Innate Dignity

Pico Della Mirandola (1463-1494)

a) Why Pico feels that human beings have an innate dignity?

b) How he attempts to reconcile these new views with his Christian heritage?

Renaissance philosopher Pico Della Mirandola spoke the Oration on the Dignity of Man through which he called into question the importance of the human being. He held that God gifted man with the ability to choose his own destiny and his own perception with which to view life and everything around. Pico locates human dignity in our ability and choice to be whatever we want to be. His argument was that those abilities distinguished man from all other beings. He further argued in the Oration, that animals come into the world with everything they can ever have. Similarly, he believed that angel and other planetary beings similarly come into existence as complete beings that do not continue to grow. Only the human creature is given "with all potentials." Mirandola significances that the beauty of humanity is that it have an ever-changing nature. He goes on to explain that the philosopher is primary among men for his reason-based view on life, and even more so if he exceeds thoughts of the body and engages completely into consideration. He cites philosophers and intellects from a variety of faiths and cultures, so as not to appear two-faced, and suggests that any human has the potential for pondering existence. He calls into question the "well-worn doctrines" of some of his countrymen, urging his audience to look deeper, past the usual reasons given for human primacy such as the philosophical study of arithmetic and arts. He urges others to enter into a kingdom of comparative reason: man alone can choose his own path. His theory advances the idea that a description of...

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... of God as the One. Pico argues that human beings can become any aspect of the universe whatsoever. In traditional, Platonic Christianity, humanity occupied a middle position in the ladder of the universe: as both physical and spiritual, humanity sat dead center between the spiritual and physical worlds. Pico disturbed humanity from that position, dignified as it might be, and claimed that human beings could dominate any position whatsoever in the chain of being. Mankind is able to hold authority over any position in the chain of existence. A human being could become as low as an animal or, though intellect and imagination, become corresponding to God, at least in understanding.

Works Cited

Cole, Joshua. Western Civilizations: Their History and Their Culture. 3rd Ed. 2. W. W. Norton & Company, 2011. Print.

Mirandola, Pico. Oration on the Dignity of Man. 1486. Print.