Michelangelo Fardella

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Michelangelo Fardella (* 1650 in Trapani , † January 2, 1716 in Naples ) was a Sicilian scholar who mainly worked in the fields of philosophy and mathematics .

Live and act

Fardella studied in Messina with Giovanni Alfonso Borelli , from whom he accepted the theories of Democritus . But he himself valued more the world of ideas of René Descartes , which he had learned during his stay in Paris while exchanging ideas with Antoine Arnauld , Nicolas Malebranche and Bernard Lamy (1640–1715) in the years 1678 to 1680. For more than 25 years - from 1690 to 1714 - he maintained contact with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , four years his senior , who was one of the pioneers of the Enlightenment . The correspondence between the two consists of 586 pages and is in the Hanover State Library . Another important correspondent for him was Antonio Magliabechi . As a member of the Franciscan Order , he taught mathematics in Rome , later also in Modena and from 1693 in Padua ; as a secular priest he also teaches astronomy and philosophy. In 1709 he left Padua and went to Barcelona but returned to Italy three years later.

In 1707 he was accepted as a foreign member of the Royal Prussian Society of Sciences .

Belief and vision

In 1689 a Venetian inquisition was started against him, but it fizzled out. The allegation was heresy , and doubts arose in the course of the trial about the allegations that branded him a Lutheran .

For Fardella's understanding it is not possible to prove the independent existence of material reality:

“La stessa esperienza ci insegna che spesso nel sogno percepiamo oggetti che veramente non possiamo ammettere realmente esistenti. Quante volte, la notte, mentre dormo, vedo splendere il sole sopra l'orizzonte e vedo muoversi in vari modi moltissime cose prodigiose, che non sono niente extra ideam ?. Dunque, quel che sento e vedo non può in nessun modo essere dedotto come realmente esistente. "

“The same experience teaches us that in dreams there are often objects that actually exist that we do not really admit. How many times at night, while sleeping, do I see the sun over the horizon and see it moving in different ways, many wondrous things that are not special? So what can I hear and see if it is not really derived from what is already there. "

literature

  • Alberto Barbata, Salvatore Corso: Frà Michelangelo Fardella. Biografia intellettuale. Biblioteca Fardelliana, Trapani 1993 ( [1] (PDF; 318 kB), [2] (PDF; 3.1 MB), [3] PDF).
  • Franco Aureluio Meschini:  Fardella, Michelangelo. In: Fiorella Bartoccini (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 44:  Fabron-Farina. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1994.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Salvatore Femiano: About the correspondence between Michelangelo Fardella and Leibniz . Studia Leibnitiana, Volume 14, Issue 2, Franz Steiner 1982, ISSN 0039-3185, page 153
  2. ^ Members of the previous academies. Michelangelo Fardella. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on March 20, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Fardella, Michelangelo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sicilian explorer and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH 1650
PLACE OF BIRTH Trapani
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 1716
Place of death Naples