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Mathematics and Human Happiness According to Federico Grisogono
Erna Banić-Pajnić
; Institut za filozofiju, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
Federico Grisogono, just like many other humanist Renaissance philosophers, wrote a treatise on human happiness (»De humana felicitate«). His solution of the problem of human happiness is typically humanistic, chief1y because Grisogono, while discussing human happiness, in fact discusses the various aspects of human knowledge in view of their contribution to man's happiness. The treatise on happiness is actually a treatise on the forms of knowledge. As the other important element in Grisogono, there is the issue of the relation of human happiness toward a specific field of knowledge - mathematics. The issue is far more intriguing because Grisogona expressed different, even contrary views on mathematics in two of his treatises (the above mentioned one and »Speculum astronomicum«). The results of the comparative analysis of the statements in the two treatises are as follows: a) mathematics is in the »Speculum ... « virtually equated with astrology (inasmuch as he claims that it »makes present the past, the present and the future«) and that he b) believes it to be »the most accurate insight into reality«, subordinating to it nearly all the areas of knowledge, including astrology, regarding it as the ultimate science that makes us similar to God (who is also subject to tbe number).
In »De humana felicitate«, however, Grisogona explicitly denies that any of the fields of the quadrivium should contribute to human happiness. In the same treatise he glorifies astrology as the field of knowledge - among the humanly acquired ones (which he strictly separates from the divinely acquired knowledge) - that makes the man perfect and happy to the utmost degree. The main argument in favor of the thesis is that astrology is useful to man for it makes foreseeing possible, as well as action based on it (which, according to Grisogono, involves a specific kind of magic, especially in medicine). Thus, judging by the contribution to man 's happiness, Grisogona singles out astrology, as a capability of foresight, from all the fields subordinated to or including mathematics. From this viewpoint concerning the fields based on mathematics follows that we are at a spiritual-historical crossing that implies the question whether it has ever been possible, and whether it is possible today, for the man to »investigate the mysteries of nature and (if they are desirable) subjugate them for his own benefit«, as Grisogona wants to, and thus exert influence on reality without it being completely mathematicized (subordinating everything to the number). This question, however, is yet to be answered, and this treatise is a mere attempt to promote the quest.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
81892
URI
Datum izdavanja:
6.12.1993.
Posjeta: 1.593 *