Research Paper on:
Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola's 'Oration on the Dignity of Man'

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
It was written from a humanist point of view, philosophically examining the importance of mankinds placement in the universe. During historical examinations of mankind, philosophers were often taken with discussions  of logic and reasoning. Mirandolas work was one that argued for the special placement of man, understanding that mans position in the universe was unique and magnificent. In the following  paper we present a summary of his "Oration on the Dignity of Man" and then present a personal reaction or opinion of Mirandolas piece. Summary Mirandola begins his  oration by stating that, "I once read that Abdala the Muslim, when asked what was most worthy of awe and wonder in this theater of the world, answered, There is  nothing to see more wonderful than man!" (NA). However, Mirandola states that when he began to look at the reasoning behind these statement he found himself unable to locate a  sufficient answer as to why man was so important: "all these reasons given for the magnificence of human nature failed to convince me: that man is the intermediary between creatures,  close to the gods, master of all the lower creatures, with the sharpness of his senses, the acuity of his reason, and the brilliance of his intelligence the interpreter of  nature, the nodal point between eternity and time, and, as the Persians say, the intimate bond or marriage song of the world, just a little lower than angels as David  tells us" (NA). He tells us that while he admits that there are powerful reasons they do not seen to "go to the heart of the matter, that is, those  reasons which truly claim admiration. For, if these are all the reasons we can come up with, why should we not admire angels more than we do ourselves?" (NA).