Dialogues of Love

the intellect The OCR reads "letto," likely a partial transcription of l'intelletto (the intellect). judges a thing that is exactly as it judges it, and another that is not so; and since its office is to discern between the being Italian: essere. In this context, it refers to the actual existence or reality of a thing. of things and their non-being, it must know those things that are and those that are not. I would say, then, that love presupposes the knowledge of things that are, and desire presupposes the knowledge of those that are not, and those of which we are deprived.

PHI. Knowledge of the loved or desired thing as being good The "guise of good" (sub specie boni) is a central theme here: the idea that the will only pursues what the mind perceives as beneficial or beautiful, even if that perception is mistaken. precedes both love and desire. For neither of them should that knowledge be anything but good, because such knowledge would be the cause of making one totally abhor the thing known, and not desire or love it. Thus, love and desire equally presuppose the being of things, both in reality and in knowledge.

SO. If desire presupposed the being of things, it would follow that whenever we judge a thing to be good and desirable, such a judgment would always be true; but do you not see that many times it is false, and the thing is not found to be so in its being? It would seem, then, that desire does not always presuppose the being of the desired thing.

PHI. This very same defect you mention happens no less in love than in desire; for many times that thing which is esteemed good and lovable is actually bad Italian: gattiua (modern cattiva). and ought to be abhorred. And just as the truth of the judgment of things causes right and virtuous desires—from which derive all virtues, temperate acts, and praiseworthy works—so the falsehood of such judgment is the cause of bad desires and dishonest loves, from which all human vices and errors derive. Thus, the one as much as the other presupposes...