| This program is concerned with medieval, Renaissance and early modern conceptions of the relation between soul, mind and body as discussed in the commentary literature on Aristotle's De anima and in treatises closely related to this tradition. More particularly, it proposes to study the various transformations of the Aristotelian model of the mind-body relation (or soul-body, as Aristotle himself would have termed it), during the medieval and the Renaissance periods, and the rise of alternative conceptions in the seventeenth century. The different elements involved in this intricate process --(Neo-) Platonic, Stoic, sceptical, humanist, theological and medical -- will be taken into account. In addition, the program will explore how, and to what extent, the various explanations of the soul/mind-body union are related to the different positions in the methodological debate over the place and status of the science of the soul (scientia de anima): What kind of discipline is the science of the soul? What does it actually study? What method does it follow? It is quite obvious that the doctrinal debates over soul, mind and body and the methodological discussions over the place and status of the science of the soul were intimately connected throughout the period under consideration, but the precise nature of this connection is to a large extent unexplored. By investigating and comparing these two evidently related discussions in the De anima commentary tradition, the proposed research program will contribute to our knowledge of the historical background, in medieval, Renaissance and early modern philosophy, of today's mind-body problem. Moreover, it will elucidate a major puzzle within the historiography of the Aristotelian philosophical tradition, namely the precise relationship between scientific methodology and actual doctrinal development. Finally it will lead to a better understanding of the progressive emergence, out of the broader context of Aristotelian natural philosophy, of philosophical psychology as an independent discipline. |
