Nuovi strumenti per pensare : Ramon Llull e la filosofia per i laici nel Liber de ascensu et descensu intellectus

Llull’s self-consciousness as a lay philosopher and his attitude towards Scholastic philosophy can be peculiarly scrutinized in his Liber de ascensu et descensu intellectus (Montpellier 1305), a work that was written for lay people (homines saeculares), who wish to acquire knowledge (scientia). In its prologue, the Liber de ascensu was ars, although peculiar artistic devices such as alphabet and figures are not present. In this work Llull introduces a basic choice of philosophical doctrines by means of a peculiar combinatory of eight subiecta (stone, fire, plant, animal, man, sky, angel, God) and twelve key-concepts of Scholastic philosophy (act, action, passion, nature, substance and accident, simple and composite, individual, species, genus, being). The way both series are combined resembles the mixtio of principles in the Lullian art. Using such philosophical tools, Llull describes the dynamics of the human intellect (sense, imagination, doubt, faith, and knowledge) in its going up and down the ‘ladder of being’. Thus a ‘method’ is established, by which philosophical knowledge can be acquired.