title: Humans, elephants, diamonds and gold: patterns of intentional design in Girolamo Cardano's natural philosophy.
abstract: Distancing himself from both Aristotelian and Epicurean models of natural change, and resisting delusions of anthropocentric grandeur, Cardano advanced a theory of teleology centred on the notion of non-human selfhood. In keeping with Plato, he argued that nature was ruled by the mind, meaning by "mind" a universal paragon of intelligibility instantiated through patterns of purposive action ("noetic" teleology). This allowed Cardano to defend a theory of natural finalism in which life was regarded as a primordial attribute of being, already in evidence in the most elementary forms of nature, whose main categories were ability to feign, self-interest, self-preservation and indefinite persistence.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Giglioni
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049669:History, 16th Century; D040821:Human Characteristics; D006801:Humans; D019368:Nature; D010684:Philosophy / Q000266:history*; D012067:Religion / Q000266:history