Ficino, Plato, and Pico Musings

Ficino was a philosopher of the renaissance who made Plato’s works more widely available to the people of Italy. He adopted and adapted some of Plato’s ideas from the world of forms and explained these ideals to the people he had correspondence with. However, I think that it is his connection to Pico that is more interesting. He states that “It was not for small things but for great that God created men, who, knowing the great, are not satisfied with small things.” This is a direct connection to Pico. He believes that man has the ability to achieve greater things because they are privy to the knowledge of the heavenly world. Plato’s belief that souls were once in a world of pure contentment and were provided for by God but they began to desire worldly things so they fell from that exalted place down into the Realm of Senses. They passed through the river Lethe which made them forget the heavenly world and what they previously knew. The soul then joined the body of a human and now had the task of remembering the heavenly truth through the shadows and memories of them that are represented in the material world. I think the difference between Plato and Ficino is that the purpose for seeking knowledge is different. For Plato, knowledge is achieved because the soul is subconsciously trying to remember being in such a place that was blessed and pure. However, Ficino’s belief is that people grow because God willed them that option to become greater than they originally were. God created humans with the ability to grow and achieve limitless possibilities despite what the constraints may appear to be. Pico also felt that this was the way to “climb the ladder.” He also believed, though, that one could fall from the ladder to the level of the brutes. Ficino’s belief is that people could ignore that ability to grow and only focus on the material world in front of them instead of the betterment of themselves. This is a connection to Plato because he states that they are nurturing their human body “a wild, cruel and dangerous animal” while they allow the soul “to starve to death.” Plato would have agreed with this if it was in pursuit of knowledge because he wanted people to strive for information so the souls could once again reach the realm of the souls. They were both under the thought that “we are spiritual beings having human experience” not human beings searching for a spiritual experience.  I think that all of the writers and postulators believed that philosophy was the correct way to achieve a return or a level of divine nature although Ficino also encourages love, poetry, mysteries and prophecy to reach the level of divine frenzy needed to reach the heavenly world.