Felice in questa vita. La riflessione di Pietro Pomponazzi sulla natura dell’uomo a partire dal De immortalitate animae

this article examines the way in which Pietro Pomponazzi established the nature of man, start- ing with chapter XIv of De immortalitate animae. the author analyzes in detail Pomponazzi’s doctrine according to which human happiness consists in the perfection of practical intellect, thus excluding theoretical activity, considered as linked to a form of life so exceptional as to be unable to represent the common human condition. therefore, the author focuses his attention on some difficulties that arise from this perspective, especially those related to the place that philosophy and knowledge would have, in the context of the conservation and promotion of mankind. Finally, the article shows how Pomponazzi, in the last years of his career, did not limit himself to re-proposing the thesis matured in De immortalitate, but he emphasized a pre- cise figure of human excellence: the philosopher of nature