. Explain Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man as a humanist manifesto, and briefly discuss whether you find its ideas about “pure potential” and humankind’s being “at the very center of the world” persuasive
Please provide the best answer for the statement.
1. In Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico argues that humanity is part of the “great chain of being” that stretches from God to angels, humans, animals, plants, minerals, and the most primal matter. This idea can be traced to Plato’s Republic, in which Plato discusses the Good as an idea of perfection to which all creation tends.
2. According to Pico, humanity finds itself in a middle position in the great chain of being—not by natural law but by the exercise of its own free will. Humans, then, are not fixed in the middle position. They are, in fact, pure potential, able to make of themselves what they wish. Humanity, it follows, is God’s greatest miracle. In his Oration, Pico has God explain to Adam that he has placed him at the world’s center and given him the gift of pure potential to shape himself.
3. Students’ ideas about Pico’s humanism will vary.
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