Epistemic Configurations: Experience in the Medieval Sciences of Soul and Body

What were the epistemic configurations of experience in the medieval sciences of soul and body? Simple sense perception, inspectio, anathomia, iudicatio by common sense, pre-universal experientia, and expertise all occupied distinctive, yet decidedly standardized spaces in the cognitive realm of the sapiens. For Peter of Spain (ca. 1215-1277), the science of animal souls and bodies required sense perception and judgment in acquiring knowledge, particularly of its most specific species. For Albert the Great (1200-1280), simple sense perceptions had the epistemic power to verify or falsify theoretical facts in the sciences of soul and body, but they first had to pass the common-sense judgment of the expert. All this shows that scientific experiences were principally shared by the sapientes; they were, so to speak, universal and individual at once. The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on these pragmatics of experience, both by exposing the mental realm as the integral backbone to the practices, standards, and conceptualizations of experience, and by illustrating how the ideals of this realm became embodied in the practices of the medieval life sciences developed by historical actors such as Peter of Spain and Albert the Great.