Fantasie, assenso, opinioni : su Platone, Aristotele, Poliziano

In the early modern philosophy the terms imaginationes and phantasiae are often used as synonyms for ‘false or uncertain opinions'. Such use is remarkable for two reasons: 1) it seems to imply that a certain kind of belief derives from phantasy, that is a ‘pre-rational' faculty; 2) it contradicts the aristotelian standpoint on the difference between phantasia and doxa. This paper aims to discuss two opposite views on phantasy and opinion (the platonic view and the aristotelian one) and argue that the assimilation of ‘imaginations' and ‘opinions' in the Renaissance philosophy depends on the return of ancient Stoicism, by means of Polizianus' translation of the Enchiridion. [Editor's text]