Backgrounds of the Divine comedy [Texte imprimé] : a series of lectures / by Dino Bigongiari ; including four lectures by Henry Paolucci ; edited by Anne Paolucci

Dante's plan: the ladder of love -- Dante's age -- The Greek influence -- Reality and Being: the search for unity -- Order and unity, the Pythagoreans and the magic of numbers -- Fortune and the heteronomy of ends: Heraclitus and the eternal law -- Democritus and the Sophists -- Protagoras -- The Sophists and the doctrine of individualism -- Dante's love poem and the moral philosophy of Socrates -- Plato's ideas; the foundation of ethical conduct -- Plato's concept of the soul -- The structure and purpose of the state in Plato -- The Aristotolean solution: potency into act -- The reception of Aristotle in the thirteenth century -- Aristotle's form matter, and the doctrine of places -- Aristotle's four causes; Chance and fortune; God as pure act -- Aristotle's doctrine of the "Golden mean" -- The transcendent logos made flesh in Christianity -- Aristotle's idea of the state; Ethics as a function of politics -- The forms of government -- The "organistic" theory of the state -- The yearning for salvation: mediation -- The new religion of faith, hope and love; St. Augustine and St. Thomas -- St. Augustine: the source of great dogmas and great heresies -- Introduction to The divine comedy: the love poem that leads to God -- Aristotle's potency and act: virtue and the golden mean / Henry Paolucci -- Aristotle's Ethics as the premise for the state / Henry Paolucci -- The Greek heritage / Henry Paolucci -- The fall of the empire and the new religion / Henry Paolucci