Can Pomponazzian Anthropology be called Aristotelian? Interpretation and Overcoming of Aristotle's De anima in Pomponazzian Thought

Abstract

Official historiography places the Renaissance philosopher Pietro Pomponazzi in the vast and heterogeneous Aristotelian tradition. This position, which in principle is assumed to be truthful by philosophical historiography, however, seems inadequate at least as regards the anthropological aspects of Mantovano's reflection. Therefore, the purpose of this contribution is to show how the anthropology of De immortalitate animae (1516), far from being a faithful Aristotelian doctrine, is instead an original philosophical conception in all respects, although it is masked by its author and presented simply as 'correct interpretation of the Stagirita'. The reflection on the ambiguity and problematic nature of Aristotle's De anima will occupy a large part of the study, since it is precisely the "large mesh" structure of the Aristotelian treatise that has allowed for a rich proliferation of different interpretations which, in fact, were then transformed into real original anthropological doctrines (like that of Pomponazzi).