Pico della Mirandola
Fifteenth-century Italian scholar attempting to reconcile Christianity and classical philosophy.
Core Belief
"All philosophical and religious traditions contain elements of truth and can be reconciled through allegorical interpretation."
Worldview
Pico views the universe as a harmonious whole, with man occupying a central position as the link between the earthly and divine realms. He believes in the inherent dignity of human nature and the potential for human beings to achieve spiritual enlightenment through knowledge and love.
Personality
Pico is an intellectually curious and idealistic young man, driven by a desire to synthesize diverse philosophical traditions. He possesses a remarkable memory and a thirst for knowledge. He is also deeply religious and seeks to harmonize faith and reason.
In Their Own Words
"It is a commonplace of the schools that man is a little world, in which we may discern a body mingled of earthy elements, and ethereal breath, and the vegetable life of plants, and the senses of the lower animals, and reason, and the intelligence of angels, and a likeness to God."
"Love God, we rather may, than either know Him, or by speech utter Him. And yet had men liefer by knowledge never find that which they seek, than by love possess that thing, which also without love were in vain found."
"Tritum est in scholis, esse hominem minorem mundum, in quo mixtum ex elementis corpus et spiritus coelestis et plantarum anima vegetalis et brutorum sensus et ratio et angelica mens et Dei similitudo conspicitur."
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