Humanism Through The Eyes Of Two

During the renaissance, there was a renewed interest in the arts, and the traditional views of society came into question. People began to explore the power of the human mind. A term often used to describe the increasing interest in the powers of the human mind is humanism. Generally, humanism stresses the individual's creative, reasoning, and aesthetic powers. However, during the Renaissance, individual ideas about humanism differed.

Writers and philosophers of the Renaissance time period expressed their opinions about human nature and human's roles in the universe through their writings. Pico della Mirandola's "Oration on the dignity of man", which glorifies humanity and praises the human ability to reason, offers the opposing view to Shakespeare's Hamlet and Montaigne's essay "Man's presumption and Littleness" which both suggest that humans are no higher in the universal order of things than any other of God's creatures.

Pico begins his essay by informing his readers that he knows where humans stand in the divine order of the world. Pico believes that humans were the last creatures created by God, and that God's purpose, in creating them, was to fulfill his desire for someone to appreciate the great wonders and beauties of his world. It is also Pico's belief that when Humans were created, they were given qualities both divine and earthly, and could become whatever they chose.

Pico's conclusion about human ranking among the divine order of things was that while some people were almost celestial, others were no better than animals, and that this great variance of character among the human population only served to increase their importance and uniqueness from all other of God's creatures. His essay, which praised human greatness and exalted the powers of humanity, was opposed by more negative views of humanity, as expressed in the works of Montaigne and Shakespeare.

Montaigne's essay "Man's presumption and Littleness" belittles the greatness of man so much that he becomes no more than another beast among beasts, possibly even lower than some of God's other creatures. Montaigne cannot imagine why man believes himself so great. Montaigne goes to length to point out the faults and failures of humanity. Where Pico takes pains to explain the greatness of man, Montaigne does the same to prove his 'littleness' "Presumption is our natural and original malady." (Montaigne 1810) Speaking of animals and humans, he writes:

"This defect that hinders communication between them and us, why is it not just as much ours as theirs? ...We do not understand them any more than they do us. By this same reasoning, they may consider us beasts, as we consider them... we must notice the parity there is between us."

In his writing, Montaigne not only suggests our likeness to other creatures, but goes even further, to suggest the superiority that most creatures have to us.

In the conclusion of his essay, Montaigne sums up his views about the divine order, and the place that humanity might occupy in that order. While Montaigne implies that it may be true that humans alone have the powers of imagination and logic, these are not really powers at all, bit hindrances, for they create the problems that are unique to humanity.

Like Montaigne, Shakespeare is doubtful of humanity's greatness. In his drama Hamlet, his tragic hero often brings into question humanity's purpose in the universe, and suggests that we are no more than part of a continuing cycle in which we are born from and return to the earth, no greater or less than any other creature. While at first, Hamlet may seem to praise the qualities of humanity, the final words of his speech lead to a different conclusion. He seems to be saying "so what? Man has wonderful qualities. What's so great about that? Who cares? The world is no better for it..."

How can human beings be so important, if they are only of the earth, just like all other animals? Through the words of Hamlet, Shakespeare, like Montaigne, questions whether or not humans are really as important as men like Pico insisted. Montaigne and Shakespeare go through great pains to point out the feeble nature of humans, and to insist on their small role in nature. Their negative view of humanity's role in the universe opposed the view of the majority of society at the time period, a view represented by writers like Pico, who exalted humanity and praised the unique qualities of it.

Perhaps thinkers like Shakespeare and Montaigne were more influenced by science and the new discoveries of the universe than others. With the suggestion of a heliocentric universe, and the role of the church continuing to be questioned, it would have been easy to take science even farther. If we had been wrong about the earth, and God, couldn't