So, you wish to infer that, not only
according
to your prin- ciples, but also according to those of other philosophical methods, matter is not prope nihil [almost nothing], pure potency, bare, without act, without virtue and perfection.
Bruno-Cause-Principle-and-Unity
.
Then,itdoesnotdifferfromform?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It does not differ at all in the absolute potency and absolute
act, and, because it is absolutely all, is therefore absolutely pure, simple, indivisible and unified. If it possessed definite dimensions, a definite being, a definite property and a definite individuality, it would not be absolute, nor would it be all.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Then, everything which comprises all the genuses is indi- visible?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exactly, because the form which comprises all the qualities is itself none of them; that which comprises all figures does not itself pos- sess any; that which possesses all sensible being is not, for that reason, accessible to the senses. That which possesses all natural being is highly indivisible; that which possesses all intellectual being is still more highly indivisible; that which possesses all that can be is the most highly indivisible of all.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You hold that there exists a ladder of the possibility to be, like the ladder of being? And you hold that material nature ascends along the one just as formal nature ascends along the other?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Thatistrue.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You give a lofty and profound definition of matter and potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Trueagain.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Butthistruthwillnotbegraspedbyeveryone,foritisindeed hard to understand how it is possible to possess all the species of dimen- sions without having any, and to possess all formal being, and yet no form.
? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Do you, yourself, understand how this can be?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . I believe so, for I understand that, in order to be all things, the act cannot be any one thing.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Non potest esse idem totum et aliquid; ego quoque illud capio [The same thing cannot be, at the same time, the whole and some part of it. I, too, understand this].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Then,youwillbeabletoseehowitfollowsthat,ifwewanted to posit having dimensions as the nature of matter, such a nature would not be incompatible with any kind of matter. But the only difference between the two matters is that one is freed from dimensions and the other is con- tracted to them. Being independent of dimensions, matter is above them all and comprehends them all; being contracted, it is comprehended by some dimensions and is under some of them.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You are right to say that matter, in itself, has no definite dimensions, and, therefore, must be understood as indivisible, receiving dimensions according to the nature of the form it receives. Its dimensions differ according to whether it is found under human form, under equine form, under that of the olive or under that of the myrtle tree. So, just as it has the faculty of receiving all those forms, before it exists under any of these forms, it has all of their dimensions in potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Dicunt tamen propterea quod nullas habet dimensiones [But that, they say, is because it possesses no dimensions].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And we say that ideo habet nullas, ut omnes habeat [it has no dimensions, so that it may have all of them].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Whydoyoumaintainthatitincludes,ratherthanexcludes, all of them?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Becauseitdoesnotreceivedimensionsasfromwithout,but sends them out and brings them forth as from its womb.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Well put. I might add that that is the way in which the Peripatetics habitually express themselves also, saying that the dimensional act and all natural forms emerge and derive from the potency of matter. Averroes understood this in part. Although an Arab, and not knowing Greek, he grasped more of the Peripatetic doctrine than any Greek we have read and he would have understood still more, had he not been so devoted to his idol, Aristotle. He says that matter, in its essence, comprises inde- terminate dimensions. By this, he wishes to convey that they come to be determined - taking on now this figure and dimension, now others - according to the modification of natural forms. In this sense, we see that
? ?
Fourth dialogue
? matter produces forms from itself, so to speak, and does not receive them as from outside. In a way, this is what Plotinus, prince of Plato's school, also understood. In establishing the difference between the matter of higher things and that of lower, he says that the first is everything at the same time and that, since it possesses all, there is nothing into which it changes, while the second, by means of a certain renovation at the level of parts, becomes everything, and becomes successively one thing after another - always, therefore, in a state of diversity, alteration and movement. In consequence, neither the one nor the other matter is ever formless, although each is formed differently; one in the instant of eternity, the other in the instant of time; one in simultaneity, the other in succession; one by way of enfold- ing, the other by way of unfolding; one as a unity, the other as multiplicity; one as being all and each thing, the other individually and thing after thing.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? .
So, you wish to infer that, not only according to your prin- ciples, but also according to those of other philosophical methods, matter is not prope nihil [almost nothing], pure potency, bare, without act, without virtue and perfection.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exactly. Isaythatitisdeprivedofformsandwithoutthem, not in the way ice lacks warmth or the abyss is without light, but as a preg- nant woman lacks the offspring which she produces and expels forth from herself, and as the earth is without light at night in our hemisphere, which it can reacquire by its turning.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . So,evenintheseinferiorthings,actcoincidesintheend-if not entirely, at least to a great extent - with potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Ileaveyoutodecide.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And what would happen if, finally, this potency from below became one with that from above?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Judgeforyourself. Youcanhenceforthrisetotheconcept,I do not say of the supreme and most excellent principle, which has been excluded from our inquiry, but to the concept of the world soul, insofar as it is the act of everything and the potency of everything, and insofar as it is present in its entirety in everything - whence it follows that (even if there exist innumerable individuals) all things are one, and the knowledge of that unity is the object and term of all philosophies and all meditation on nat- ural things - leaving in its domain the highest speculation of all, that which, surpassing nature, is impossible and vain for the unbeliever.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . That is true, for one ascends there guided by supernatural and not natural light.
? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It is that which is lacking in those who deem that everything is a body, simple like the ether, or composite like the stars and astral things - and who do not look for the divinity outside of the infinite world and the infinity of things, but inside that world and those things.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It is only on that point, it seems to me, that the faithful theologian differs from the truthful philosopher.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Iagree. IthinkyouhaveunderstoodwhatImean.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Very clearly, I believe. And so, I infer from your remarks that, even if we do not let matter go beyond the level of natural things and keep to the common definition that the more vulgar philosophy gives of it, we will find that matter retains a greater excellence than is recognized in it by that philosophy. For, in the end, it does not attribute any other status to it except that of being a substratum of forms and a potency which is recep- tive to natural forms - without name, definition or determination because it is without any actuality. This point seemed difficult to certain monks17 who, wishing to excuse rather than to accuse this doctrine, claimed that matter possesses only entitative act - that is, different from that which is simply without being and which has no reality in nature, as, for example, some chimera or imaginary thing. For this matter, in the end, has being - which is enough for it - similar to that which, without mode or dignity, depends on actuality and is nothing. But you could insist on asking Aristotle: Why do you claim, O prince of the Peripatetics, that matter is nothing, from the fact of its having no act, rather than saying that it is all, from the fact that it possesses all acts, or possesses them confusedly and confoundedly, as you prefer? Is it not you who, always speaking of the new being of the forms in matter, or of the generation of things, says that forms proceed from and emerge from inside matter? You have never been heard to say that forms proceeded - through the action of the efficient cause - from outside matter, saying rather that the efficient cause makes them emerge from within. I shall not mention that you also make an internal principle of the efficient cause of those things, to which you give the com- mon name 'nature', and not an external principle as is the case with artifi- cial things. In that case, it seems to me we should say that when matter receives a form from outside, it does not possess in itself any form or act. It also seems to me that when one says it sends all forms forth from its womb, we must declare that it possesses them all. Is it not you who, if not obliged by reason, at least compelled by normal usage, defines matter by saying that
17 Followers of Duns Scotus.
? ? ?
18 Paraphrase of Genesis ? , ? ? and ? ? .
19 Genesis ? , ? : Bruno translates ferebatur as covava, 'brooded'.
Fourth dialogue
? it is 'that thing from which each natural species is produced', never saying that it is 'that in which things are made' - as we would say if acts did not come out of it and if, consequently, it did not possess them?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . CerteconsuevitdicereAristotelescumsuispotiusformaseduci de potentia materiae quam in illam induci, emergere potius ex ipsa quam in ipsam ingeri [Certainly, Aristotle and his followers usually say that forms come out from matter, rather than that they are introduced into it, that they emerge from it rather than being absorbed into it], but I would say that Aristotle preferred to call 'act' the unfolding of form rather than its enfolding.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And I say that the expressed, sensible and unfolded being does not constitute the fundamental essence of actuality, but is a conse- quence and effect of it. In the same way, the principle being of wood and the essence of its actuality do not consist in being a bed, but in its being a substance so constituted that it can be a bed, a bench, a beam, an idol and anything else formed out of wood. Not to mention that all natural things are more genuinely produced from natural matter than artificial things are from artificial matter, for art generates forms from matter either by sub- traction, as when it forms a statue from stone, or by addition, as when a house is formed by joining stone to stone and wood and earth. But nature produces everything out of its own matter by means of separation, partu- rition and effluxion, as the Pythagoreans thought, as Anaxagoras and Democritus understood and the sages of Babylon confirmed. Moses, him- self, also subscribes to their opinion when, describing the generation of the things ordered by the universal efficient cause, he speaks thus: 'Let the earth bring forth its animals, let the waters bring forth living creatures. '18 It is as if he had said: Let matter bring them forth. For, as he says, water is the material principle of things - which explains why he also says that the efficient intellect (which he calls spirit) 'brooded on the waters':19 that is, he gave the waters a procreative power and produced from them the nat- ural species, which he says afterwards are waters in substance. Thus, speak- ing of the separation of lower and higher bodies, he says, 'the spirit sepa- rated the waters from the waters', and deduces from this that dry earth appeared in their midst. Everyone claims, then, that things come from matter by way of separation, and not by means of addition and reception. Therefore, rather than saying that matter is empty and excludes forms, we should say that it contains forms and includes them. This matter which
? ? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? unfolds what it possesses enfolded must, therefore, be called a divine and excellent parent, generator and mother of natural things - indeed, nature entire in substance. Is that not what you mean, Teofilo?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Certainly.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . I am also very surprised that our Peripatetics have not worked out their art analogy further. Among the many materials that it rec- ognizes and adopts, art considers that which is least subject to corruption and most durable and most versatile as best and most valuable. So, it deems gold more noble than wood, stone and iron, because it is less subject to cor- ruption, and because everything that can be made of wood or stone, and many other things besides, can also be made of gold, producing things of much greater value by reason of their beauty, resistance, suppleness and nobility. What, then, must we say of the matter of which man, gold and all natural things are made? Must it not be held more worthy than the material of art, and must we not attribute a higher actuality to it? Why, O Aristotle, will you not admit that what is the foundation and the basis of actuality - I mean, of that which is in act - and which you declare to exist forever and endure eternally, why will you not admit that it is more in act than your forms and your entelechies, which come and go? So that if you also wanted to seek the permanence of the formal principle . . .
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Quia principia oportet semper manere [Because principles should be permanent].
? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It does not differ at all in the absolute potency and absolute
act, and, because it is absolutely all, is therefore absolutely pure, simple, indivisible and unified. If it possessed definite dimensions, a definite being, a definite property and a definite individuality, it would not be absolute, nor would it be all.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Then, everything which comprises all the genuses is indi- visible?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exactly, because the form which comprises all the qualities is itself none of them; that which comprises all figures does not itself pos- sess any; that which possesses all sensible being is not, for that reason, accessible to the senses. That which possesses all natural being is highly indivisible; that which possesses all intellectual being is still more highly indivisible; that which possesses all that can be is the most highly indivisible of all.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You hold that there exists a ladder of the possibility to be, like the ladder of being? And you hold that material nature ascends along the one just as formal nature ascends along the other?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Thatistrue.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You give a lofty and profound definition of matter and potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Trueagain.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Butthistruthwillnotbegraspedbyeveryone,foritisindeed hard to understand how it is possible to possess all the species of dimen- sions without having any, and to possess all formal being, and yet no form.
? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Do you, yourself, understand how this can be?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . I believe so, for I understand that, in order to be all things, the act cannot be any one thing.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Non potest esse idem totum et aliquid; ego quoque illud capio [The same thing cannot be, at the same time, the whole and some part of it. I, too, understand this].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Then,youwillbeabletoseehowitfollowsthat,ifwewanted to posit having dimensions as the nature of matter, such a nature would not be incompatible with any kind of matter. But the only difference between the two matters is that one is freed from dimensions and the other is con- tracted to them. Being independent of dimensions, matter is above them all and comprehends them all; being contracted, it is comprehended by some dimensions and is under some of them.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . You are right to say that matter, in itself, has no definite dimensions, and, therefore, must be understood as indivisible, receiving dimensions according to the nature of the form it receives. Its dimensions differ according to whether it is found under human form, under equine form, under that of the olive or under that of the myrtle tree. So, just as it has the faculty of receiving all those forms, before it exists under any of these forms, it has all of their dimensions in potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Dicunt tamen propterea quod nullas habet dimensiones [But that, they say, is because it possesses no dimensions].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And we say that ideo habet nullas, ut omnes habeat [it has no dimensions, so that it may have all of them].
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Whydoyoumaintainthatitincludes,ratherthanexcludes, all of them?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Becauseitdoesnotreceivedimensionsasfromwithout,but sends them out and brings them forth as from its womb.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Well put. I might add that that is the way in which the Peripatetics habitually express themselves also, saying that the dimensional act and all natural forms emerge and derive from the potency of matter. Averroes understood this in part. Although an Arab, and not knowing Greek, he grasped more of the Peripatetic doctrine than any Greek we have read and he would have understood still more, had he not been so devoted to his idol, Aristotle. He says that matter, in its essence, comprises inde- terminate dimensions. By this, he wishes to convey that they come to be determined - taking on now this figure and dimension, now others - according to the modification of natural forms. In this sense, we see that
? ?
Fourth dialogue
? matter produces forms from itself, so to speak, and does not receive them as from outside. In a way, this is what Plotinus, prince of Plato's school, also understood. In establishing the difference between the matter of higher things and that of lower, he says that the first is everything at the same time and that, since it possesses all, there is nothing into which it changes, while the second, by means of a certain renovation at the level of parts, becomes everything, and becomes successively one thing after another - always, therefore, in a state of diversity, alteration and movement. In consequence, neither the one nor the other matter is ever formless, although each is formed differently; one in the instant of eternity, the other in the instant of time; one in simultaneity, the other in succession; one by way of enfold- ing, the other by way of unfolding; one as a unity, the other as multiplicity; one as being all and each thing, the other individually and thing after thing.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? .
So, you wish to infer that, not only according to your prin- ciples, but also according to those of other philosophical methods, matter is not prope nihil [almost nothing], pure potency, bare, without act, without virtue and perfection.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Exactly. Isaythatitisdeprivedofformsandwithoutthem, not in the way ice lacks warmth or the abyss is without light, but as a preg- nant woman lacks the offspring which she produces and expels forth from herself, and as the earth is without light at night in our hemisphere, which it can reacquire by its turning.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . So,evenintheseinferiorthings,actcoincidesintheend-if not entirely, at least to a great extent - with potency.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Ileaveyoutodecide.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And what would happen if, finally, this potency from below became one with that from above?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Judgeforyourself. Youcanhenceforthrisetotheconcept,I do not say of the supreme and most excellent principle, which has been excluded from our inquiry, but to the concept of the world soul, insofar as it is the act of everything and the potency of everything, and insofar as it is present in its entirety in everything - whence it follows that (even if there exist innumerable individuals) all things are one, and the knowledge of that unity is the object and term of all philosophies and all meditation on nat- ural things - leaving in its domain the highest speculation of all, that which, surpassing nature, is impossible and vain for the unbeliever.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . That is true, for one ascends there guided by supernatural and not natural light.
? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It is that which is lacking in those who deem that everything is a body, simple like the ether, or composite like the stars and astral things - and who do not look for the divinity outside of the infinite world and the infinity of things, but inside that world and those things.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . It is only on that point, it seems to me, that the faithful theologian differs from the truthful philosopher.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Iagree. IthinkyouhaveunderstoodwhatImean.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Very clearly, I believe. And so, I infer from your remarks that, even if we do not let matter go beyond the level of natural things and keep to the common definition that the more vulgar philosophy gives of it, we will find that matter retains a greater excellence than is recognized in it by that philosophy. For, in the end, it does not attribute any other status to it except that of being a substratum of forms and a potency which is recep- tive to natural forms - without name, definition or determination because it is without any actuality. This point seemed difficult to certain monks17 who, wishing to excuse rather than to accuse this doctrine, claimed that matter possesses only entitative act - that is, different from that which is simply without being and which has no reality in nature, as, for example, some chimera or imaginary thing. For this matter, in the end, has being - which is enough for it - similar to that which, without mode or dignity, depends on actuality and is nothing. But you could insist on asking Aristotle: Why do you claim, O prince of the Peripatetics, that matter is nothing, from the fact of its having no act, rather than saying that it is all, from the fact that it possesses all acts, or possesses them confusedly and confoundedly, as you prefer? Is it not you who, always speaking of the new being of the forms in matter, or of the generation of things, says that forms proceed from and emerge from inside matter? You have never been heard to say that forms proceeded - through the action of the efficient cause - from outside matter, saying rather that the efficient cause makes them emerge from within. I shall not mention that you also make an internal principle of the efficient cause of those things, to which you give the com- mon name 'nature', and not an external principle as is the case with artifi- cial things. In that case, it seems to me we should say that when matter receives a form from outside, it does not possess in itself any form or act. It also seems to me that when one says it sends all forms forth from its womb, we must declare that it possesses them all. Is it not you who, if not obliged by reason, at least compelled by normal usage, defines matter by saying that
17 Followers of Duns Scotus.
? ? ?
18 Paraphrase of Genesis ? , ? ? and ? ? .
19 Genesis ? , ? : Bruno translates ferebatur as covava, 'brooded'.
Fourth dialogue
? it is 'that thing from which each natural species is produced', never saying that it is 'that in which things are made' - as we would say if acts did not come out of it and if, consequently, it did not possess them?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . CerteconsuevitdicereAristotelescumsuispotiusformaseduci de potentia materiae quam in illam induci, emergere potius ex ipsa quam in ipsam ingeri [Certainly, Aristotle and his followers usually say that forms come out from matter, rather than that they are introduced into it, that they emerge from it rather than being absorbed into it], but I would say that Aristotle preferred to call 'act' the unfolding of form rather than its enfolding.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . And I say that the expressed, sensible and unfolded being does not constitute the fundamental essence of actuality, but is a conse- quence and effect of it. In the same way, the principle being of wood and the essence of its actuality do not consist in being a bed, but in its being a substance so constituted that it can be a bed, a bench, a beam, an idol and anything else formed out of wood. Not to mention that all natural things are more genuinely produced from natural matter than artificial things are from artificial matter, for art generates forms from matter either by sub- traction, as when it forms a statue from stone, or by addition, as when a house is formed by joining stone to stone and wood and earth. But nature produces everything out of its own matter by means of separation, partu- rition and effluxion, as the Pythagoreans thought, as Anaxagoras and Democritus understood and the sages of Babylon confirmed. Moses, him- self, also subscribes to their opinion when, describing the generation of the things ordered by the universal efficient cause, he speaks thus: 'Let the earth bring forth its animals, let the waters bring forth living creatures. '18 It is as if he had said: Let matter bring them forth. For, as he says, water is the material principle of things - which explains why he also says that the efficient intellect (which he calls spirit) 'brooded on the waters':19 that is, he gave the waters a procreative power and produced from them the nat- ural species, which he says afterwards are waters in substance. Thus, speak- ing of the separation of lower and higher bodies, he says, 'the spirit sepa- rated the waters from the waters', and deduces from this that dry earth appeared in their midst. Everyone claims, then, that things come from matter by way of separation, and not by means of addition and reception. Therefore, rather than saying that matter is empty and excludes forms, we should say that it contains forms and includes them. This matter which
? ? ?
Cause, principle and unity
? unfolds what it possesses enfolded must, therefore, be called a divine and excellent parent, generator and mother of natural things - indeed, nature entire in substance. Is that not what you mean, Teofilo?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Certainly.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? . I am also very surprised that our Peripatetics have not worked out their art analogy further. Among the many materials that it rec- ognizes and adopts, art considers that which is least subject to corruption and most durable and most versatile as best and most valuable. So, it deems gold more noble than wood, stone and iron, because it is less subject to cor- ruption, and because everything that can be made of wood or stone, and many other things besides, can also be made of gold, producing things of much greater value by reason of their beauty, resistance, suppleness and nobility. What, then, must we say of the matter of which man, gold and all natural things are made? Must it not be held more worthy than the material of art, and must we not attribute a higher actuality to it? Why, O Aristotle, will you not admit that what is the foundation and the basis of actuality - I mean, of that which is in act - and which you declare to exist forever and endure eternally, why will you not admit that it is more in act than your forms and your entelechies, which come and go? So that if you also wanted to seek the permanence of the formal principle . . .
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? . Quia principia oportet semper manere [Because principles should be permanent].
? ? ? ? ? ? ?
