The conceptual innovation of the causa sui is supposed to have originated with Descartes, according to Marion. Narbonne claims to find it in Plotinus. By considering both the Ficinian resurgence of the corpus of Plotinus and the debate between Ficino and Pico, the history of this innovation may be traced and the essential epistemological issue identified. The latter varies according to the way in which the intellect is integrated with reason and humanized as a function of its relation, hitherto so changeable, with respect to the causa sui itself, as well as the metaphysical principle that grounds it: the One, Being, or indeed the Infinite, by which God reveals himself as creator.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Morin, Y., (2025), "Le rapport à la causa sui: de Plotin à Descartes par la médiation du débat entre Ficin et Pic", HSSCommons: (DOI: )

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1. Renaissance and Reformation

Original publication: Morin, Yvan. "Le rapport à la causa sui: de Plotin à Descartes par la médiation du débat entre Ficin et Pic." Renaissance and Reformation 38 (2): 2020. 43-71. DOI: 10.33137/rr.v38i2.8768. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Iter Canada / Renaissance and Reformation. Copyright © the author(s). Their work is distributed by Renaissance and Reformation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.