La Quaestio de universalibus e gli interessi naturalistici di Pietro Pomponazzi

The article analyzes some introductive aspects of the ‘animastic’ commentary of the Quaestio de universalibus (1503) by Pietro Pomponazzi – first published by Antonino Poppi in 1970 – and shows the position of the Quaestio in Aristotelian psychology and related epistemological and naturalistic interests. The animastic definition regards the predication of genders and species, which could be considered as ‘real things’ or merely as mental concepts. This analysis requires a preliminary determination of the propositional ‘type’ to define the ‘status’ of psychology with respect to the other naturalistic sciences.