The Marriage of True Minds
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THE MARRIAGE OF TRUE MINDS Of the Rise and Fall of the Idealized Conception of Friendship in the Renaissance Von der Gemeinsamen Fakultät für Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften der Universität Hannover zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie (Dr. phil.) genehmigte Dissertation von ROBIN HODGSON, M. A., geboren am 21.06.1969 in Neustadt in Holstein 2003 Referent: Prof. Dr. Gerd Birkner Korreferenten: Prof. Dr. Dirk Hoeges Prof. Dr. Beate Wagner-Hasel Tag der Promotion: 30.10.2003 ABSTRACT (DEUTSCH) Gegenstand der vorliegenden Untersuchung ist der Freundschaftsbegriff der Renaissance, der seinen Ursprung wesentlich in der antiken Philosophie hat, seine Darstellungsweisen in der europäischen (insbesondere der englischen und italienischen) Literatur des fünfzehnten und sechzehnten Jahrhunderts, und der Wandel, dem dieser beim Epochenwechsel zur Aufklärung im siebzehnten Jahrhundert unterworfen war. Meine Arbeit vertritt die Hypothese, dass sich die Konzeptionen der verschiedenen Formen zwischenmenschlicher Beziehung die sich spätestens seit dem achtzehnten Jahrhundert etablieren konnten, auf die konzeptionellen Veränderungen des Freund- schaftsbegriffs und insbesondere auf den Wandel des Begriffsverständnisses von Freundschaft und Liebe während der Renaissance und des sich anschließenden Epochenwechsels zurückführen lassen. Um diese Hypothese zu verifizieren, habe ich daher nach einer kurzen Übersicht über die konzeptionellen Ursprünge des frühneuzeitlichen Freundschaftsbegriffs zunächst das Wesen der primär auf den philosophischen Idealen der antiken Denker beruhenden Freundschaftskonzeption der Renaissance analysiert. Hierbei ließ sich eine grundlegende Disparität zwischen den klassisch inspirierten Idealvorstellungen und deren realer Umsetzung in der frühen Neuzeit nachweisen, die sich im weiteren Verlauf als mit ursächlich für die weitere Entwicklung des Freundschaftsbegriffs herausstellen sollte. Anschließend habe ich die weiteren Faktoren untersucht, die zu eben jenem Transformationsprozess führten, dem der Werte- und Normenhorizont des humanistischen Freundschaftsbegriffs vom Anbeginn der Epoche bis hin zur Aufklärung unterlag, und der letztlich zu einer Aufspaltung der traditionellen Beziehungskonzeptionen und zu einer Abwertung des Freundschaftskonzeptes führte. Diese Hypothese wird anhand ausführlicher Textanalysen repräsentativer Schriften zum Themenbereich untermauert. Neben Lyrik- und Dramentexten sind fiktionale Prosaschriften hierbei ebenso vertreten wie philosophische und theologische Abhandlungen oder die Korrespondenz herausragender Dichter der Epoche. Da zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Liebesbegriffs bereits ausführliche Studien vorliegen, es bislang zur Evolution der Freundschaftsidee jedoch kaum Unter- suchungen gibt, mag diese Arbeit zum Ausgleich des bestehenden Forschungsdefizits beitragen. ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) The present study will focus on the concept of friendship in the Renaissance, which had its origins mainly in classical philosophy, the way in that it was represented in the European, and especially the English and Italian literature of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the conceptual change to which it was subjected in the course of the transition from the period of the Renaissance to the age of the Enlightenment in the seventeenth century. The hypothesis on which my work is founded, assumes that the different conceptions of the various kinds of interpersonal relationship that have become established since the eighteenth century, could be related to the change of the conceptualization of friendship and love in the course of the Renaissance and the ensuing transition from this period to the next. In order to verify this hypothesis, I have first provided a brief overview of the conceptual origins of the early modern notions of friendship before I have analysed the nature of the friendship conceptions of the Renaissance itself, which are indeed primarily based on the philosophical ideals established by the classical thinkers in their theories of the subject. This examination has revealed the clear disparity that there had been between these classically inspired idealized conceptions and their realization in the early modern period. We might therefore say that it was certainly this disparity and the impossibility of reconciliation that have been causally responsible for the further development of the concept of friendship. Moreover, from the examination of the additional factors that have led to the transformation to which the humanistic conception of friendship was subjected in the course of the time from the dawn of the period to its end in the seventeenth century, we might conclude that in this century there has been a definite process of diversification of the traditional relationship conceptions, and that this process has led not only to a new set of views on relationships but to a debasement of the concept of friendship in particular. This hypothesis is verified by the extensive textual analysis of a number of representative contemporary sources dealing with the topic of friendship. Besides some fictional prose, there are also some pieces of poetry and drama, as well as various philosophical, theological, and even some epistolary texts included in this selection. As there are already comprehensive studies of the history of the development of the concept of love, yet until now hardly any of the conceptual evolution of the idea of friendship in existence, this work might be able to contribute to the filling of this gap. SCHLAGWORTE: o Freundschaft o Renaissance o Begriffswandel KEYWORDS: o friendship o Renaissance o conceptual change IUCUNDI ACTI LABORES Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum 2.32.105 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: OF A CONCEPT WE HAVE LOST .........................................................................9 1 THE THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS: THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE ............................................25 1.1. PLATO'S INTEGRATED THEORY OF FRIENDSHIP AND LOVE..................................................33 1.2. ARISTOTLE'S COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF FRIENDSHIP ..................................................45 1.3. CICERO'S THEORY OF FRIENDSHIP AS APPLIED ETHICS .......................................................55 2 THE REASSESSMENT OF THE CLASSICAL NOTIONS IN RENAISSANCE HUMANISM...................62 2.1. THE ACCESSIBILITY OF THE ANCIENT CLASSICS .................................................................68 2.2. THE COMMON LITERARY REPRODUCTIONS OF THE INHERITED IDEAS .................................74 3 REPRESENTATIONS OF FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN IDEALISM AND REALISM ................................90 3.1. DIDACTIC IDEALIZATIONS: FRIENDSHIP AS AN EDUCATIONAL END....................................91 3.2. THE COMMUNITY OF FRIENDS: HUMANISTIC 'PEN-PALS' AND THE QUEST FOR REAL FRIENDSHIP .......................................................................................119 3.3. PATRONAGE AND CLIENTAGE: THE VOCABULARY OF FRIENDSHIP AND EARLY MODERN PRAGMATISM ...........................................................................133 4 THE CONCEPTUAL CRISIS OF FRIENDSHIP IN THE LATE RENAISSANCE ................................159 4.1. FROM CLASSICAL TO MODERN VIEWS OF FRIENDSHIP: THE DECAY OF THE IDEALIZED IDEAS ........................................................................................160 4.2. THE CHALLENGE: FRIENDSHIP VERSUS LOVE - AND THE CONCEPTUAL RIVALRY BETWEEN REASON AND PASSION........................................................................168 5 FRIENDSHIP AS LOVE - LOVE AS FRIENDSHIP: THE CONCEPTS REDEFINED........................202 5.1. FRIENDSHIP AND THE SEXES: CAN A WOMAN ALSO BE A FRIEND? ...................................204 5.2. THE REINTERPRETATION OF THE PLATONIC THEORY OF LOVE AND THE NEW CONCEPT OF COMPANIONATE MARRIAGE ...........................................................214 5.3. A LOVE FEARFUL TO NAME: AFFECTIONATE FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN VIRTUE AND SODOMY ........................................................................................226 BIBLIOGRAPHY.........................................................................................................................238 PRIMARY SOURCES: ...............................................................................................................238 SECONDARY SOURCES ...........................................................................................................244 8 The marriage of true minds FORMELLER ANHANG ..............................................................................................................255 ZUSAMMENFASSUNG IN DEUTSCHER SPRACHE.......................................................................255 DANKSAGUNG .......................................................................................................................265 LEBENSLAUF .........................................................................................................................266 INTRODUCTION: OF A CONCEPT WE HAVE LOST n the year 1777, in the heyday of the European Enlightenment and about one and a half centuries after the end of the Renaissance, an English essayist by the name I of Susannah Dobson finds it apparently necessary to introduce the preface to her philosophic treatise on the topic of friendship, her Dialogue on Friendship and Society, with the following excuse: To address the Public on Friendship, I am sensible requires an apology.—On so worn-out a subject, I cannot hope to present the world with