A cosmologia bruniana como pressuposto de uma reforma moral

Abstract

This study of "The bruniane cosmology as an assumption of moral reform" aims to analyze the relationship between the cosmological argument and the proposition of a moral reform on Giordano Bruno's thinking. This analysis was made from four works: Cena, De la causa, L infinito e Spaccio. The first three are fundamental to a cosmologic approach and the later address a reform of values. The structure of the cosmos held by Bruno has the following structure: the universe is infinite and populated by countless worlds. Such a statement in the sixteenth century was distant of the egocentric cosmology, in which the universe was considered to be finite and bounded by the sphere of the fixed stars and the Earth was motionless at the center of this structure. In works that deal with cosmology, Bruno elaborates a criticism of this model, having as his main interlocutor Aristotle. Copernicus, then, becomes the reference mark in which Bruno finds the support to elaborate his cosmology. However, the theme about the new structure of the cosmos is not limited to the sphere of philosophy of nature, it's also permeated by a theological dimension. Bruno accuses supporters of the finite universe of defending the existence of a fundamental infinite cause, God, which has as an effect the finite, the universe. The philosopher from Nola assumes that nature is a simulacrum of the divine and thus must also be infinite. He began his publications addressing the cosmological theme, but that wasn't an issue that was in crisis at the time, despite the astronomical evidences such as the emergence of a star called Nova in 1572 and the appearance of a comet in 1577. These events were not considered by astronomers of the period as evidence that contradicted the Aristotelian-Ptolemaic cosmological thesis. They provided a reading of the eschatological end of time, both by religious and intellectuals, an interpretation that was ignored by Bruno, who conceived the astronomical phenomena the end of an era, not of the physical world. The religious crisis that pervaded this period was mainly focused on the division of Christians into catholics and reformers. This crisis was more apparent than the cosmological one. But Bruno started its publications addressing the issue of the structure of the cosmos. We believe that his choice of dealing with cosmological themes rather than religion is based on the idea that it was not possible to discuss the religious crisis without first analyzing the cosmic structure on which society was based. In the work Spaccio Bruno hints towards a heavenly moral reform. The divine world is described as being crossed by the changes, the vicissitudes. This model could only be possible in a world considered as homogeneous, in which there is no distinction between its elements, between the human world and the divine.