The PHILOSOPHY of Pico della Mirandola

In this lesson from a TEACHER we offer you a brief summary of the philosophy of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian humanist and thinker of the 15th century and the author of Discourse on the Dignity of Man. This work, which he wrote at the age of 23, contains 900 theses on philosophy and religion, constitutes an authentic manifesto of the Renaissance and a fundamental text of the humanism. He is also known for being the founder of the Christian Kabbalah. The Decretals, is another of his works, and he wrote it at the age of 14, when he was studying at the University of Bologna.

If you want to know more about the philosophy of Pico della Mirandola, He continues reading this summary that a PROFESSOR offers you.

Was this thinker a great student of languages and so he learned Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Chaldean... due to his enormous interest in understanding the Kabbalah, the Koran, the Chaldean oracles and Plato's dialogues in his own language. Only from original texts you can get to understand his ideas well, he thought.

While in Paris he learned about the work of the Arab philosopher Averroes, who introduced the philosophy of Aristotlein the West and it was then that he thought of a unification of all the cultures that lasted at the time.

Upon his return to Italy he kidnaps the wife of Giuliano Moriotto dei Medici, a family of the Medici of Florence, without resources. The abduction of the woman involved the immediate persecution of him and he was wounded. To better understand the philosophy of Pico della Mirandola, we are going to analyze its more important works in which its ideological base is collected.

This is the fundamental work of Pico della Mirandola and is introduced by the Oratio de hominis dignitate, a classic of humanism. In it, he exposes 900 theses on philosophy, religion and even magic that Pico collects from different philosophical traditions, Latin, Arabic, Hebrew, Aristotelian, Platonic, without forgetting the esotericism of Hermes Trimegistus, nor the Hebrew books.

In the introduction to Conclusions philosophicae, cabalisticae et theologica, describes the fundamental principles of the Renaissance: freedom of expression, religious and cultural freedom, right to education and respect for tolerance.

In their 900 theses, Pico della Mirandola, proposes that the Christian religion can be the bridge of union of the different cultural traditions. The philosopher intended that his conclusions be discussed in Rome after the Epiphany of 1487 in order to promote understanding between all cultures.

Thus, the Italian thinker makes an interpretation of creation inspired by Plato's Genesis and Timaeus:

"I have not given a form, nor a specific function, to you, Adam. For this reason, you will have the form and function you want. The nature of other creatures I have given according to my desire. But you will have no limits. You will define your own limitations according to your free will. I will place you in the center of the universe, so that it is easier for you to dominate your surroundings. I have not made you mortal, nor immortal; neither from Earth, nor from Heaven. In such a way, that you can transform yourself into whatever you want. You can descend to the lowest form of existence as if you were a beast or you can instead reborn beyond the judgment of your own soul, among the highest spirits, those who are divine."

But the scholars of the church did not see with good Pico's thesis, in particular, 13 of them, for which he was accused and convicted of heresy. He flees to France and later returns to Italy, to Florence specifically, invited by Lorenzo de Medici. Shortly before his death (supposedly from poisoning), he entered the Dominican order.

We end this review of the philosophy of Pico della Mirandola talking about a work that was published after his death: Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatrice.

This work is written by Pico della Mirandola with the idea of condemn astrology, without a doubt, a fundamental science from its origin to the present day. In this work he exposes different arguments against astrology under the influence of San Agustin Y Marsilio ficino, the latter, Pico's teacher and astrologer. The problem with astrology is in the idea of ​​freedom.

After his death, the nephew of the thinker, admirer of the Dominican preacher Savonarola, publishes the book, which he possibly corrected with the idea of ​​being more radical in his attack.

It is said that the library of Pico della MirandolaIt was colossal and he left it as an inheritance to a friend because he did not want it to go to a convent, which was the most common at that time. In the epitaph of his tomb the following phrase reads: Here lies Pico della Mirandola: the Tagus, the Ganges, even the Antipodes know the rest.