Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Pico Della Mirandola (extra credit)

Renaissance humanists had a very positive view of mankind. They greatly appreciated past human achievements, and had an exceptionally high view of human potential . Read through some of Pico della Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man at the link below. Cite a line or two that particular well illustrates Pico's "humanism," i.e., either his appreciation for the past or his optimism about human potential. As an alternative, just cite a line that you particularly like from this work and explain why you like it.

http://www.cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/Mirandola/

8 comments:

  1. "But how can anyone judge or love what he does not know?" I know that this is probably referring to God and not being able to see Him and His awesome deeds, but it goes for everyone. People are too quick to judge what they have not experienced or not know. Also, people tend to like something just because someone else does, and they have never seen or experienced but rather just going off words or feelings of others. I guess I like this because of the brutal honesty it portrays.

    Teresa Pengilly

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  2. Approximately in the seventh paragraph he talks about the creation of man--"if rational, he will reveal himself a heavenly being; if intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God." I can see how statements like this earned Pico Della Mirandola the label of heretic in his day. Pico believed man was creatted with free will to make good decisions. He also believed each person could directly communicate with God bypassing a priest. (This parallels the protestant view of the Catholic sacrament of Reconsiliation). Pico expressed a lot of ideas that turned religious beliefs of the day upside down--fitting into the theme of "new" related to spiritual life in the Renaissance and actually previewing the changes to come with the Reformation.

    Darcy Mammenga

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  3. "who then will not look with awe upon this our chameleon or who at least will look with greater admiration or any other being?" Everyone looks at a chameleon and see it can transform just like humans can. They can form into whatever society accepts. Like the different religion and political aspects of life. They look at this chamelon with awe but in all reality people are all the same way.

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  4. I think these readings made me stop and think. Alot of people tend to agree with others just to fit in, and they don't know what they are agreeing with. I think people need to think befor they speek because they might be agreeing with something they don't know the true facts about. Pico Della Mirandola explains that people have free will and will do what they want. I think this is true becuase I see it happen everyday. He also belives people should communicate with God through a preist, but I think people can communicate on their own with God. In the reading it said people tend to judge a lot. I think this is also true becuase people judge something before they know the truth about it. This sometimes is bad becuase they get the wrong first impression.

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  5. I think these readings made me stop and think. Alot of people tend to agree with others just to fit in, and they don't know what they are agreeing with. I think people need to think befor they speek because they might be agreeing with something they don't know the true facts about. Pico Della Mirandola explains that people have free will and will do what they want. I think this is true becuase I see it happen everyday. He also belives people should communicate with God through a preist, but I think people can communicate on their own with God. In the reading it said people tend to judge a lot. I think this is also true becuase people judge something before they know the truth about it. This sometimes is bad becuase they get the wrong first impression.

    Thomasina Rohrbach

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  6. “But how can anyone judge or love what he does not know?” I particularly like this because it reminds us not to be too quick to jump to conclusions. More often than not, people of today’s society make decisions based solely on what they see or hear right away. Even though first impressions are important, we should not base our relationships with others off of them. We are quick to make an assumption of someone or judge them by what they look like or what they are doing. Pico della Mirandola reminds us not to do this but rather to accept everyone with open arms and give them a chance. Once you get to know a person and have had the change to meet them and talk with them, then you can make your decisions. But, do not do it too quickly or else you could be missing something that could benefit your life.
    Nichole Anderson

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  7. “since we have been born into this condition of being what we choose to be” I like this sentence, I know that god might determine what kind of us when we were born. No matter what the signs say, you will always be yourself. I think not everyone was born in thus a high position. One cannot handle everything going on one’s way. Maybe you were born in a common family and have a plain face, but it just a beginning of your life, it can’t decided what you will be in the future. It depends on you, you should be a go-getter rather than just a believer, meanwhile, unite your courage and wisdom to fulfill your destiny as an ambitious person. Face your past without regret, prepare well for your future with confidence, keep the faith and fight for it. That is the meaning of life I think.
    Ran Zhou

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  8. My favorite line is in the second half of the letter. It states "It is certainly a mark of excessive narrowness of mind to enclose oneself within one Porch or Academy, nor can anyone reasonably attach himself to one school or philosopher, unless he has previously become familiar with them all." I like how he is saying that before you commit yourself to one school or the other, perhaps to anything in life, you should look at them all first and then decide. It is almost like looking at history from only one source. That is a very narrow glance at history that is so wide. You need to look at other sources to get a complete view of anything before you choose. I certainly looked at other colleges before deciding on Northern.

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