"We should consider the organization of an animal to rasemble that of a city well-governed by laws".

Journal title RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA
Author/s Pietro B. Rossi
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2016/suppl. 4
Language Italian Pages 15 P. 51-65 File size 118 KB
DOI 10.3280/SF2016-004-S1005
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Notes on the recurrent analogy between "civitas" and "organic body" in the middle ages. The use of body metaphors to describe organicist conceptions of society appears to go back to antiquity. Not a few scholars have dealt with particular aspects or writings related to the analogy between "a town" and "an animal body" in the context of the political theory elaborated by medieval thinkers. In the essay, without making an in-depth study, the author mentions other texts in which this metaphor is used, specifically in commentaries on Libri de animalibus by Aristotle - almost solely looking at De motu - taking their cue from the prologue to an anonymous series of questions regarding the De generatione and the De partibus animalium, handed down in ms. AD.XI.18 in the Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense. This is entirely centered on the organicistic metaphor.

Keywords: Medieval political thought, organicistic metaphors, Aristotle’s works on Biology

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Pietro B. Rossi, «È da ritenere che l’animale sia come una città ben governata da leggi». Note sulla ricorrente analogia fra "civitas" e "corpo organico" nel Medioevo in "RIVISTA DI STORIA DELLA FILOSOFIA" suppl. 4/2016, pp 51-65, DOI: 10.3280/SF2016-004-S1005