From Myth to Modern logos: Giovanni Pico della Mirandola or Man Searching for an Image

Abstract

This article tackles the construction of an exemplary image of the modern man in the 15th century. The corpus is centered on a fundamental work in the history of Western thought: Oration on the Dignity of Man, by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, which represents the “spirit of a period” and projects an exemplary image of the human being through the rewriting of the origin myth. The manner in which Adam was created and how that defines the new way in which he is fashioned will be the basis for a new way of being, free from the doctrine of original sin and without seeing his capacities as a human being diminished. Through the analysis of this mythological reconstruction and also through modifications of the biblical account, several characteristics of the man about to come will be uncovered. Special attention will be given to the displacement suffered by man in relation to the world, as Pico establishes man as a contemplator of the universe, the consequences of the liberation from the scala naturae, and the prominence of desire in Pico’s conception of man.