Aspetti del problema della conoscenza nella tradizione aristotelica: il ruolo dell’anima vegetativa e di quella sensitiva nei confronti dell’intelletto

This article comprises a survey on an often neglected aspect of the cognitive process that concerns the studies carried out from the XIV to the XVII century on the role of the sensory organs and their activity regarding the intellect. The studies on Aristotle’s De anima and the commentaries on it that were carried out between the XIX and XXI century concentrate mainly on the section of the text that deals with the rational soul, since it concerns the question of the immortality of the soul which was the most important controversy of the Renaissance. However, we need to remember that the rest of De anima is also crucially important, both on a philological level and an epistemological-medical one. Therefore, it is important to show the developments of a study that in the XIV century focused on the cognitive possibilities of the organic soul in connection with its metaphysical and theological implications and that in the XVI century became an inquiry into the physiological bases of sensation and the organs connected to it.