The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Summary: Marchesini - La dottrina metafisico-psicologica di Andrea Cesalpino
Andrea Cesalpino's philosophy is essentially obscure, because he would not allow himself to speak openly, being the body-physician of Clement VIII. Yet his love of freedom induces him to speak with sufficient clearness to enable us to understand his standpoint.
He was born 1519. Studied medicine. He took up Aristotle with a view to interpreting him correctly and thus to fight scholastic interpretations. Professed medical philosophy in the University of Pisa. From there was called to the Collegio di Sapienza in Rome by Clement VIII, who made him his body-physician. Died 1603.
Much of his work is valuable. He anticipated in a way Harvey's theory of the circulation of the blood, having described the "little circulation" of the lungs. Invented a botanical system based on the form of the flowers and the fruit. His book, De plantis which Cuvier calls "une œuvre de génie," shows traces of his studies in Aristotle. His fame among his contemporaries was extraordinary; Torelli, one of his most violent enemies, says of him: "Caesalpiniana dogmata majore apud nostros fuerunt in pretio, quam olim apud Graecas Apollinis oracula." His works are: Quaestionum peripateticarum libri quinque, Venice, 1571. Quaestiones medicae, Florence, 1569. De plantis. The argument of Quaestiones III is : The central force (il primo motore) is speculative, not active (attiva) intelligence. The object of this intelligence is truth, and it draws from things their forms. (Notice the inconsistency.) In Quaestiones VI he tries to prove that intelligence is one, viz. God. As he says that the knowledge which the divine intelligence has of itself amounts to a knowledge of all things, A. C.'s enemies were not wrong in calling him a pantheist. He felt this, and tried to refute the accusation by subtle counter-arguments. In Quaestiones VIII he tries to prove that the soul is immortal. The soul alone has an independent function. In spite of inconsistencies and obscurities, A. C. played an important part in the emancipation of Aristotelian thought from scholastic rules.