Philosophy and Theology

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Dante’s philosophical and theological interests, starting from the poet’s account of the genesis of his love for philosophy in the second treatise of the Convivio. The circumstances of Dante’s philosophical formation are recalled, together with the Convivio’s main themes. This latter work is presented and discussed as a bold project of philosophical dissemination in the vernacular aimed, in almost messianic tones, at bringing to completion the natural desire for knowledge in which the ultimate human happiness consists. Particular attention is also paid to the limits of this project, in terms of both its recipients and its content. Dante’s relationship with the Averroistic tradition, the medical and physiognomic approach to the question of nobility, and the persistence of some genuinely philosophical themes in the context of the poetic theology of the Commedia are also examined.