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Comparing Renaissance Thinkers Mirandola and Machiavelli - School Essays

Comparing Renaissance Thinkers Mirandola and Machiavelli

There are two Renaissance thinkers whose concepts of the way in which man ought to behave appear to be almost exactly opposite at first glance. Those two thinkers, Pico Della Mirandola and Niccolo Machiavelli, would seem to have very little in common in their thought processes concerning the idea way for a 16th century man to be a man. For example, Mirandola says, "Above all, we should not make that freedom of choice God gave us into something harmful, for it was intended to be to our advantage." (Oration) This sounds very much like a humanist sentiment, and very far from what Machiavelli might say; to the modern ear, Machiavelli's advice sounds like he definitely expects men to do ...

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to live at odds. Or do they? Is Oration on the Dignity of Man just another way of saying The Prince, looked at through a Renaissance lens. Perhaps. These two writers, and probably others, viewed man as a prince no matter what his station. "Who would not admire man...." Mirandola challenges. (Oration) In speaking of the study of the art of war, Machiavelli contends that the art well practiced "upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank." (The Prince)
To both of these thinkers, men are princes, called to be above all other creatures on earth, although admittedly, Machiavelli also believes some men are princelier a priori than others. Still, taken together, these two thinkers will give a reader two sides of the same Renaissance coin, for both believe implicitly that man ought to live as if he were a prince. Machiavelli may deal with the temporal world, and Mirandola with a slightly more spiritual one, but the ...

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Added: 5/17/2016 05:26:56 AM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 555
Pages: 3

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