Alighieri, Dante

Alighieri, Dante (1265-1321) 'radical Aristotelians', such as Boethius of Dacia and Aubry of Reims (see Averroism). These Parisian masters claimed that philosophy is autonomous and should not be subordinated to any other discipline, in particular not to theology, because it provides humans with all the knowledge required for obtaining happiness. Since humans are essentially rational animals, they fully realize their capacities if they dedicate themselves to the most rational activity, philosophy. Dante conceives of philosophy - 'philosophy' taken synonymously with 'science' (scientia) - as a unified system of knowledge that can be hierarchically divided. He explains the order by comparing these disciplines with the celestial spheres. There are at least three reasons, he claims, for making such a comparison (Convivio II, xiii, 3-6). First, every science moves around its subject, just as a celestial sphere turns around its immovable centre. Second, every science makes its subject clear and understandable, just as a celestial sphere illumines the things around which it turns. Third, every science leads to a certain perfection by structuring and explaining things, just as a celestial sphere improves things by keeping them in order and moving them. Not only is there, according to Dante, an analogy between science as a whole and the celestial spheres, but one can even attribute a specific science to each of the nine celestial spheres. There is a correspondence between each of the first seven spheres (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) and each of the seven liberal arts (grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry and astrology). Physics and mathematics, dealing with innumerably many entities, correspond to the eighth sphere that consists of innumerable fixed stars.