{"id":637,"date":"2016-06-24T14:04:42","date_gmt":"2016-06-24T14:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/?p=637"},"modified":"2017-10-31T15:39:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T15:39:16","slug":"appendix-z44-man-mortal-or-divine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/?p=637","title":{"rendered":"APPENDIX Z44: Man: Mortal or Divine ***"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
APPENDIX Z44:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Man: Mortal or Divine<\/div>\n
***<\/div>\n
\u201cWhen I behold <\/span>Y<\/span>our Heavens, the work <\/span>of Y<\/span>our
\n \ue0c4ngers,\n <\/div>\n
The moon and stars that Y<\/span>ou
\n set in place,\n <\/div>\n
What is man that Y<\/span>ou are
\n mindful of him,\n <\/div>\n
Mortal man that Y<\/span>ou take
\n note of him?\n <\/div>\n
Y<\/span>et Y<\/span>ou have made him little less than the angels\n <\/div>\n
And adorned him with glory and majesty<\/span>.\u201d\n <\/div>\n
Psalm 8:3-5<\/div>\n
(c. 1000 BCE)<\/div>\n
\u201cPico della Mirandola (1463-94) was one of the
\n moving\n <\/div>\n
spirits of the Italian Renaissance. Born into an
\n aristocratic\n <\/div>\n
family<\/span>, he was a child
\n prodigy<\/span>, mastering Latin and Greek\n <\/div>\n
at an early age and winning the title of papal
\n protonotary\n <\/div>\n
when we was only ten. Initially intending a career
\n in the\n <\/div>\n
Church, he went to the University of Bologna to
\n study\n <\/div>\n
law<\/span>, but widened his
\n interests to include philosophy<\/span>,\n <\/div>\n
which he pursued at the universities of Ferrara
\n and\n <\/div>\n
Padua.<\/div>\n
In 1486 he completed his monumental 900 Theses,\n <\/div>\n
Conclusiones philosophicae, cabalasticae et
\n theologicae, <\/span><\/div>\n
on the entire range of human knowledge. T<\/span>o accompany\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
them he wrote his Oration on the Dignity of Man<\/span><\/span><\/span>, widely\n <\/div>\n
regar<\/span>ded as a manifesto of
\n the Renaissance. In it he\n <\/div>\n
argued that the human person was the centerpiece
\n of\n <\/div>\n
creation, the one being other than God himself who
\n had\n <\/div>\n
no \ue0c4xed nature. Endowed with fr<\/span>eedom, he could rise\n <\/div>\n
higher than the angels or fall lower than the
\n animals. This\n <\/div>\n
is how he imagines God addressing the \ue0c4rst human:\n <\/div>\n
Adam, we give you no \ue0c4xed place to live, no form\n <\/div>\n
that is peculiar to you, nor any function that is
\n yours\n <\/div>\n
alone\u2026 All other things have a limited and \ue0c4xed
\n nature\n <\/div>\n
prescribed and bounded by our laws. Y<\/span>ou, with no\n <\/div>\n
limit or no bound, may choose for yourself the
\n limits\n <\/div>\n
and bounds of your nature. W<\/span>e have placed you at the\n <\/div>\n
world\u2019<\/span>s center so that you
\n may survey everything else\n <\/div>\n
in the world. We have made you neither of heavenly\n <\/div>\n
nor of Earthly stuff, neither mortal nor immortal,
\n so that\n <\/div>\n
with free choice and dignity<\/span>, you may fashion yourself\n <\/div>\n
into whatever form you choose. T<\/span>o you is granted\n <\/div>\n
the power of degrading yourself into the lower
\n forms\n <\/div>\n
of life, the beasts, and to you is granted the power<\/span>,\n <\/div>\n
contained in your intellect and judgment, to be
\n reborn\n <\/div>\n
into the higher forms, the divine.\u201d*<\/div>\n
*<\/div>\n
Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486), the text available at: http:\/\/<\/span>\n <\/div>\n
\n public.wsu.edu\/~brians\/world_civ\/worldcivreader\/world_civ_\n <\/div>\n
reader_1\/pico.html#2. See Ernst Cassirer<\/span>, Paul Oskar Kristeller\n <\/div>\n
and John Herman Randall, Jr<\/span>, The Rennaissane Philosophy <\/span><\/div>\n
of Man, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1948; M.V<\/span>. <\/span><\/div>\n
Dougherty (ed.), Pico della Mirandola: New Essays<\/span>,
\n Cambridge\n <\/div>\n
University Press, 2008.<\/div>\n
*** <\/span>Jonathan <\/span>Sacks, The <\/span>Great <\/span>Partnership, <\/span>New <\/span>Y<\/span>ork: <\/span>Random <\/span>House, Inc. <\/span>2011, pp.111-112<\/span><\/span><\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

APPENDIX Z44: Man: Mortal or Divine *** \u201cWhen I behold Your Heavens, the work of Your \ue0c4ngers, The moon and stars that You set in place, What is man that You are mindful of him, Mortal man that You take note of him? Yet You have made him little less than the angels And adorned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":639,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions\/639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.potentialismtheory.com\/td\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}