"DUALISM IN THE NEW PHILOSOPHY OF OLIVA SABUCO; a philosophical perspective" by Maria Vintro

The philosophical perspective of Oliva Sabuco work has not been duly studied. She asked in the 16C for a reevaluation of Medicine, but in doing so, she also questioned Philosophy for Medicine is founded on the philosophical definition of the nature of human nature.

William Alston (Univ. Of Illinois) and Richard Brandt (The University of Michigan) says that

"...for Philosophy there is not a simple definition in terms of its subject matter, like is the case for Sociology being the study of society and Zoology being the study of animals etc. What is distinctive of Philosophy is that it raises important questions, questions that deal with even more fundamental issues than the ones risen by the sciences, questions about everything, even questions about other questions. The reason is that Philosophy is concerned with a kind of unity where very often we cannot arrive to the answer of one question without first answering other questions . . . "

It is difficult to discern if Sabuco's work is medical or philosophical. Medicine had failed, says Sabuco, because classical philosophers provided with "precepts" but not with "prescriptions" in order to be able to deal with human nature; their principles were misunderstood.

Oliva states: "... Delight, Contentment and Merriment are the main reasons why mankind lives and is healthy, and Sorrow and Discontent are why he dies. Plato called this contentment and merriment the harmony between soul and body in which he included health, and the sorrow and discontent he called discord between the soul and body, and in it he included diseases, and he was right. But the physicians did not understand him..."

In her work, Oliva questions the scope of these relations and tries to prove her theory in a scientific manner. Sabuco says that in humans, health, disease and violent death are the consequence of the soul/mind and body workings, and in her thesis describes the systematic relations between the soul/mind and body. Oliva considers that in humans there are two main processes that she calls Harmonies which are closely linked to their health. The First Harmony or process starts in the brain ( the prince or the ruler she says) and is bound by how the pia-mater effects positive or negative emotions . The positive produce an increment and the negative cause a decrement.. The pia-mater discharges a chilo o sap (succo nervoso) whose quality affects the body because it travels down though its nervous system Oliva describes how good, positive emotions related with happiness, contentment and hope- for- the- good bring health and life on account of the chilo's good qualities. On the contrary, she says, when the chilo is bad, such as the one coming from unleashed negative emotions of sadness, worry, envy, hate, etc., it affects negatively organs and systems, producing disease and death.. Oliva introduces in this process Christian virtues and sins which -she says- act the same way

Her work becomes a scientific- religious project.

Sabuco talks about the soul. She describes a tripartite soul that she says sits in the brain. She talks about a transitory soul (anima) and an eternal soul (alma). The differences between animals and humans are described by Sabuco through many examples of animal behavior taken from Pliny the Elder. The extent of the animal soul is sometimes not clearly defined. To be remarked: at the time, philosophical definitions of human nature were scrutinized by the Inquisition.

The scope of Sabuco philosophical message involves two theories: one secular and one religious The secular one has survived to our days as psychosomatic Medicine; it encompasses the relations between the mind and the body as one substance because is founded on the concept of a transitory mind in a Holistic approach to human nature.

The religious theory involves the workings of the eternal soul and its relations to the mind and body. It refers to two substances where the survival of the body and the salvation of the soul become intertwined. Dualism is on the table. Dualism faces the problem of working out an adequate conception of the nature of a human being that takes into account the differences between mental and non- mental realities, and their intimate connection.Dualism has been discussed since the beginning of Philosophy. Lucretius had already proposed a single physical perspective to soul/mind and body when warning against religious power and beliefs.

As we know, there are different forms and perspectives pertaining to Dualism such as the unison theory of Spinoza, the monist Leibniz position, and others. Oliva is closer to the Cartesian Dualism that accepts interactions. Descartes -who came some decades after her- is nevertheless known as the first Dualist-interactionist. In fact, in the matter of emotions/passions, Descartes accepted interactions between the soul/mind and the body only in his last work "Les Passions de l'âme " (1649). Before that he had considered them as a "hindrance" for his theory of the soul ( Letter to Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia in 1614 ). I do not dare compare Oliva Sabuco to the great Descartes. I just want to point out that Sabuco deserves to be called a pre-Descartes Dualist Interactionist

We can conclude that Sabuco philosophical contribution to the Mind and Body Problem is an innovative approach that merits recognition. Yet, because of the influence of the Inquisition when this work was published, more research on the scope of the internal relations between the soul/mind and body that Oliva describes is recommended.

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