Pico retells the story of Genesis as an explanation of human desire. God completed the universe without Man in it, each thing in its assigned place and according to its proper and invariant nature. Trees are content to be trees, likewise stones, clouds. They do not desire to be anything else. Then, looking at it all, God "longed for there to be someone to think about the reason for such a vast work, to love its beauty, to wonder at its greatness." The creation was entire onto and of itself, with no empty position in the Chain of Being for another creature. But God made Man "of indeterminate form." Man alone has no pre-determined nature fixing his actions, thoughts, and desires; Pico's God tells Adam, "You are the moulder and maker of yourself; you may sculpt yourself into whatever shape you prefer" . In Pico's thought, infinitely unsatisfied desire is at the core of the human person.
Friday, November 19, 2004
A note found on an old index card..
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-94), Oratio de dignitate hominis (Oration on the Dignity of Man).
Pico retells the story of Genesis as an explanation of human desire. God completed the universe without Man in it, each thing in its assigned place and according to its proper and invariant nature. Trees are content to be trees, likewise stones, clouds. They do not desire to be anything else. Then, looking at it all, God "longed for there to be someone to think about the reason for such a vast work, to love its beauty, to wonder at its greatness." The creation was entire onto and of itself, with no empty position in the Chain of Being for another creature. But God made Man "of indeterminate form." Man alone has no pre-determined nature fixing his actions, thoughts, and desires; Pico's God tells Adam, "You are the moulder and maker of yourself; you may sculpt yourself into whatever shape you prefer" . In Pico's thought, infinitely unsatisfied desire is at the core of the human person.
Pico retells the story of Genesis as an explanation of human desire. God completed the universe without Man in it, each thing in its assigned place and according to its proper and invariant nature. Trees are content to be trees, likewise stones, clouds. They do not desire to be anything else. Then, looking at it all, God "longed for there to be someone to think about the reason for such a vast work, to love its beauty, to wonder at its greatness." The creation was entire onto and of itself, with no empty position in the Chain of Being for another creature. But God made Man "of indeterminate form." Man alone has no pre-determined nature fixing his actions, thoughts, and desires; Pico's God tells Adam, "You are the moulder and maker of yourself; you may sculpt yourself into whatever shape you prefer" . In Pico's thought, infinitely unsatisfied desire is at the core of the human person.