The reform of knowledge and the rejection of dogmatism : revisiting Campanella's Prologus instauratarum scientiarum

Abstract

This article examines the history of the text published in 1636 as De gentilismo non retinendo and argues for referencing it by the title assigned to it in its second edition a year later. This choice not only honours Campanella's ultimate preference but also more accurately captures the text's role as a prolegomenon to his comprehensive encyclopaedic project aimed at a general reform of knowledge. Through a nuanced analysis of the Prologus, the article foregrounds key parts that have often been overshadowed in scholarship by its more explicitly anti-­Aristotelian contents, and highlights Campanella's fundamental rejection of dogmatism as a necessary prerequisite for philosophical inquiry. This strong stance, quintessential to Campanella's intellectual legacy, represents both a distillation of his metaphilosophical approach and the foundational framework for the universal reform he envisaged as extending beyond philosophy into other realms such as religion and politics.