Introduction

In his Platonic Theology (1474), Marsilio Ficino seeks to demonstrate that rational confirmation of the Christian belief in the personal immortality of the soul can be found in the philosophy of Plato and his ancient disciples. (For another selection, with biographical information, see Chapter 3.) This was part of his overall programme to develop a ‘pious philosophy’, strongly based on Platonism, which would reduce the conflicts between reason and faith – conflicts that had arisen, in his view, largely because of Aristotle's domination of the philosophical curriculum since the thirteenth century. Like Cardinal Bessarion, Ficino believed that Platonism was much closer than Aristotelianism to Christianity. This was particularly so in relation to the crucial issue of the immortality of the soul, where Aristotle's position was ambiguous at best, while Plato explicitly endorsed the notion of an afterlife.

In the preface, Ficino sets out both the purpose of the book and the method he intends to adopt. He wants to make readers aware of the immortality of their own souls and of the state of eternal bliss which awaits them in the next life, when their souls are finally released from the prison of their bodies. Rather than argue the case on the basis of Christian dogma (Ficino had become a priest at the end of 1473), he will rely instead on Platonic doctrines, in order to convince those perverse intellectuals who are reluctant to yield to religious authority alone.