Against classical republicanism: The averroist foundations of marsilius of Padua’s political thought

The purpose of this article is to provide new and overlooked textual evidence that re-opens the question of the Averroist foundations of Marsilius of Padua’s political thought. The analysis pursues this goal in two different ways. First, it shows that, contrary to a long-standing scholarly consensus, in Marsilius’ The Defender of Peace we find traces of a key Averroist idea that was also present in several Parisian Averroist magistri of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: That philosophy is the highest form of human perfection. Secondly, unlike what has been stated almost unanimously in the Marsilian scholarship, it is shown that there are parallels between Marsilius’ ideas and some political positions that are present in the work ofMarsilius’ Averroist friend John of Jandun. In an attempt to make sense of the political implications of Marsilius’ Averroist ideas, the article also claims that these ideas highlight a substantial departure of Marsilius’ political theory from some key assumptions of classical republicanism.