Article ID: CBB910133174

Instrumental Causes and the Natural Origin of Souls in Antonio Ponce Santacruz's Theory of Animal Generation (2019)

unapi

This article studies the theory of animal seeds as purely material entities in the early seventeenth-century medical writings of Antonio Ponce Santacruz, royal physician to the Spanish king Philipp IV. Santacruz adopts the theory of the eduction of substantial forms from the potentiality of matter, according to which new kinds of causal powers can arise out of material composites of a certain complexity. Santacruz stands out among the late Aristotelian defenders of eduction theory because he applies the concept of an instrument of direction developed by the medieval Avicenna commentator Gentile da Foligno and gives a novel turn to this concept by interpreting animal seeds as separate instruments. The article situates Santacruz's theory in the context of early modern debates about the concept of the eduction of forms, as well as in the context of early modern debates about the concept of separate instruments. Particular attention is paid to Santacruz's responses to the biological views of Julius Caesar Scaliger and Thomas Feyens. Santacruz's response to Scaliger turns out to be central for his explication of the eduction relation, and Santacruz's response to Feyens turns out to be central for his explication of the nature of instrumental causation.

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Authors & Contributors
Hirai, Hiro
Blank, Andreas
Sangiacomo, Andrea
Fincham, Richard Mark
Cardoso, Adelino
Demarest, Boris
Concepts
Biogenesis; origin of life; spontaneous generation
Biology
Soul (philosophy)
Natural philosophy
Form (philosophy)
Causality
Time Periods
17th century
16th century
18th century
Early modern
Enlightenment
15th century
Places
Portugal
Italy
France
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