Perception and Passion in Dante's ComedyCambridge University Press, 1993 M09 16 - 348 pages Patrick Boyde argues that the way in which Dante represents what he (or his fictional self) saw and felt was profoundly influenced by the thirteenth-century science of psychology. Professor Boyde offers an authoritative account of the way in which vision and the emotions were understood in Dante's lifetime, and rereads many of the most dramatic and moving episodes in the Comedy, throwing light on Dante's narrative technique. Seeing and feeling were known to be inextricably bound up with thinking and voluntary action, and were treated as special cases of motion and motive forces. Dante's treatment of perception and passion is set in the context of Aristotelian epistemology, ethics and physics. In these areas too a knowledge of Dante's philosophical ideas is shown to illuminate his poetic representation of mental processes and value judgements, and the meaning of his journey towards the source of goodness and truth. |
Contents
The prestige and unity of the Aristotelian corpus | 3 |
Movement and change in lifeless bodies | 11 |
growth and reproduction in plant life | 32 |
sensation and locomotion in animal life | 44 |
Perception of light and colour | 61 |
Perception of shape size number movement | 93 |
Imagining and dreaming | 119 |
Bodylanguage and the physiology of passion | 140 |
Aspects of human freedom | 193 |
Fear | 217 |
Anger | 245 |
Desire | 275 |
Notes | 302 |
332 | |
338 | |
the powers of the mind | 173 |
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Common terms and phrases
action activity actualised actus adjective amore anger anima animal appetites Aquinas Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle's Avicenna Beatrice beginning body bolgia called canto Capaneus ch'io chapter colour Comedy concepts context Convivio corpus Dante Philomythes Dante's described desire distinct dream efficient cause emotions Ethics example existence external eyes fear feelings final cause forma formal cause further Geryon Guinizzelli heart heaven Hell human ibid imagination judgement kind Latin lect li occhi light lines look luce meaning medieval medieval Latin medium metaphor mind motus move movement narrator natural noun object occhi operatio operations pain Paradiso passage passion perception philosopher phrase Piccarda poem poet potential practical intellect principium protagonist Purg Purgatory quod reason recognise references Rime sanza self-moving sense sensitive sensu sensus communis sight simile soul species spirits Statius truth veder verb VIII Virgil virtue vision viso Vita words XVII XXVI XXXIII