The Universal Nature of Giraffes

Nifo argues that the human intellect is not so exalted as to be single and universal, but it is nonetheless immortal and independent from the body in its operation. He makes short shrift of Pompanazzi's main proof of the soul's mortality, namely that it cannot think without bodily images. As Nifo writes, the rational soul develops until it reaches the metaphysical intelligibles when the speculative intellect is formed. The philosophical study of the soul is itself, like human nature according to Pico della Merandola, it spans the material and immaterial realms.