Reading Aristotle with Aristotle? The ‘Prooemium’ of the Volume on the De Anima of the Coimbra Jesuit Aristotelian Course

Abstract

Reading Aristotle with Aristotle? The ‘Proœmium’ of the Volume on the De Anima of the Coimbra Jesuit Aristotelian Course

Abstract

This paper is intended as a close reading of the first five initial pages of the volume on the ‘De Anima’ of the Coimbra Jesuit Aristotelian Course (1598). Here it is shown that under the guise of a commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima I, 402a1-4, psychology, metaphysics, ethics and didactics are dealt with in such a way that Aristotle is eventually overcome.

Key words: Coimbra Course; Aristotle’s philosophy; Science of the soul.

Ancient and Medieval Authors: Manuel de Góis.