Giordano Bruno: Cause, Principle and Unity: And Essays on Magic (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) (Paperback)

~ (Author), Richard J. Blackwell (Editor), Robert de Lucca (Editor), Alfonso Ingegno (Introduction) "Addressed to the most illustrious Monsieur Michel de Castelnau Seigneur of Mauvissiere, Concressault, and Joinville, Chevalier of the Order of the most Christian King, Counsellor..." (more)
Key Phrases: ofa bond, passive potency, absolute potency (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The works of Giordano Bruno have for so long been confined to the Renaissance tradition of Hermeticism and magic, as they were presented by Frances Yates...that it is heartening to find some of them included in the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, edited by Desmond Clarke. Richard J. Blackwell's first ever English translation of two of the final works on magic are free renderings of Bruno's Latin, much aided by the recent Italian translations by Albano Biondi...They read well, and it is of great importance that the English-speaking public should at last have available Bruno's remarkable General Account of Bonding, which investigates the ways in which minds act on, and react to, one another in a desire for gratification." Choice --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Giordano Bruno's notorious public death in 1600, at the hands of the Inquisition in Rome, marked the transition from Renaissance philosophy to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. This volume presents new translations of Cause, Principle and Unity, in which he challenges Aristotelian accounts of causality and spells out the implications of Copernicanism for a new theory of an infinite universe, as well as two essays on magic, in which he interprets earlier theories about magical events in the light of the unusual powers of natural phenomena.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (December 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521596580
• ISBN-13: 978-0521596589
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #414,769 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Look at Giordano Bruno's Philosophy, May 10, 2001

By	Tan Kwan Seng (Singapore) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book consists of 2 parts. The first part "Cause, Principle and Unity" is about his theory of an infinite universe. While you may either agree or disagree with him on certain points, I think (maybe you, too) will find the idea of a "world-soul" intriguing. This part consists of 5 dialogues.

The other part comprise two essays, one on magic and the other is his treatise on bonding in general. This part presents some ideas which I think would be interesting not just to magicians but anybody who wants to know and wonder, from a philosophical point of view, what magic is and bonding in general.

Any student of philosophy is likely to enjoy this book (either the first or second or both).

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ... Science, March 11, 2003

By	Horst von Teufelstier (Hyde Park, Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Giordano Bruno: Cause, Principle and Unity: And Essays on Magic (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) (Hardcover)

Giordano Bruno is not only a writer of marvelous wit and virtuosity, and the only one since Plato to breathe life into the philosophical dialogue, but also a thinker of great consequence, imagination and purity. While he is generally seen to stand at the threshold between the medieval and the modern, cabilistic magic and scientific rationality, it is wrong to regard him merely as an anticipation of Leibniz and Spinoza. In certain respects, indeed, he goes farther in freeing thought from the residues of Scholasticism, and if his understanding of the coincidence of absolute potentiality and absolute actuality as the ground of Being points the way to Schelling, the freer winds of his thinking, with its wondrous openness towards the possibilities of the body as the possibilities of life, make him a kindred spirit of Nietzsche.