Harmony and Contrast: Plato and Aristotle in the Early Modern Period

This volume provides, through studies of some of the leading experts in Renaissance and Early Modern philosophy, the first assessment of the blurred relationship between Platonism and Aristotelianism between the fifteenth and the seventeenth century. Assuming a transnational and emic perspective, the case studies discussed in the volume aim at highlighting how early modern followers of Plato and Aristotle did not look at the philosophies of the two ancient thinkers as monolithic entities, with no reciprocal communication whatsoever, but were on the contrary well aware of the complex and ambiguous interplay between their systems of thought, an awareness in large part enabled by the gradual rediscovery of ancient commentators. Such a sophisticated approach to the two philosophers enabled early modern Platonism and Aristotelianism to explore new and original solutions to long-debated topics such as the immortality of the soul, and many others.