PAROLE E SENTIMENTI DELLA MATERIA

Eternità e materialismo cosmologico nel Rinascimento tra Averroè e Bruno

Abstract

The present study examines the relationship between cosmology, Aristotelian notions of the eternity of the world, and materialism in Renaissance thought, focusing on the influence of Averroes and its reception in Giordano Bruno. The medieval debate between al-Ghazali and Averroes on ‘creation’ versus ‘eternalism’, transmitted through Latin translations, forms the starting point for exploring the re-emergence of these themes in Renaissance Aristotelianism and heterodox traditions. Bruno’s work is of particular interest in this regard, as his cosmology integrates Aristotelian and Averroist notions of eternal matter with Neoplatonic and Cusanian motifs. This integration gives rise to his famous doctrine of infinite worlds, universal animation, and an immanent unity of matter and form. The analysis draws upon Ernst Bloch’s concept of ‘cosmological materialism’ in order to situate Bruno’s philosophy within a broader historical trajectory of materialist thought. The essay posits the argument that Bruno’s work represents a radicalisation of Averroistic ideas, including the notion of the productive potentiality of matter and the denial of creation ex nihilo. Additionally, it introduces innovations that are linked to post-Copernican cosmology and monistic immanentism. In doing so, Bruno both inherits and transforms themes of the ‘Aristotelian Left’, reshaping them into a vision where necessity, infinity, and vitality converge in an eternal, animated universe.