SPIRITS OF LIFE AND PERCEPTION. GREEK AND ARABIC LEGACIES IN ALBERT THE GREAT'S EARLY THEOLOGY AND NATURAL PHILOSOPHY

Among his contemporaries, Albert the Great (1200-1280) stands out for his extensive knowledge of philosophical and medical sources from the Islamic Word. The dissertation investigates the role of Albert's Arabic sources in his doctrine of spirit, a key concept straddling medicine and natural philosophy, in the broader context of his psychophysiology. The main purpose of the research is to provide a study of the reception of sources such as Avicenna (De anima, De animalibus, Canon), Qusta ibn Luqa (De differentia spiritus et animae) and other Arabic authors (Averroes, al-Ghazali and al-Magusi), shedding light on their relevance for Albert's own understanding of spiritus. Prefaced by a methodological introduction and a first chapter devoted to the relationship between philosophy and medicine, the dissertation provides a comparison between Albert's position on the role of spirit in his early theological works with his mature works (Aristotelian paraphrases), focusing especially on the Parva Naturalia. The research revolves around two main areas of interest: life- and perception-related phenomena, highlighting how Albert's understanding of the causal role of spirit changes over the years, thus moving away from his first conception in the early theological works, strongly influenced by his Arabic sources. A typical feature of Albert's psychophysiology of life-related phenomena in the Aristotelian paraphrases is the introduction of the concept of spirit in plants, a unique case among Albert's contemporaries. The second part of the dissertation deals with the role of spirits in sense perception and cognitive activities, with a special focus on dreams, divinatory dreams, and prophecy, where the influence of the Arabic (also, Hebrew) philosophical tradition is crucial.