On the Immortality of the Soul

A digression on the immortality of the soul,

extracted from the Commentaries of Gianfrancesco

Pico della Mirandola, Lord and Count of Concordia,

on the Third Book of Aristotle’s De Anima.

Large ornamental woodcut initial 'L' featuring intricate foliate and floral patterns within a square frame.

What is to be done in this digression, and in what order.

THE POINT AT WHICH we have arrived seems to advise us that, departing from the exposition of the Aristotelian text, we should discourse upon the immortality of the soul; and that we should investigate what Aristotle thought concerning it, by the authority of his disciples and interpreters, and especially of the Greeks. For many attempt, from one side and the other, both to undermine and to fortify the common and proper reasons by which the immortality of the soul is usually established, as well as those by which mortality is accustomed to be asserted by some—according to the diverse inclination of their genius, their diverse study, and their diverse use of distinguishing terms. And each of the adversaries strives to the best of his power to draw Aristotle to his own opinion, however unwilling and reluctant he may be. But this is not the path of true and sincere philosophizing, nor the manner of seeking and holding the truth. I shall perhaps seem, therefore, to have performed a worthwhile task, first, by gathering into one both the very reasons by which almost everyone is accustomed separately to establish the immortality of the soul, and likewise those from which, on the contrary, mortality is usually inferred, and by refuting them in few words. For it is more fitting to touch upon and indicate these things than to explain them at length, lest I seem at once to redo what has been done, and yet to pass over in silence those things which have been brought into controversy by others. Then, we shall endeavor to bring forward the words of Aristotle and their reasons, and the authorities of the philosophers who were of great name in the Peripatetic family, so that it may be clear to those who do not know Greek, and placed beyond all controversy, that it was judged by the ancient Peripatetics that Aristotle thought concerning the immortality of the soul—