The Concept of Contraction in Giordano Bruno's Philosophy

by Catana,Leo

• ISBN13: 9780754652618
• ISBN10: 0754652610
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-10-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Through the concept of contraction, Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) endeavoured to explain the relationship of God to his Creation in a way that conformed with his pantheistic view of nature as well as his heterodox view of man's relationship to God. The concept of contraction is twofold. In the ontological sense it denotes the way in which the One, or God, descends to multiplicity. In the noetic sense it accounts for the ways in which the individual human soul ascends towards God through a reversed process of contemplation. Bruno denied the efficacy of the several psychical, psychological and medical states traditionally thought to aid contemplation and noetic ascent towards God. In his view the only means was philosophical contemplation, the use of memory being one important form. Philosophical contemplation elevated the mind from the fragmented multiplicity of sense impressions to an understanding of the principles governing the sensible world. This publication is the first book-length study dedicated to concept of contraction in Bruno's philosophy. Moreover, it explores his sources for this concept. Traditionally Ficino's translation of Plotinus, dating from the second half of the fifteenth century, has been seen as a key source to the Neoplatonism informing Bruno's philosophy. In The Concept of Contraction in Giordano Bruno's Philosophy another Neoplatonic source is considered, namely the pseudo-Aristotelian Liber de Causis (Book of causes), which has not yet been examined in the context of Renaissance Neoplatonism. This work, probably written in Arabic in the ninth century, was translated into Latin in the twelfth century and remained well known to many late Medieval and Renaissance philosophers. Catana argues that this work may have prepared for Ficino's translation of Plotinus, and that in some instances it provided a common source to Renaissance philosophers, Bruno and Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) being conspicuous examples discussed in this book. The role of the Liber de Causis in the thought of Bruno and other Renaissance philosophers leads us to reevaluate our interpretation of the relationship between late Medieval and Renaissance Neoplatonism.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
Abbreviations	ix
Citations	x
Introduction	1	(6)
Part One Bruno's Concept of Contraction
Methods Facilitating Noetic Ascent
Bruno on heroic ascent	7	(1)
The fifteen contractions in the Sigillus sigillorum	8	(15)
Contraction produced by solitude	8	(1)
Contraction produced by restricting imagination to a place	9	(1)
Contraction of the horizon into the centre	10	(3)
Contraction producing divine dreams, visions and revelations	13	(1)
Contraction produced by faith	14	(3)
Contraction produced by filial piety	17	(1)
Contraction produced by fear	17	(1)
Contraction of spiritus produced by fear	18	(1)
Contraction produced by an intensity of desire	19	(1)
Contraction produced by restriction of number of sense organs used	19	(1)
Contraction produced by melancholy	19	(1)
Contraction produced by starvation	20	(1)
Contraction producing levitation	21	(1)
Contraction produced by malnutrition	22	(1)
Contraction practised by philosophers	23	(1)
Heroic practice in the fifteen contractions and its theory	23	(2)
The double contraction	25	(4)
Contraction as an Ontological Concept
Bruno's discussion of ontological contraction	29	(1)
The metaphysical context of contraction	30	(5)
The World Soul	35	(4)
Matter	39	(8)
Sources for Bruno's concept of matter	40	(4)
Contraction produced by matter	44	(2)
The cosmological role of contraction produced by matter	46	(1)
Coincidence of opposites	47	(3)
Contraction and Noesis
What is contraction produced by noetic ascent?	50	(2)
Philosophical anthropology and contraction by noetic ascent	52	(2)
Abstraction and intention	54	(7)
Abstraction through ``ten or twelve determinata''	55	(3)
Intention	58	(3)
Contraction in the Eroici furori	61	(3)
Bruno's criticism of noesis induced by melancholy: its consequences for love poetry and religion	64	(5)
Contraction and Memory
Interpretations of Bruno's idea of memory	69	(2)
Plotinus' discussion of Aristotle's doctrine on memory	71	(2)
Plotinus on the twofold memory	73	(4)
Bruno's stance towards Aristotle's and Plotinus' theories of memory	77	(3)
Bruno's use of Plotinus' idea on noetic ascent through memory	80	(2)
Bruno's treatment of the Golden Chain	82	(9)
Part Two Sources of Bruno's Concept of Contraction
Physiologically Induced Contraction
Ficino's notion of physiologically induced contraction	91	(4)
Bruno's criticism of physiologically induced contraction	95	(3)
Interpretations of Bruno's fifteen contractions in the Sigillus sigillorum	98	(5)
The Scholastic Tradition of Contraction
The reception of the Liber de causis in the Renaissance	103	(5)
How could Bruno have been introduced to the works of Giles of Rome?	108	(2)
The doctrines of the Liber de causis and Bruno's philosophy	110	(8)
Primary and secondary causes	110	(1)
Hypostases and the distinction between eternity and time	111	(3)
Substance	114	(1)
Higher and lower intelligences	115	(2)
Contraction	117	(1)
Essence contracted into existence	118	(7)
Pseudo-Henry	118	(1)
Aquinas	119	(3)
Giles	122	(2)
Pico	124	(1)
Bruno	124	(1)
Superior intelligences contracted into inferior intelligences	125	(2)
Matter contracted by form	127	(2)
Matter and form contracted interdependently	129	(3)
Conclusion	132	(3)
Cusanus and the Scholastic Tradition of Contraction
Interpretations of the relationship between Cusanus and Bruno	135	(3)
Bruno's explicit references to Cusanus	138	(3)
Cusanus and the scholastic tradition of contraction	141	(9)
Cusanus' contribution to Bruno's concept of contraction	150	(2)
Cusanus' Christology	152	(3)
Bruno's criticism of orthodox Christology	155	(2)
Conclusion	157	(3)
Bibliography	160	(23)
Index of Primary Sources	183	(20)
Index of Names	203