The body speaks Italian : Giuseppe Liceti and the conflict of philosophy and medicine in the Renaissance

Abstract

Giuseppe Liceti (d. 1599) has been entirely forgotten in the history of philosophy. This article seeks to demonstrate that Liceti?s two vernacular dialogues are crucial sources for understanding the Renaissance debate on the conflict between medicine and philosophy. Liceti?s main dialogue, La nobiltà (1590), stages a contest about the nobility of the main bodily organs, which I discuss by placing it in its medical and literary context. I then proceed to expounding Liceti?s interpretation of the conflict between Galenism and Aristotelianism, and trace the specific topic of the seat of rationality in the body. In the conclusion I claim that the outcome of the contest in La nobiltà is not as obvious as it might seem, and that Liceti implies an alternative conclusion to the ?official? one. This opens up a different scenario with regard to the interpretation of human uniqueness from medical and philosophical points of view.