Pomponazzi, Pietro

He was born in a noble family of Mantua in the city ​​of Padova , studied at the University of Padua , and then taught there. Since 1512 he taught at the University of Bologna ^[1] .

The concept of two truths

He was more interested in Aristotle, read through the prism of not Thomas Aquinas, but Averroes . Aristotleism Pietro Pomponazzi was more heretical than Catholic, although Aristotle himself and Averroes Pomponazzi quite freely interpret.

From the averroists, Pomponazzi borrows the concept of two truths : there is the truth of philosophy and there is the truth of religion. The truth of philosophy is the truth of reason (and not the truth of Aristotle, Pomponazzi emphasizes), and the truth of religion is not a philosophical truth, because religion contains neither truth nor lies, it serves for everyday needs, because the language of faith is the language of parables and morality. Therefore, the concept of dual truth turns into a concept according to which truth is contained only in philosophy. Philosophy is thus completely separated from a religion that does not deal with truth.

The treatise "On the Immortality of the Soul"

Immortality is interpreted in the spirit of Aristotle, or rather Averroes, although with some remarks. In the question of the immortality of the soul, two aspects should be distinguished: the question of knowledge and the question of morality. Since cognition, that is, thinking, depends on the body and “the soul does not experience anything without the body, the soul is the form of the body (in the spirit of Aristotle). Therefore, the mind is inseparable from the body, and the soul is material and mortal . "

In addition to the human soul, there are non-material, intelligent beings that are capable of cognition without a body, and there are animals, lower beings. Man is in the middle between non-material beings and animals. He can cognize both the particular, as animals, and the general, as intangible beings. A person can become one and the other - both an angel and an animal. But still the soul remains dependent on the body and mortal.

Selfless Morality

Due to the fact that the soul is mortal, then, according to Pomponazzi, morality not only does not disappear, but rather becomes morality itself. For morality, which is built in the hope of posthumous retribution, is not morality, but some form of egoism, the hope of receiving retribution for one's deed. Morality can only be moral when it does not count on anything. Morality is a virtuous deed directed at virtue itself. Therefore, belief in the immortality of the soul not only does not affirm morality, but, on the contrary, denies it, and Pomponazzi, denying the immortality of the soul, believes that he affirms higher morality.

These discussions of Pomponazzi already contain an application for "autonomous ethics", the idea of ​​which will then be developed by Immanuel Kant . By the way, in principle, Kant will not add anything new: he will find that an autonomous ethics built on the basis of “pure reason” is fundamentally incomplete, that is, unethical; for “practical philosophy” Kant will propose to complete it authoritarianly, accepting the dogmas of God, free will and the immortality of the soul. But thereby, this will mean that his ethics is no longer autonomous, and he did not go beyond the circle outlined by Pietro Pomponazzi.

God as Fatum

For the philosopher, the problem of justifying the evil existing in the world was insoluble. He argues this way: God either rules the world or does not rule. If He does not rule the world, then He is not God, but if he rules, then where does such cruelty come from? If God created everything and is the cause of every act, then why is man responsible for each specific sinful act, and not the real reason - not God? After all, it is God who ultimately persuades man to sin.

Pomponazzi sees the following way out: you do not need to imagine God as a person, because then God will be similar, in the words of Pomponazzi, to “crazy father”. God is fate, impersonal fatum (like in Machiavelli ), nature, the beginning of movement, therefore, He does not bear personal responsibility for the evil existing in the world. God does not have free will and therefore is not responsible for evil in the world.

Evil is a manifestation of contradictions in the world, and contradictions must exist in order for order to be in harmony. Therefore, evil exists to justify the whole, it is a necessary part of the good existing in the world. Religion, if necessary, is only to curb the common people as a form of self-comfort; for the philosopher, religious truth has no value.

Among the works of Pomponazzi ^[1] :

• De immortalite animae, 1516 ( On the immortality of the soul )
• Tractatus acuratissimi, itilissimi et mere peripatetici: De intensione et remissione formarum ac de parritate et magnitudine ..., 1525
• De naturalium effectuum causis, sive De incantationibus, 1556 ( On the causes of natural phenomena, or on sorcery )
• De fata, libera arbitrio et de praedestinatione, 1567 ( On Fatum, Free Will and Predestination )

Publications of works in Russian translation

• Pietro Pomponazzi. Treatises on the immortality of the soul. About the causes of natural phenomena or about sorcery. - M., 1990 .-- 312 p. - ISBN 5-7005-0019-1 .

• Mareeva E.V. Pietro Pomponazzi: at the origins of the cultural-historical methodology // Problems of Philosophy . - M., 2006. - No. 1. - S. 146-159.
• Reale D., Antiseri D. Pietro Pomponazzi and the debate about immortality. - In the book: Antiseri, D., Real D., Western Philosophy from the Origins to the Present. From rebirth to Kant. Translated and edited by Maltseva, S.A. SPb., 2002 .-- 880 p. - ISBN 5-901151-054 . - S. 59-63.

• Pomponazzi, Pietro - Biography. Bibliography. Philosophical views. Statements