"Unibilitas". Back to the Source of the Souls's Unibility to the Body

The concept of the unibility of the soul to the body, present in almost all medieval theologians, has its sources in the Neo-Platonic concepts of ropé and neusis. In Plotinus and Neo-Platonic thinkers the deviation of the black horse of the Phaedo downwards is not really a fault, but rather a natural tendency that can illuminate the realities of below. John Philoponus, then, uses this concept to reach an agreement between the Platonic and the Aristotelian conception of the soul. This agreement was to find a long-lasting systematization in the Middle Ages thanks to the solution put forward by Avicenna, who spoke of an affectio inclinationis or a comparatio of soul and body which, even within Platonic dualism, postulates an exclusive relationship between every soul and its own body. Thanks to its proximity to the Augustinian doctrine of the soul, Avicenna’s doctrine provided medieval theologians with an epistemological justification for the concept of unibility.