In a time when ideology and convictions were shaped by the church, a new ideology was on the horizon that would begin the revolutionary transformation of the western world into what we know as the renaissance period. This new way of thought was brought about due to certain doctrines of the Catholic church that was viewed as uncanonical and dogmatic. The idealistic movement of Renaissance humanism’s spread throughout first Florence and then western Europe was greatly due to men with common convictions of human potential and achievement such as Ficino, Pico, and Alberti, while men such as Machiavelli contributed to humanism’s idea of freedom of expression with the acceptance of immoral and unlawful conduct.
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), …show more content…
Pico, like his contemporary Ficino, was skilled in translating and used his skills to translate writing in Hebrew, Arabic, Latin and also Greek Fiero 39). His contrary convictions of certain doctrines persuaded him to search out for the truth in diverse writings of philosophical scholars. Moreover, upon saturating himself with these early works of popular scholars, he came to the realization that there is a unity of truth in all philosophical thought, which is a type of pluralism. One of Pico’s influence of intellectual empowerment stemmed from a man called Petrarch, the “Father of Humanism”. Petrarch was a Christian that believed in the potential of humanity through means of recovering the lost Greco-Roman culture, which was rich in arts, poetry, and philosophical works. Furthermore, Pico’s zeal for these traditional thoughts of the power of human knowledge propelled him to affirm positions such as the self- fashioning potential of the human being. One of his writings called “Oration of the Dignity of Man” argues a point of the preeminence of man by free will. In other words, Pico mentions that man has the possibility to ascend to the highest level of perfection by his own means (Fiero 39). Consequently, from the biblical statement of “man being made a little lower than the angels” Pico argues points such as this excerpt: We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you may prefer.
Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), …show more content…
Pico, like his contemporary Ficino, was skilled in translating and used his skills to translate writing in Hebrew, Arabic, Latin and also Greek Fiero 39). His contrary convictions of certain doctrines persuaded him to search out for the truth in diverse writings of philosophical scholars. Moreover, upon saturating himself with these early works of popular scholars, he came to the realization that there is a unity of truth in all philosophical thought, which is a type of pluralism. One of Pico’s influence of intellectual empowerment stemmed from a man called Petrarch, the “Father of Humanism”. Petrarch was a Christian that believed in the potential of humanity through means of recovering the lost Greco-Roman culture, which was rich in arts, poetry, and philosophical works. Furthermore, Pico’s zeal for these traditional thoughts of the power of human knowledge propelled him to affirm positions such as the self- fashioning potential of the human being. One of his writings called “Oration of the Dignity of Man” argues a point of the preeminence of man by free will. In other words, Pico mentions that man has the possibility to ascend to the highest level of perfection by his own means (Fiero 39). Consequently, from the biblical statement of “man being made a little lower than the angels” Pico argues points such as this excerpt: We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you may prefer.