Lo spirito e l'intelletto. Il Syst?me de l'ame di Cureau de La Chambre tra panpsichismo e cartesianismo

The article examines Marin Cureau de La Chambre's Système de l'âme (1664), highlighting the role played in the work by the tradition of Italian Renaissance naturalism. La Chambre profoundly criticizes the very concept of 'passion of the soul', attacking the Aristotelian doctrine of the possible intellect but, contemporarily, also the direct interaction between body and mind presupposed by Descartes in Les passions de l'âme. The solution adopted by Cureau is based on the doctrine of intermediate substances, which allows him to resume Ficino's model, reconciling it with Descartes' intellectualist dualism and integrating the latter with a panpsychism of Campanellian brand.