Between Faculty Psychology and Moral Philosophy: Juan Luis Vives on Phantasia and the Education of the Prince

While existing scholarship has sometimes acknowledged the importance of fantasy as the primary internal sense in Juan Luis Vives's (1492/1493-1540) account of the soul in De anima et vita (1538), the conceptual reasons behind the significance of fantasy in the treatise remain largely unknown. This article argues that the prominence given to fantasy in De anima (1538) can be read as a reflection on some of the larger presuppositions of Erasmian ethical, political, and rhetorical thought. Since fantasy held a key position between the bodily and the rational, a correct interpretation of its functions was of pivotal importance for practices of ethical self-government central to all Erasmian moral and political philosophy. Simultaneously, fantasy occupied a distinct
place in the rhetorical literature of the time, since it was mainly through fantasy that the mind of the audience could be cultivated or reached. The moral philosophical and rhetorical uses of fantasy have an explicit political dimension in the figure of the prince. The article argues that the power of fantasy played a significant role in the formation and counselling of the ruler.