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From animal bodies to human souls : (pseudo-)Aristotelian animals in Della Porta’s Physiognomics
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Muratori, Cecilia (2017) From animal bodies to human souls : (pseudo-)Aristotelian animals in Della Porta’s Physiognomics. Early Science and Medicine, 22 (1). pp. 1-23. doi:10.1163/15733823-00221p01 ISSN 1383-7427 .
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15733823-00221p01
Abstract
This article analyses the role that animals play in Della Porta’s method of physiognomics. It claims that Della Porta created his own, original, method by appropriating, and yet selectively adapting Aristotelian and pseudo-Aristotelian sources. This has not been adequately reconstructed before in previous studies on Della Porta. I trace, in two steps, the conceptual trajectory of Della Porta’s physiognomics, from human psychology to animal psychology, and ultimately from psychology to ethics. In the first step, I show how Della Porta substantially adapts the physiognomic principle of the body-soul relationship as found in the pseudo-Aristotelian Physiognomonica. In the second, I demonstrate that the real aim of Della Porta’s physiognomics is a practical one, namely understanding how to live a good life, and I explain why he refers to Aristotle in order to ground this conception.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) Q Science > QL Zoology Q Science > QP Physiology |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > School of Modern Languages and Cultures | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Physiognomy , Physiognomy in literature , Facial expression, Porta, Giambattista della, approximately 1535-1615, Aristotle, Human-animal relationships | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Early Science and Medicine | ||||||
Publisher: | Brill ; Martinus Nijhoff Publishers | ||||||
ISSN: | 1383-7427 | ||||||
Official Date: | 22 March 2017 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 22 | ||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 1-23 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1163/15733823-00221p01 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 24 February 2017 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 22 March 2019 | ||||||
Funder: | European Research Council (ERC) | ||||||
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