Philosophy Models

Pietro Pomponazzi (1462–1525) discussed in details the the human soul in his 1516 On the Immortality of the Soul.

• Humans are a compound of soul and organs.
• “The human soul has three powers—vegetative, sensitive, rational—but is unified; these powers do not have distinct substantial forms”
• Vegetative soul, sensitive soul and rational soul are roles of the human soul
• The rational soul creates phantasms
• “Because the human intellectual soul depends on the operations of the sensitive soul, which are part of a material and perishable body, it cannot function after the body has been destroyed. Accordingly, in Pomponazzi’s view, the human intellectual soul is immortal only in a relative or qualified sense”

The following OntoUML diagram shows the main structure of Pomponazzi’ model:

Class	Description	Relations
Human	A human person
Organ	“Since the sensitive soul resides within a material [human] organ and sensation occurs in time, it is dependent on matter both with respect to subject (i.e., the sense organ) and object (i.e., the sensible). The human intellectual or rational soul, however, is dependent on matter for its object (i.e., the phantasms) but is only immaterial with respect to its subject (i.e., cognition) (see Brenet 2009).”	componentOf Human
HumanSoul	“A central premise for Pomponazzi’s psychology is that the entire human soul falls under the study of natural philosophy. The human soul has three powers—vegetative, sensitive, rational—but is unified; these powers do not have distinct substantial forms (see Casini 2007).”	componentOf Human
VegetativeSoul	Vegetative soul	role of HumanSoul; characterized by Vegetative Power
VegetativePower	“The human soul has three powers—vegetative, sensitive, rational”
SensitiveSoul	Sensitive soul	role of HumanSoul; characterized by Sensitive
SensitivePower	“The human soul has three powers—vegetative, sensitive, rational”
RationalSoul	“Pomponazzi generally referred not to the intellect but rather to the intellective soul, meaning the rational power of the human soul (Sellars 2016). This intellective soul, or rational soul, rests midway between the eternal and perishable (ch. 1; see Bakker 2007: 165–67). Accordingly, he emphasized the relation between the intellectual soul and the sensitive soul, citing Aristotle’s statement that “the soul does not know at all without some phantasm (phantasma)” (De anima 3.7 431a16–17). “	role of HumanSoul; characterized by RationalPower; creates Phantasm
RationalPower	“The human soul has three powers—vegetative, sensitive, rational“
Phantasm	“Accordingly, he emphasized the relation between the intellectual soul and the sensitive soul, citing Aristotle’s statement that “the soul does not know at all without some phantasm (phantasma)” (De anima 3.7 431a16–17). The intellectual soul’s dependence on these phantasms—images that the imagination creates based on what has been sensed—is confirmed for Pomponazzi not just by Aristotle’s authority but also by our own experience and by experiences with those who have suffered injuries to the relevant organs”
Relatively ImortalImortal	“Because the human intellectual soul depends on the operations of the sensitive soul, which are part of a material and perishable body, it cannot function after the body has been destroyed. Accordingly, in Pomponazzi’s view, the human intellectual soul is immortal only in a relative or qualified sense. Because the act of understanding does not require a material organ as subject, the human intellectual soul is more immortal than the sensitive soul or the souls of animals. The human soul partakes in the immortal through its limited knowledge of the forms of species, without being immortal in itself. Yet because it cannot function without the sensitive soul, it is lower than God’s intelligence and than the intelligences that move the celestial spheres, which are separated substances. Moreover, the human soul differs from these separated intelligences in that it is the actualization of a body while the intelligences merely actuate, that is, set in motion, the celestial spheres without receiving anything from the matter of the orb. The human’s soul dependency on matter means that human cognition is less abstracted than that of the intelligences, which know through intuition not sensation. Accordingly, the human soul cannot know universals unqualifiedly but only in relation to singulars. Thereby, the human rational soul, with its functioning tied to material objects, sits midway between the material and the immaterial and between the eternal and the perishable; and human knowledge, while partaking in the knowledge of universals, possesses it in limited manner (ch. 8).”

Sources

• Martin, Craig, “Pietro Pomponazzi“, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).

First published: 28/10/2022