ABSTRACT
Lionardo Di Capoa's Parere is just that: an opinion in response to a specific request by the Viceroy and the Consiglio Collaterale in 1678 put to a group of prominent Neapolitans for counsel on a legal regulatory policy. Di Capoa's attack on Aristotelian discursive modes seems simple, ordinary Aristotle-bashing. Di Capoa maintains a theoretical investment in the anima: this is not a recuperation, or a conscious continuation, of Aristotle on Di Capoa's part. Di Capoa wishes then, to protect medicine not only from mechanical applications of logical techniques, but also from premature, reductionist applications of beast/machine metaphors. Di Capoa wishes then, to protect medicine not only from mechanical applications of logical techniques, but also from premature, reductionist applications of beast/machine metaphors. Aristotle offers a 'biological concept of the soul' as the 'first actuality of life', the principle of life.
