Melanchthon, Salomon Alberti, and Francesco Piccolomini on Moral Psychology and the Physiology of Vice

Matthias Roick

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Chapter 3 Melanchthon, Salomon Alberti, and Francesco Piccolomini on Moral Psychology and the Physiology of Vice

In: Vice, Sin, and Sociability in Early Modern Philosophy

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Matthias Roick

Matthias Roick
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 59–84

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004424036-005

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Abstract

This chapter analyses how Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560), Salomon Alberti (1540– 1600), and Francesco Piccolomini (1523–1607) described vice in terms of moral psychology and physiology. In their textbooks, treatises, and commentaries, they drew on different strands of the tradition to present a balanced moral psychology that privileged neither an overly positive nor an overly pessimistic view of human nature. They also emphasized the physiological aspects of ethics, offering a physics rather than a metaphysics of morality. In doing so, they did not break with the past or chart a direct path to modernity, but they gave us insight into the problems associated with moral psychology and physiology at a time when we are struggling to understand the implications of evolutionary biology and neuroscience.

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Vice, Sin, and Sociability in Early Modern Philosophy

Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Volume: 366

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004424036

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 31 Mar 2026

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Part 1 The Nature and Origins of Vice

Part 2 The Social Utility of Vice

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Chapter 3 Melanchthon, Salomon Alberti, and Francesco Piccolomini on Moral Psychology and the Physiology of Vice

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Vice, Sin, and Sociability in Early Modern Philosophy

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