Abstract

The foundation of Telesio’s physics is remarkably straightforward: he assumes that every phenomenon is explained by referring to the agency of two main principles, heat and cold. Yet, Telesio’s apparently simple physics leads to paradoxes when dealing with two specific problems which Aristotle had already discussed: the explanation of how rivers form and of how insects might be generated in a furnace. If water is simply earth made fluid by the action of the heat, why do rivers maintain a regular course, and how can the flow of water remain constant? And if generation can occur whenever spirit is enclosed to form a living being, thanks solely to the action of the heat, would it not be possible for animals to be generated by controlling any source of heat? This essay shows that Telesio’s answers to these questions reveal his approach to metaphysics, and that this in turn must trigger a historiographical reassessment of the portrait of Telesio at the threshold of modernity.