Atoms and Material Activity: The Innovation of Giordano Bruno’s Natural Philosophy

• In Event: Natural Philosophy and Astrology in the Renaissance

Abstract

One of the main innovations Giordano Bruno introduces into Aristotle’s natural philosophy is to endow matter with activity. For Aristotle, matter is only the substratum of ‘substantial becoming’, the passive principle of that process by which natural beings come to be and pass away; the active principle of this process is ‘form’. Bruno, by contrast, joins these two principles together in his new conception of matter. This conception is developed in the Italian dialogue De la causa (1584). Yet, in this work, he does not provide a full account of this material activity. Therefore, with this paper, I propose to investigate Bruno’s atomistic theory, which is developed in his Frankfurt Trilogy (1591), in order to find more exhaustive explanations. The thesis of my lecture is that Bruno’s final solution to the problem of the activity of matter is a type of animistic atomism.

Author

• Paolo Rossini, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa