25 pages • 50 minutes read
Giovanni Pico della MirandolaOration on the Dignity of Man
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1496A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Pure Reason as the Highest Trait
According to Pico, pure reason represents the highest level of being. At lower levels, plants and animals lack reason. Man can descend to lower levels, and become like a plant or animal. However, man reaches his zenith by ascending to the higher level of pure reason.
Pico considers practical reason as a lower form of reason, which people should limit. He views divine philosophy as the highest, purest form of reason.
Numbers are seen as the highest form of thought. Magic, too, is described as being in the province of philosophy and religion. It comes in two types: dark and light. The light magic connects the high with the low, interpreting the divine for the earthly.
Pico also discusses physics and metaphysics, poetry, and other topics. Reason, in any form, connects the disparate parts of the world. When man acts without reason, or with impure forms of reason, he descends. When man acts with pure reason, he rises.
Pico himself withdrew from much of society outside of contemplation. He declares that he prefers reason to other activity, more so after years of devoting himself to it.
As have other thinkers, Pico likens thought to physical activity. Both require exercise. Philosophical expositions such as his disputations can be likened to gladiatorial contests. The disputants improve their thinking, rising to higher levels.
Through pure thought, people can rise to the divine. As such, they would have no want to return to the lower levels of having earthly problems.
Freedom as the Defining Trait of Man
Man has the freedom to act in higher or lower ways, separating him from all other creatures. A plant or animal, by contrast, does not have the same freedom to leave its environs.
When man acts in a certain way, he becomes like his actions. For example, someone who lies around consuming would become plantlike. Someone who only heeds his senses would become an animal.
Man has the freedom to become like any other part of creation. For Pico, the greatest result of this freedom is for a man to pursue philosophy and theology, transcending earthly limits.
Pico himself had the freedom to study diverse topics at numerous universities. He dedicated himself to his studies, in the pursuit of what he considers the highest level of ideal, pure thought.
A plant has an extremely small amount of freedom. It can only grow according to the weather. An animal has a slightly larger amount of freedom. It can run or fly about, although only within its particular environment. Even divine beings could have less freedom than man, according to Pico. Therefore, they could envy man for his freedom.
Freedom represents the ability to get up or down the levels of being. According to Pico, this freedom among levels connects with philosophy, religion, magic, and mathematics.
The Unity of Things
Pico sees man as the unity of all creatures. Unlike an animal, which resides only in its own place, man can reside anywhere.
Previous thinkers had described man as an intermediate between higher and lower levels. However, Pico extends this idea to consider man as more deeply connecting all things.
Pico writes that after creation of the plants and animals and other beings, nothing was left for man. Instead, man received a part of all other things.
Through his wide base of sources, Pico sees unity among philosophers and theologians from different schools and nations. For example, he cites Christian and Hebrew and Greek authorities on cleanliness as preparation for thought. According to Pico, all these different thinkers have the same point.
Magicians unify higher and lower places, as does religion. While many of his contemporaries disagreed about each idea, for Pico, there is a unity among them. He considers magic comparable to religion, and poetry comparable to philosophy.
Numbers, as the highest form of thought, can unite all other forms of thought. Pico has a philosophy that brings together different ideas from different cultures into a viewpoint that combines Christianity, numbers, secret knowledge, and arts and sciences from other cultures.
In the Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico unites 900 ideas from numerous disciplines. He brings together the teachings of different religions, philosophical schools of thought, secret societies, poets, and magicians. Pico had studied in different languages, uniting ideas in his new philosophy.
According to the philosophy of Pico, peace unites the inner conflicting parts of a man, enabling him to rise higher. As man transcends worldly problems, he unites with the divine.
