The
Philosophy of Tommaso Campanella

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

Life and
Works

Theory
of Knowledge

Metaphysics

Religion

Politics

Background: The New Consideration of Nature

The
Renaissance, as an age of transition, was not conducive to the building of
great philosophical systems. It contained, in germinal form, the directive
ideas of modern times, but under the guise of the past. Thinkers preferred to
write in ancient Latin, and the style of their writing is also archaic. Under
this external aspect, which smacks of antiquity, are hidden the signs of the
next age.

The
greatest representatives of thought, in the order of time, are
Nicholas of Cusa,
Telesio,
Bruno, and
Campanella;
the most important is Bruno. In the thought of all these men there is a new
view of nature, in which nature is considered immanently, according to the
forces inherent in it, and is accessible to experience and reason. These forces
are considered as living ones, vital spirits, demons; everything is animate;
the physical world has a soul.

It is
necessary to investigate these animate forces, for it is on the basis of their
activity that all events can be explained. It is because of this desire to
bring into subjection the occult forces of nature that during the Renaissance
we find so widely diffused the science of "magic," which professes to
know the good and evil spirits of nature, and to make them allies in good and
evil enterprises.

Also
characteristic are alchemy, with its objective of discovering the philosophical
stone which can change everything into gold; and medicine, with its hope of
finding the panacea of evil by uncovering the common animating force of the
universe. This is a charlatan school, to be sure, but it indicates the tendency
of some of the chief exponents of the age to explain nature through the forces
imbedded in it.

Hence
we see Neo-Platonic tendencies, and the Neo-Platonic thinkers mentioned above.
Although Neo-Platonism, logically developed, leads to pantheism, the thinkers
of the Renaissance, with the exception of Bruno, are not pantheists. Without
any logical foundation they still affirm transcendency,
but this more from faith than from conviction.

Now to the Philosophy of Tommaso
Campanella

I. Life and Works

Campanella was born in Stilo
in Calabria in 1568 and became a member of
the Dominican order in the Catholic Church. He underwent various trials for
heresy but was absolved. Accused of having started a conspiracy against Spanish
rule in Naples, he was tried and imprisoned
for about twenty-eight years. Transferred to Rome and held in benevolent custody
by the Holy Office of the Pope, he was set free at last. He took refuge in France and died at Paris in 1639.

The
important works of Campanella are: De sensu rerum et
magia (On the Meaning of Things and on Magic); Universalis philosophiae
seu metaphysicarum rerum juxta propria
dogmata, partes tres (Universal Doctrine of Philosophy or of
Metaphysical Things according to Their Proper Principles, in Three Parts). Some
years ago was begun the publication of the unedited works of Campanella, such as his theology, comprising thirty books.
This has modified to some extent the standard interpretation of his thought.

Campanella reveals a dependence upon the
thought of Nicholas of Cusa,
Bernardino Telesio,
and Giordano Bruno.

II. Theory of Knowledge

For Campanella, to know means to feel -- "Cognoscere est sentire" -- and to feel means to take notice of the sensitive
modifications of the subject. In this self-consciousness or feeling of
one's own modification, it is necessary to distinguish the sensus
inditus (also called the "sensus innatus" or "abditus") from the sensus
additus (or inferred knowledge).

The
first is knowledge of oneself as a subject; it is elementary and immediate
knowledge, the identity of the subject-object. It reveals the existence of the
subject. With this process Campanella restates the
argument of Augustine,
"Si fallor, sum,"
and anticipates the "Cogito, ergo sum" of Descartes.

The
"sensus additus,"
inferred knowledge, is knowledge of objects distinct from the subject. But if
we know only subjective modifications, we may ask ourselves how it is possible
to know objects distinct from these modifications. Campanella
answers that this is possible through the medium of a superior knowledge
received from the "mens."

In
fact, according to Campanella, besides the knowledge
of the senses, we have also that of reason, of the intellect, and of the "mens." The knowledge of reason and of the intellect are inferior to that of the senses. Reason has the power of
inferring like from like, and hence lacks the
immediacy that the senses possess. The intellect represents for us the
universal, which is a confused and general knowledge and hence lacks the
concreteness of the senses.

But
higher than reason and intellect is "mens,"
which is the divine principle in us, similar to the illumination
of St. Augustine. Mens guarantees to us
not only the existence of objects distinct from the subject, but also gives us
assurance that our sense modifications are representations of these objects.
Thus Campanella believes that he has overcome
agnosticism with fideism.

III. Metaphysics

Campanella's metaphysics today has only a
historical value. It consists in the doctrine of the three primary facts:
"posse, nosse, velle"
(power, knowledge, volition). Reflection upon one's own consciousness reveals
three things: "I am; I know I am; I love my own being; hence I am power,
knowledge, love." These are the "three primalities"
of my being.

But
the same self-consciousness reveals to me that these three primalities
are limited. Hence they refer me to a Being in which power, knowledge
and volition ("posse, nosse, velle") are absolute, infinite. This is God.
Thus knowledge of self is knowledge of the subject, of the limits of the
subject, and of a Reality that transcends the subject.

Metaphysics
thus is made dependent on the theory of knowledge.

Another
particular of the metaphysics of Campanella is that
the universe is animated, and that all things feel and are felt.

IV. Religion

In
addition to his theory of knowledge, Campanella
distinguishes as innate religion and an acquired religion. The consciousness of
self reveals itself as a love of our own being and as an aspiration toward an
infinite being. Man not only loves what he actually is, but he acts for his own
conservation and tends toward an infinite being. But only God is infinite;
hence he who loves himself, loves God. Innate religion consists in this love of
God which man attains through love of self; this is natural religion.

All
positive religions are acquired, and all tend to be interpretations of innate
religion, that is, of natural religion. Of all positive religions only one
adequately expresses this innate or natural religion; this is Christianity, the
supernatural religion which satisfies all the exigencies of natural religion.

V. Politics

The
politics of Campanella is a practical application of
his philosophico-religious concept. In his work De
monarchia hispanica
(1599) he dreams of a universal society with the Pope as head of the religious
aspect and the King of Spain as head of the civil, assisted by a Senate made up
of all the princes of the world.

On the
other hand, in his City of the Sun, following the Republic of
Plato, he
visualizes a communist state. He imagines an ideal republic professing a
natural religion, directed by universal laws -- a state ruled by
philosopher-priests. Campanella calls the head of
this state King Sun; he is assisted by three ministers, Power, Wisdom, Love. In this republic all property and private homes and
family are abolished.

The thought
of Campanella is a compromise between the immanentist tendencies of the Renaissance and the Catholic
Counter-Reformation, which was carried out during his lifetime. His political
thought is inferior to that of Machiavelli, who truly represents the spirit of
the Renaissance.