Spirits of Life and Perception

Michele Meroni, Ph.D. (2021), University of Milano-LMU München, is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Pavia. He currently works on late medieval theories of animal cognition and has recently published on Albert the Great’s use of medical doctrines (Quaestio, 2023).

• AcknowledgementsAbbreviationsIntroduction1 A Matter of Principles: The Epistemic Status of Medicine in Albert’s Early Theology and Aristotelian Paraphrases1 What Is Health and What Is Healing? A Conundrum in Medieval Discussions2 Healing the Soul, Healing the Body: Medicine and Natural Philosophy in Albert’s Early Theology3 Avicenna: Between the First Teacher and the Physician4 The De homine and the First Entry of Avicenna’s De animalibus5 Medicine in the Aristotelian Paraphrases: Theoretical Underpinnings and Historical Context6 Medicine in the Parva naturalia: An Open Question7 Medicine as a Part of Natural Philosophy (?) in Albert’s ZoologyConclusionsPart 1 Spirits of Life2 Vita abstrahitur a vegetatione: Spirit and Albert’s Emanative Psychology of Life1 Medieval Conceptions of Spirit: between Language of Life and Doctrine of Intermediaries2 Keeping It Cool: Aristotle on Soul, pneuma and Life3 Vital Spirits, Vital Faculty and Life: Costa Ben Luca, Nemesius and the Galenic Medical Tradition4 Neoplatonic Psychology Meets Galenic Medicine: Avicenna on Spirit, Soul and Life5 Actus animae secundum se: Soul, Spirit, and Life in Albert the GreatConclusions3 Spirit, Generation and Natural Teleology—Part1: Human Generation1 “The pneuma and the Nature within It”: Aristotle on Generation2 First Teaching vs. Anatomical Practice: Avicenna on Generation3 Averroes on Heart, Spirit and Generation: an Undervalued Albertinian Source4 Albert on Generation between Theology, Zoology and BotanyConclusions4 Spirit, Generation and Natural Teleology—Part2: Animal, Plant, and Spontaneous Generation1 Pneuma, Animal Generation, and Spontaneous Generation in Aristotle2 Avicenna on Spirit, Animal Generation, and (Human?) Spontaneous Generation3 Averroes on Spirit and Spontaneous Generation4 Animal, Plant, and Spontaneous Generation in Albert the GreatConclusions5 Spirit, Radical Moisture, and Longevity in Living Beings1 Vital Heat, Moisture, and Longevity in Aristotle2 The Lamp Metaphor, Spirit, and Radical Moisture in Avicenna3 Spirit, Radical Moisture, and Longevity in Albert the GreatConclusionsPart 2 Spirits of Perception6 Spirit and potentiae apprehensivae deforis: The Psychophysiology of Sense Perception and Common Sense1 Heat, pneuma and Sensation in Aristotle2 Animal Spirits and Sense Perception in Costa Ben Luca and Other Medico-philosophical Sources3 Animal Spirits in Avicenna’s Theory of Sense Perception and Common Sense4 Spiritus animalis and potentiae apprehensivae deforis in Albert’s PsychologyConclusions7 Animal Spirits and Internally Apprehensive Powers (potentiae apprehensivae deintus)—Part1: Estimation and Memory1 Aristotle on Human and Animal Cognition: Imagination, Memory, and Recollection2 Brain Ventricles and Cognitive Faculties in Costa Ben Luca, Nemesius and Other Sources3 Avicenna’s Psychophysiology of Inner Senses: Estimation, Memory, and Recollection4 Averroes’ Critique of Avicennian Estimation: A Turning Point in Medieval Psychology5 Animal Spirits and potentiae apprehensivae deintus in Albert the Great: Estimation and MemoryConclusions8 Animal Spirits and Internally Apprehensive Powers (potentiae apprehensivae deintus)—Part2: Sleep, Dreams and Prophecy1 Aristotle’s Psychophysiology of Dreaming and Sleeping2 The Psychophysiology of Sleep, Dreaming and Prophecy in Avicenna and the Arabic Philosophical Tradition3 God-Given Dreams, Dreaming and Sleep in Albert the GreatConclusionsFinal Remarks1 Methodology: Albert the Great and the Role of Medicine2 The Role of SpiritsBibliographyIndex