Article ID: CBB760138700

Soul, Archeus, and Nature in van Helmont’s Medical Naturalism (2021)

unapi

Jan Baptist van Helmont’s development of the Paracelsian theory of the Archeus is often considered uncomfortably close to the animist theory that the specificity of organic bodies is largely due to the soul. In this paper, I argue that the historical assimilation of these two positions is mistaken. I show that van Helmont introduced his theory of the Archeus on the grounds that it guaranteed that natural processes are properly natural, and that his theory was driven by a specific conception of what it means for a process to be properly natural. I also argue that the specific way in which van Helmont developed his theory of the Archeus put him at odds with the more animist positions defended in his own time, and that he stressed rather than downplayed the efficacy of natural secondary causes. This analysis runs counter to both the long tradition of reading van Helmont’s theory as a species of animism, and the more recent tendency to stress those Christian dimensions of his thought that seem to imply the inefficacy of natural causes.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB760138700/

Similar Citations

Article Leen Spruit; (2017)
Sebastiano Bartoli on Life and the Soul (/isis/citation/CBB245646731/)

Article Jacques Joseph; (2019)
The Philosophical Systems of Francesco Patrizi and Henry More (/isis/citation/CBB821538463/)

Chapter Edwards, Michael; (2012)
Time, Duration, and the Soul in Late Aristotelian Natural Philosophy and Psychology (/isis/citation/CBB001214004/)

Article Benjamin Goldberg; (2015)
William Harvey on Anatomy and Experience (/isis/citation/CBB534950714/)

Article Regier, Jonathan; (2014)
Kepler's Theory of Force and His Medical Sources (/isis/citation/CBB001214306/)

Article Ludovica Marinucci; (2021)
Christiaan Huygens’s Natural Theology in His Cosmotheoros and Other Late Writings (/isis/citation/CBB927642672/)

Article Escobar, Jorge M.; (2008)
Kepler's Theory of the Soul: A Study on Epistemology (/isis/citation/CBB000930745/)

Thesis Jessica Louise Wright; (2016)
Brain and Soul in Late Antiquity (/isis/citation/CBB783819538/)

Book Jessica L. Wright; (2022)
The Care of the Brain in Early Christianity (/isis/citation/CBB642375976/)

Article Francesco Paolo de Ceglia; (2021)
Matter Is Not Enough: Georg Ernst Stahl, Friedrich Hoffmann, and the Issue of Animism (/isis/citation/CBB256166445/)

Article Roger Smith; (2021)
The Senses of Touch and Movement and the Argument for Active Powers (/isis/citation/CBB136835699/)

Article Jonathan L. Shaheen; (2021)
The Life of the Thrice Sensitive, Rational and Wise Animate Matter: Cavendish’s Animism (/isis/citation/CBB509215550/)

Authors & Contributors
Hirai, Hiro
Joseph, Jacques
Jessica L. Wright
Marinucci, Ludovica
Shaheen, Jonathan L.
Wright, Jessica
Concepts
Soul (philosophy)
Natural philosophy
Medicine and religion
Animism
Medicine
Christianity
Time Periods
17th century
16th century
Early modern
Renaissance
18th century
Ancient
Places
Italy
England
Spain
France
Europe
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment