Numero innumerabiles: Francesco Patrizi on the History of Aristotelian Philosophy

• In Event: Philosophy and Literature in Italy: Ficino, Patrizi, Alberti

Abstract

In his violently anti-Aristotelian "Discussiones peripateticae", Patrizi set out to demolish every aspect of Peripatetic philosophy by showing that it was derivative, inconsistent, or downright foolish. Patrizi's learned exposition of the history of Aristotelian philosophy aims to show that hardly any progress has ben made in the business of explaining Aristotles's texts up to his own day. The paper will try to illustrate how Patrizi's presentation of the history of philosophy becomes itself trans-historical philosophy by trying to demolish the very object of its study.

Author

• Luc Deitz, Bibliothéque nationale de Luxembourg