Abstract

The first goal of our study is to set forth a survey of the historical background of the problem of motion and change and of some Greek cosmological views of the universe. If Dante's cosmological view of the universe as a whole goes beyond the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic view accepted in medieval times, then an introductory historical background of some Greek models or cosmologies of the universe may be set usefully forth as a source of Dante's thought, especially those of such thinkers as Plato, Aristotle, and Ptolemy. Likewise, I shall deal with some of Dante's precursors and contemporaries in the Middle Ages. I shall survey the views of some cosmographers who had a direct influence on Dante, such as Dionysius the Aeropagite, Avicenna, Albertus Magnus, and St. Thomas of Aquinas. ;As to the second goal, which is actually the nucleus of our study, we shall consider the Neoplatonic concept of love and its procession of emanation in relation to Dante's concept of dynamic and creative power of love which, as the First Efficient Cause, pervades everything in the universe. Thus, Dante's dynamic force of love, whose source is God, eliminates the dichotomy between the supralunary and the sublunary realms of the Aristotelian-Ptloemaic cosmology, and it gives rise to a pre-Newtonian uniform space. ;As to the third goal, we shall attempt to show how this dynamic power or virtue of Love moves and connects the angelic Intelligences of the Empyrean, as Dante calls it, with the planetary spheres of the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic universe. The angelic Intelligences, or orders, are considered as the Platonic "pattern" with their respective virtues, or motive powers, bestowed. upon them by God's dynamic love, whereas the planetary spheres are considered the "copy" and are moved and guided by the emanative virtue of those motive angelic orders or Intelligences. This relation, in Dante's cosmological system, unveils how the invisible theological framework is imposed on and operates in the physical framework of the cosmos. This feature in Dante's cosmology is a significant and radical advance beyond the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic system