotele è un trattato di Giordano Bruno di estremo interesse per ben comprendere i caratteri dell’antiaristotelismo dell’autore. Soffermandoci sul concetto di physis, intendiamo rintracciare i motivi di originalità dell’interpretazione bruniana della filosofia naturale aristotelica e le fonti neoplatoniche di questa posizione. Bruno riprende la quadripartizione delle cause, affermando che la natura è, al contempo, principio, scopo, motore ed elemento di tutte le cose. Nello specifico, essa è principio materiale, immanente agli enti che genera. A fronte di una parziale ripresa della trattazione aristotelica, riscontriamo che la peculiarità di Bruno consiste nel definire la materia e la forma come le due species della natura e nel sostenere il primato ontologico della prima sulla seconda. Infatti, poiché la materia è potenza assoluta e atto assoluto, non differisce dalla forma; così la materia non viene divinizzata dall’azione di una causa efficiente, bensì è essa stessa intrinsecamente divina.

The Commentary on Aristotle’s Physics, written by Giordano Bruno, is extremely important to understand Author’s Aristotelianism. Focusing on the concept of physis, we aim to identify the originality of Bruno’s interpretation about Aristotle’s natural philosophy and the Neoplatonic sources of it. Bruno assumes the Aristotelian theory of the four causes, asserting that nature is principle, purpose, mover and element of all things. In particular, it is material principle, immanent to generated beings. Despite the Aristotelian background of Bruno’s discussion, his peculiar approach consists in defining matter and form as the two species of the nature and in asserting the ontological primacy of matters against form. For, since matter is absolute potentiality and actuality, it is not different from the form; as a consequence, matter does not become divine by means of an external efficient cause, but matter is divine as such.

7th Conference of Foro di Studi Avanzati “Gaetano Massa” – Forum of Advanced Studies “Gaetano Massa” – Foro de Estudios Avanzados “Gaetano Massa” – “Renaissance, Ancient, Medieval, and Modern Patterns – Filosofia, Teologia, Estetica e Religione tra Antichità e Rinascimento – Filosofia, Teologia, Estetica y Religion de la Entiguedad al Renacimiento”
Roma, May 2022

http://lumenchristi.org/event/2020/07/giordano-bruno-poetry-of-cosmos
A webinar lecture with Valentina Zaffino (Pontifical Lateran University; Rome Global Gateway, University of Notre Dame). Part of our summer webinar series on "Reason and Beauty in Renaissance Christian Thought and Culture," presented in collaboration with the American Cusanus Society. Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, and cosmologist. Bruno’s notoriety is due both to his adventurous life and to his original reinterpretation of ancient thought in light of the new philosophical scenario. Valentina Zaffino will analyze Bruno’s image of the cosmos, focusing on his remodeled Neoplatonic background. In this context, as will be shown, the notions of harmony and beauty are closely related with Bruno’s fascinating claim of the infinity of the cosmos.