Francesco Patrizi and the reason of animals

Abstract

In the fifth book of Pampsychia, the third part of his Nova de Universis Philosophia (Ferrara, 1591), Francesco Patrizi analyses the characteristics of the irrational animus, focusing on the possibility or otherwise of defining animals as alogoi. His argument highlights how the Latin tradition did not fully understand the meaning of the Greek term, confusing the negation of discourse with the negation of cognition. This article seeks to clarify the terms used in Patrizi's argument by placing it within the context of his discussion on language (particularly in the first dialogue of his Dialoghi della Retorica, Venice, 1562) and within the wider context of the sixteenth-century debate on the dignitas hominis.