Pietro Pomponazzi's Epistemic and Experiential Empiricism

Pietro Pomponazzi (1462-1525) was one of the leading figures of Renaissance Aristotelianism. He is generally known for his rational defense of the materiality of the soul, for his general belief in fate, and for his naturalization of miracles. Behind all of these doctrines, however, lies a new form of empiricism. Pomponazzi’s empiricism can be characterized in a twofold manner. First, Pomponazzi’s empiricism is based on the idea that without knowledge coming from experience, that is without sensation, there is no knowledge and hence no science. All our knowledge starts and comes from experience ⎯ that is, it is dependent on it. Second, according to Pomponazzi, experience is the sole yardstick for truth in science and it is superior to any authority or rational argument. For the sake of simplicity, the former kind of empiricism will be characterized as epistemic empiricism, and the latter as experiential empiricism. This paper focuses on these two forms of empiricism, which are in some ways radical in comparison with the earlier Aristotelian tradition and paved the way for original philosophical and scientific conceptions in early modern philosophy.