Discurso sobre a Dignidade do homem - Pico della Mirandola - Livre arbítrio

New Acropolis presents: Oration on the Dignity of Man Good evening everyone. I hope we have a nice chat about this theme which I consider very appropriate to talk about nowadays. You may think, well, is it a kind of outdated thing? We are talking about a thought of a Renaissance thinker, Cinquecento, it was in 1463 that Pico della Mirandola was born. However, I consider that this theme, this text, which is the oration on the dignity of man, is one of the things that we would most need to hear today. We live in a historical moment where

one of the things we do is doubt the human being itself. Even doubt ourselves. The amount of news, the amount of violence, and corruption. There is almost an organized campaign for man to disbelieve in himself. This, from the point of view of philosophy, is something very serious. Because believing that we do great things is not that easy, without believing, there's no chance. This speech, I consider the most beautiful writings I know, the kind that you keep in your headboard, talks about the greatness of the human being, this gradient of possibilities that exist within the human

condition. We have heard a lot about how much we can go down, but we forgot how much we can go up. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I honestly think we tend to morbidity in our historical moment. Because it is certain, the world is dual. In some places it's hot, in others it's cold, things have light, and also darkness, there is good and evil, logically. We have such a great focus on reporting the catastrophic, the negative, the criminal. I wonder if there's anyone in the world doing something good? Someone is writing a headline about it?

And this good headline wouldn't help the man to regain confidence in himself? Maybe it wouldn't encourage others to do good too? Do you realize that this morbidity generates a negative expectation which tends to make things get worse? Everyone is expecting the worst of themselves and others. So I think it's very opportune to remember this humanism of the Renaissance, let's not get into details here, because it's not a history class. Everyone knows that one of the main focuses of the Aurean era of the Renaissance, in the end, it already decayed, but in its Aurean era, it

was humanism. To believe in man, to regain hope in man. Classicism, to recover that vision of man, that there was in the Classic period and humanism. To regain the belief in man. You will realize that history goes as if it were a sinusoid, and we live again a very low cycle to this. So again we have this idea that if a man is not redeemed by something else, he cannot be redeemed at all. He does not have the possibility of building his own liberation, he needs some external help, but beliefs have changed. We are no

longer in those thousand years of the Middle Eastern ages, some people believe that we will be redeemed by the aliens. But anyway, we continue to be redeemed by third parties, and not by our own will, love, and intelligence. So, in the end, philosophically, it's the same thing. We have many theories today, for example, that say that the pyramids of Egypt or the great temples of Babylon were not human constructions, they were aliens. I do not doubt this possibility, I think it is very logical that there are aliens. But between us, if I have to give

something to the aliens, I give the government of the tyrants of the whole world, I will not give the pyramids of Egypt. This is human. This is ours. This is what we have to be proud of, but I will not give it. We should not give up on that. Because that means to us a self-esteem that we should preserve, a moment of honor, and we are great. And it was us, it was human beings. So we can go back to that point, we must believe that we have arrived there. Remember how great we can be.

As Plato said, "cultivating the memory of heroes is necessary for man to remember how great he can be." This is very important. Well, this little boy, is the Pico della Mirandola, he had a very complicated life. He is a genius. Everyone knows that at the age of 23 spoke a lot of languages and published his 900 theses. Just imagine a 23-year-old boy, who writes 900 theses about all the knowledge of the world. Religion, history, art, philosophy, everything. And he said, here is the wisdom of the world. He had already gone to the Pado, Bologna, Paris

University, spoke a lot of languages, had studied since the knowledge of Orpheus, Zoroaster, had studied Jewish knowledge, knew a lot of Kabbalah, he had already walked through the four corners and knew everything. He resolved very modestly, he wanted to summarize the knowledge of the world in 900 theses. Modest boy! This at 23 years old. Then at 23 he arrives in Rome and says, here is the knowledge of the whole world. I pay the passage of whoever wants to come from anywhere in the world to read any of my 900 theses. And no one was there.

To this day, no one has arrived to read any of the 900 theses. He was rich, from a noble family, in fact, Pico della Mirandola was a Count of Concordia, his family was on both sides, father and mother were noble, and he was destined for the clergy. And he decided to become a great scholar, a great intellectual, and also protected by Lourenço de Médici. The family of Florentine Médici, who protected both the arts, philosophy and science, and he was really a prodigy. But this prodigy comes with a little unstable emotional life. At the end of

his life, we will see, he dies at the age of 31, denying all his ideas. He joins one of the greatest fanatics of history, Savonarola, who was the one who became famous for setting at fire valuable works of art, destroying works of antiquity and even of the Renaissance itself, it's said that even the sketches of Botticelli he burned. That art was a sin, knowledge was a sin, he was anti-Renaissance. That is, he reached such a point, - we cannot even say that was his maturity, 31 years old, he was very young - to deny all

his knowledge. I think what was missing... Well, who am I to guess something? But it seems to me that Pico della Mirandola did not have enough maturity to know the reaction that his thinking would generate. Maybe he thought of himself arriving in Rome with his 900 theses and smashing it, that everyone would think it was wonderful such knowledge summarized that way, and that he would be acclaimed. He did not imagine that he would receive such a strong opposition, for example, from the Church. The Church considers 13 of his theses as heretical. He spends some time

in prison, and who takes him out is Lourenço de Médici. He did not imagine that the truth would have a contestation, even because he did not contest Christianity. His idea was to make a fusion between Christianity, the Orphic religion, the Zoroastrianism, he wanted to put together a little of everything, Hermes Trimegistus from Egypt, whom he also liked, he was a bit naive on his part to think that people were looking for the truth. And not a dogmatic view that had been adopted as the official truth. When he realized that no one wanted to know anything

about the truth, neither of 900 theses, nor of 9 theses, nor of any thesis, he enters into a very emotional instability, which ends up becoming a radicalism and a very violent fanaticism. He died at the age of 31, poisoned by arsenic. Recently they did the exhumation of the body of Pico della Mirandola, 193 centimeters in height and deadly poisoned by arsenic, which is not much news for us nowadays, you know. Poisoning, murder, of all kinds, it was a very troubled time. However, this work he does, then, which is the discourse on the dignity of man,

was an introduction to the 900 theses. As if he wanted to give an opening, an introduction to the 900 theses ideas. And today it is what he has of the best known. The discourse is a beauty, and he will talk about freedom and human power as odd in nature, the ideas are very current and very strong. It's one of the most beautiful things I know, to really give man faith in himself. To reestablish faith in oneself. So this is our friend Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Count of Concordia, the only thing he didn't have in life

was Concordia, he didn't agree with anything, but he was the Count of Concordia. So, the oration on the dignity of man, it is composed of two parts. I'm not going to put it all here, it wouldn't be possible, it's long, we'll see it in pieces. And then I firmly trust that you getting home will open it on the internet and read it, because it's there in PDF and is free, all the oration on the dignity of man, which is valid. The second part is one part in which he directs to the defense of philosophy, before

princes and priests, the defense, as something that was the only rescue of human ignorance, the only rescue of human misery. It's interesting because at that time several authors turned to it, at the same time, philosophy was adopted by some, and rejected by others, especially from the Counter-Reform. So I stuck more in the first part, although I have taken a little bit of the second, where he will talk about the man himself. They are pieces, sections. It is the most known part of the text, in general. So, let's talk a little about dignity, which comes from

the Latin "dignus", which is: "the one who deserves for what he is". It is said that it comes from the Indo-European "dicne", which means to receive. Receive the place that corresponds to him in the universe. It's like receiving the light, the illumination we need to find our place in the universe. One of the virtues that we most need, I think, in historical moments of decadence, decadence of morals in society, is a very interesting virtue to remember. Dignity means respect for oneself, for you to respect yourself, you have to know who you are. That is, it

requires some self-knowledge, and a lot of things that come entangled. So he starts talking about Abdallah Saraceno. "I have read in the ancient writings of the Arabians that Abdala the Saracen on being asked what, on this stage, so to say, of the world, seemed to him most evocative of wonder, replied that there was nothing to be seen more marvelous than man. " Well, Saraceno was the way, in the Middle Ages, was called all Muslims. And this Abdallaboughtal-Mustakar existed in the twelfth century. It is said that he was a wise man who was responsible for translating

the Arab several works of Persian origin, Medo-Persian. And his idea was to rescue, this rebirth, in the sense of Renaissance the conscience of a man and his value in the world is not just one. We will see in several places of the world, in several places, there was a moment of awakening, and a moment of falling asleep. It seems that what happens to nations is similar to what happens in our lives. So we can say that this Abdallah al-Mustakar is a Renaissance, from the twelfth century, of the Arab world. He translated a large part of

these Medo-Persian works into Arabic language so that the Arabs could remember their great past, the Persian Empire. And he spoke about it, that everything he had seen, - he was a great intellectual, very wise - he had not seen anything more admirable than man. And then I chose this image, because it is the image of Renaissance humanism. Man as a wonderful element that everything gravitates around him, the importance he has to make the factors gravitate around him. That is Leonardo's Vitruvian Man. And then it goes, with those quotes from around the hole world. He had

a incredible knowledge everything that was to be read, I think he had. In his time he walked around the four corners of the world, he was able to buying old writings that no one knows if were authentic or not, it said that he buy 60 scrolls of ancient Hebrew writings attributed to Ezra. He walked around the world and spent his fortune looking after knowledge. So he quotes authors from the four corners of the world. Then, "And that celebrated exclamation of Hermes Trismegistus, What a great miracle is man, Asclepius" Where does this work come from? Who

is Hermes? Very quickly, otherwise we will stay here until 10 o'clock at night trying to explain the sources of Pico Della Mirandola. Marsilio Fittino who was his master, a great Renaissance philosopher, supported by whom? Guess who? Lorenzo de Médici. Nine out of ten Renaissance philosophers adopt Lorenzo de Médici as a sponsor. It was unanimity. So, Marsilio Fittino, among other things, at a request of his grandfather Cosme de Médici, translates to Latin the Corpus Hermeticum of Hermes Trismegistus, and the Enneas of Plotinus. Imagine you open a space in an Middle Ages where nothing but knowledge based

on Christian scholasticism and patristics bringing knowledge of Orpheus, Zoroaster, Plotinus, Egypt, brings knowledge of the world. It's a burst, a momentary shine, which was then muffled again. So, Marsilio Fittino had translated this Corpus Hermeticum. It was interesting, they had an academy which was the Platonic Academy of Caredi, where they celebrated every November 7th, Plato's birthday. It was a new Platonic Academy. It was brilliant. Then, came the Byzantine names who taught a lot. It was a brilliant moment in history in the middle of a Middle Age. It starts between the 14th and 16th centuries in Italy,

an amount of things was happening especially in Florence, and this family, especially grandfather and grandson, Cosme and Lorenzo of Medici, had great responsibility in this. They had a very clear intention were bankers and used their money to sponsor Science, philosophy, and Renaissance art. They caught artists in the middle of the street and took them to their houses. Artists fallen on the street, drunk, without perspective, took them to his house, to sponsor them. "What a great miracle is man, Asclepius" phrase attributed to this Egyptian sage, Hermes Trismegistus. In the same sense of the greatness of man.

"I agreed", he continues, "Therefore, man is the intermediary between creatures, he is the familiar of the gods above him as he is lord of the beings beneath him; Because of the acuteness of his senses, the inquiry of his reason and the light of his intelligence, he is the interpreter of nature, set midway between the timeless unchanging and the flux of time;" How beautiful, right? "Midway between the timeless unchanging and the flux of time;" I started this joke with my students that I will come up with a top 10 example. After it's done I'm just going

to mention the numbers: "number three!" everyone already knows what I'm talking about. Here is one of them. I read this story many years ago and I found it very curious. In the 60s, a psychologist named Roger Fultz, - he made a difference, not just him, several did at that time - they realized that certain animals like anthropoids, such as orangutans, chimpanzees, and gorillas, had a communication capacity in the band through noise, and sound that characterizes a kind of culture. They even passed it on to baby monkeys. And then Fultz decided to make a radical experience,

he took a baby chimpanzee inside the house and created it, he and his wife, in the presence of the little monkey, communication was made with ASL signs. This monkey, called Washoe, she died a long time ago, but you can find photos of her on the internet, she managed to master 150 signs of the American sign language. She could sign things like, - by the way, when she had a baby, she taught some to it. - She could sign like: "Washow, food." "Washow, street. Washow, walk." "Washow, sleep. Washow, affection." Let's pause for a thought, well, it's

reduced the vocabulary of Washow, huh? the things she could sign were very basic. But if you do research today on humanity, ask people what they would like to have the most. I always use this resource in my classes, is interesting: you won the lottery by yourself, what would you do? "Ah, I'm going to travel." "Washow, travel". "Most expensive restaurants." "Washow, food." "I'm going to date Gisele Bündchen." "Washow, affection." Do you realize there is not much difference? "No! But a human being would say: I want to go, I would like to go to a restaurant and

such." But it's a monkey with the greatest synthetic wealth. Isn't? It's an exquisite vocabulary but deep inside it's talking about the same things. Imagine if one day Roger Fultz comes to take care of Washoe and gets Washoe thinking. And he says: "What's up Washoe?" Then: "Washoe, justice." "Washoe, universal fraternity." "Washoe, where do we come from?" It wouldn't say it. Fultz would had a heart attack, maybe even he was thinking about it. Here's a step only human beings can take. Whoever takes such a step is a human being. Who needs these things? Human beings. "By their

fruits, you will get knowledge of them." The stone works are to resist, vegetables produce energy animals with the instinct of survival and perpetuation of the species, and the man, what does he add to all this? He would have to add values, virtues, and wisdom. Well, if the stones don't resist and plants don't do photosynthesis, if the animals don't procreate, the world collapses. And if men don't generate values, virtues, and wisdom? Doesn't it collapse too? Do you think our collapse is lack of what? I always say this. Number 4 of our top 10 examples: The cause

of misery is not a lack of material goods, it is a lack of fraternity. The cause of hunger is not lack of food, it is lack of generosity. That is, what is missing is the human being. So each being doing what corresponds to him in the universe, everything fits, it goes into flux and the universe harmonizes. Example number 5 of our top: I guarantee you, pick any being in extinction and look at a man full of his values, virtues, and wisdom. I go out to look for the panda bear and you go out to look

for a human being. What do you think? I can get here with three pandas before you. And it really is, a being in extinction or humanity, in the fullness of the human condition, and this generates an ecological accident. Lack of humanity, humanism. We are living in an ecological accident, a lack of human beings. Nature, claims for human beings too. It is not filled. That's what he's talking about, each one has a role that corresponds to the human being. Through the sharpness of the senses, it's like a bridge between time and eternity. It will talk also

about this, which has a clear reference to Plato's theory of ideas. What is to be a bridge between time and eternity? "Admirable, without a doubt, the human being. But would that be the most important? Despite this, shouldn't we admire even more the angels, and the most blessed celestial bodies?" Considering Eastern doctrine that the universe is in evolution. Mineral, plants, animals, then human beings, and the stars, all of them alive. And of that in motion and evolution. Within the Arab world several thinkers also talked about this. Even in Partia, Tofail, that the planets are living beings,

the stars are beings in evolution. It considers that these beings are in evolution at a higher level than the man. But he considers that the condition of the man is privileged even with those higher beings, and not only with those who are below. And why would the man have this privilege? Because of a very important element that he will highlight: freedom. You have fixed spheres below and others above, and a man transiting between looking to choose what he wants to be. And he keeps talking about it, there: "So I reflected and understood why the man

is the happiest of all living beings, worthy of all admiration, and what place he was in in the universal order, enviable not only for animals but even for angels." Let's try to understand this idea, he will talk a lot about it later. Nature predetermines a stone to resist, predetermines a plant to make photosynthesis. There is no way a plant one day say: "Today I am not in the mood to make photosynthesis." There's no other way. It's fixed by nature, Its free will is very limited. There's no "not in the mood" for photosynthesis. It will always

do what nature wants. Imagine one day an animal says: "Today I do not want to survive or procreate." There is no way! It is totally limited by instincts, it cannot "not want to be" instinctive. It is limited by this sphere of survival and procreation. And he says, beings from up too, planets have their orbit, brightness the stars have to shine, everything is fixed. And human beings are like this: "Today I'm a stone" and stays in bed all day. Don't we? So much, we have a lot of stones around us. If he just decides to be

ambitious, to suck energy, he stays there doing photosynthesis all his life. If he wants to be instinctive, we don't even need an example. And stays there all his life, just wanting to survive and procreate with the most comfortable conditions possible. And if he wants to go up, will it work? Pico says that he is as open to go up as it is to go down. If he wants to behave purely like an angel, he can. If he wants to behave in a luminous way, like a star, he can. He has an enormous range of possibilities.

And that, he will say: "is the great beauty of the human condition." There is no one else like that. The level of freedom, the spectrum of possibilities, is huge. "I understood why it's human being a great miracle and a living being worthy of all admiration. When the Supreme Father created, according to the law of arcane wisdom, this world, as we see it, the most august temple of divinity, created celestial beings, countless animals of inferior species." I just said that a great inspiration of of these Renaissance philosophers was Plato. Plato works with the theory of ideas.

Ideas were all created in the mental plane of God and then they reflect here. This is a shadow, a projection of perfect ideas. Then all beings evolve to correspond to this idea that created them. So there would be a perfect stone, the stones evolve for that. There would be perfect vegetables, it will evolve for that. To correspond to the idea that created them. While we reflect here below, poorly reflected, distorted, this distortion will make us have anxiety about perfection. Until one day we found this idea. We are a perfect incarnation of the idea that created

us. And then it says that this idea that is up there and this man who is down here, one day they hug each other. And this becomes a well-known symbol. It is called the seal of Solomon the Wise. It is that moment when the man, here below perfectly reflects the idea that created him. That is, you do what nature expects from you. Nature needs a plant. Present. The plants are there. Nature needs a stone. Present. They play their role. Nature needs men. Present. I'm here. I don't want anything else but to do what corresponds to

me in the scheme of nature. I want to be human and I'm fullfil with it. This is being an idealist. Those are a series of thoughts that conflict constantly. Either you want to be an idealist, that is, grow to the maximum humans can be, to benefit all that is around you, or you want to be an existentialist, to simply exist with maximum pleasure and minimum effort. There is no other way, If you look at all the things that pass through your head, either idealism or existentialism. Or I wanted to be served, or a service. There

is no way. Behind all multiplicity, there is this essential duality: Idealism and existentialism. And deep down, we don't even know they exist. We are enslaved to one or another. So, this is the theory of Plato's ideas. "But, at the end, he wished that there was someone capable of understanding the reason of such a great work." - He was talking about God. God created the universe with all beings, but at the end, he wished that there was someone capable of understanding the reason for such a great work - "that he would love beauty and admire its

greatness. So, as Moses and Timaeus attest, he thought, at last, of creating man." This is a passage from the Creation of Adam from Michelangelo. It is curious how science, in painting, in art as a whole, in philosophy, the thoughts of the Renaissance intertwine. It is a more symbolic thing than Leonardo da Vinci, who wrote nothing. But his work is full of symbolism. This idea of the man who touches God and realizes the possibility. By the way, this is very present in fairy tales, did you know? This is the prince who kisses the princess and she

awakens. It is the touch of the divine that awakens the man. Do you know what this means? Speaking philosophically, transplanting Michelangelo to philosophy The theory of impact. The contrast generates consciousness. In contrast, we realize what things are. If you, for example, had, I always take as an example those little pens. If the whole universe were blue, I wouldn't realize that. I see blue because it ends here and here begins the white. If the universe only had the same note all the time, I wouldn't notice it because it does not cease. Between sound and silence I

become aware. Between a color and another. Between what I have and what I lose. Sometimes I will be aware of life before death. So what is he trying to say? At a certain moment, the divinity had to create a being that had a reflective consciousness. That could see itself outside the body and say I exist, where I came from, where I go, what is the universe? And could admire the requiem of the universe. The birth of reflective consciousness, which is when you begin to be able to see dualities, to be able to find yourself in

the middle of the universe, to look at yourself and realize I have a body, but I am not it. Do you understand? This is a brilliant moment of creation in all traditions. It's been said in Zen tradition, Japanese Buddhism, they had a very interesting method of vestibular. When the young people wanted to enter the monastery, they went around the walls of the monastery then a monk comes out silently and pass an enigma, a koan. It was very difficult, obviously, and people are there all night long thinking, with just bread and water. The next day he

came to see who had passed the test. It was a very severe vestibular, almost no one where able to pass. One of these koans, enigmas was something like this: "That's the sound of two hands (claps), What about the sound of one hand, what is it?" And goes away. What did he mean by that? I did not pass in the Zen vestibular, I just assume what may be. He meant that man will live in contrast until a certain moment when he has a consciousness that unifies all contrasts. And he knows that there is a unity that

fills all things. And he can admire this unity. This is the birth of the reflexive consciousness. There comes a time when you have a unity, an internal harmony that understands the contrasts. You do not need to fight one thing with the other, there's no more friction, no conflict you understand the unity. You see dualities, both are necessary it is yin and yang, together they make the sphere. That is, you understand the whole. It is necessary that this being is able to perceive the greatness of everything. It is the birth of the reflexive consciousness. And who

is the being that has this? If we imagined a little animal, if he were here at this moment, a puppy sleeping here in the room, fed, clean, with all his instincts attended to, he would be perfectly happy. But if you awaken the reflexive consciousness in this little animal, in this puppy, have you imagined? What hell! He would raise his head and think where do I come from, where do I go? Why are you in chairs and I on the floor? What was I before being a dog? What will I be later? Why do dogs die?

It's over! Law of the Inquilinato in the Garden of Eden. Puff! It was thrown out. And now you will have to find answers with the sweat on your face. That is, this reflexive consciousness is laborious, but it gives us the possibility to understand the whole of life and death, to join the opposites, and understand the whole. Why there's the day or night, the life and death, the luminous and dark, the pleasant and painful, everything as equally necessary. And man was a creation made with the ability to understand this Unity. So it says that the divinity

created man to understand himself, a being who was able to understand to some extent. "Of his creation, however - God - there was no model or place in the world where this contemplator of the universe would sit, cuz' everything was already occupied." There was no fixed post they were all occupied. Photosynthesis: the plant was already there, occupied. You know that Musical chairs game? when the music stops and you have to sit down? The man was the one who was left standing. The plants were in their place, the animals either. With no left seat, all of

them it's yours. You have instincts, resistance, energy and something else, so you will be able to transit through all these previous and even later possibilities. That is the understanding of the unity and the meaning of the universe. So man did not stay fixed in one place, he can be in all the places and beyond. It is a very complicated thing, called free will. Have you ever been angry about free will? We wish to not have to choose for anything. Free will is a great privilege, but it gets a lot of us. But this is what

we are supposed to do, as humans. This is the painting of the face of God in the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo. It's like he was seeing something more, not anthropomorphic, but a feeling of power, out of the ordinary. Power, purity, strength, willness. Magnificent this painting. "Still, it was not like the power of the Father to fail in this last creative elan, as if he were unbearable in his last work. At last, to whom He could give nothing wholly his own, should have a share in the particular endowment of every other creature." He could not

fail in his first work. So he gave everything to that who had not received anything. And then comes the story of free will. Adam in this picture a little conflicted without knowing what to do with this gift. "He set him in the middle of the world and spoke to him: We have given you, Oh Adam; no visage proper to yourself, nor any endowment properly your own, nor any proper tasks, in order that, whatever place, whatever form, select, you may have, and possess through your own judgment and decision." You can choose, you can throw yourself down

there and be like a beast, inert like a stone. Inertia is also laziness, you know? Here's another example. For a door inertia is virtue. Isn't it? But for us it is laziness. What's in its place it's not bad huh? it's just that inertia is the virtue of the door, not ours. But if you want to be a door, you can, we have a bunch. Isn't that so? It's possible, you can, but you can go much further too. Now this free will thing is complicated, because it gives freedom yeah, but also it gives responsibility. These are

two things that go together. One without the other is stupidity. It gives freedom and responsibility. It's complicated cuz the human being, to evolve as free he is, he has to make conscious choices. Understand that? Choices made indifferently do not represent virtue for man. Another very common example. A person forgot a wallet there, nobody saw it, just me, I need a little extra money hurts nobody. Finders keepers, losers weepers. Isn't that so? So many possibilities, and I can choose without anyone pressuring me, and I return it to the owner. It was virtuous, wasn't it? It was.

I was free and made a human choice. Now, if someone saw, there is always someone watching, there is always someone with a camera. Someone saw at all, even that I have it. If you don't return it, I'll report you. Then, I'm afraid, return it to the owner. Was it virtuous? No, I was coerced. Human freedom implies responsibility to evolve consciously, without coaction, having all the possibilities in the world I'm choosing the best, then there is value, isn't great? Consciousness is the criterion of human evolution. Whatever you do is because it's what you are, without second

intentions, without manipulations, this is a step further on the ladder. Coercion does not evolve. And then we would have to make a huge discussion, which I will not do now, about what we consider ethics nowadays, because everything is coercion. I don't do it because I will be fined, arrested, or condemned, I will go suffer ostracism, no one will like me. Everything I like is illegal, immoral, or fattening? That is, there is coaction. Choosing by what we are, this would be a legitimate exercise of human freedom. Once again Adam, very perplexed this time. "The nature of

all other creatures is defined and restricted within laws which We have laid down. - This is God speaking. - you, by contrast, impeded by no such restrictions, may, by your own free will, to whose custody I have assigned you." You are not constrained by limitations that prevent you from going in the direction you want. Confucius used to say that man is the interpreter of the decrees of heaven, who become laws of the earth when man is a pontiff, when he exerts his will and freedom looking to be human. He brings the decrees of heaven, these

universal laws and turn 'em to laws of the earth. He can make this bridge, and if he does not do it, who will do it? The decrees of heaven will not be laws on earth. And where will the laws of the earth come from? What will the laws of the earth be? You realize that it becomes a game of interest? Who will make the laws of the earth? If someone does not have his head in heaven and his feet on earth to make this bridge, where will the laws of the earth come from? Conventions serving

interests. If a man does not play his role, the laws of the earth do not correspond to the decrees of heaven. Then comes Immanuel Kant who spoke of will and freedom. Will and freedom as two virtues that build the human world. Man exerts his freedom and his will, occupying this role, which only he can do. If he does not do it, the laws of the earth will be random, they will be fortuitous, they will serve interests. And there is no other way. Change the politicians, change this and that. Increase the stature of man, otherwise, it

will not work. You will simply change the colors but they will never correspond to the decrees of heaven. It will not enter into harmony with the universe. That's Pico Della Mirandola saying. (indistinct joke) He said that. It does not matter. "I have placed you at the very center of the world, so that from that vantage point, you may with greater ease glance round about you on all that the world contains. I have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud

shaper of your own being fashion yourself in the form you may prefer. It will be in your power to descend to the lower animals, you will be able, through your own decision, to rise again to the superior orders whose life is divine." That is: you can go down there, at the level of the beasts, but you can also go up more. Then I return to you what I said at the beginning how we needed to stop once in a while to remember how much humanity has already risen, and not just talking about how much humanity

had collapsed. We do a whole combinatorial analysis of crimes and corruption, and make a range of options for it, but can't remember that we already had a Mozart, a Leonardo da Vinci, Mandela, Madre Teresa of Calcutta, remember the life of these men. Remember how great the man can get, that we are capable of that. Isn't great when you hear - well, I'm a little suspicious to say but for me is simply divine - that song Lacrimosa of Mozart's Requiem. I think Mozart called God and He answered. God is flying over that song. How can a

human being do something like that? It's amazing. How can a human being do something like this? How can someone stay in prison for 26 years, like Mandela did, and go out without anyone's hatred? He was a human being. We have to remember how high we can go it's dazzling the human condition. Where can we get it? Where have we already been? It is a wonderful thing. We would need to remember, Plato said that, do not forget the heroes. You're lost without the heroes. Your ceiling of possibilities cannot be low Everyone is there, with the dwarf,

hitting his head against the ceiling. We had to remember the greatest we had. So we can have faith again. That's what he's talking about we can't just go down, we can go up a lot. And we don't know these possibilities. We know that we can go down, here are newspapers, but how high can we go? It's fantastic to remember. "Oh, the supreme liberality of God the Father! Oh, the admirable happiness of man! Only he is granted to be what he wants to be. The animals are born bringing with them everything that they will be later."

Poor Pico de la Mirandola he doesn't know that today human beings are the same thing, It's in the womb and his story is already written. He just bought a script, the software is life, which society has already written. It's a man clock, his life is all written, He is born wearing a mask. But this is not what the human condition foresees. Well, an animal, we just know if it's gonna be more or less fierce, domesticated or not, but it will feel the sense and do what is it's nature. Man is a mystery. Man is always

a mystery. "The celestial beings have always been what they will be eternally. - The stars are stars, and the angels (for those who believe) are angels. He was of the Christian tradition and believed in it. - "To the man born, Father conferred seeds of all species. And according to the way each one will cultivate them, they will grow in him and give their fruits. He may be passive like a plant or violent like a beast." This story of the seeds is interesting because it reminds me once again of Plato. Plato says: imagine that within the

human being, there is an animal tied to a man. Very tied. The animal wants to go in the direction of the animal interests. The man wants to go in the direction of the interests of the man. But they are tied. They can only walk together. One will have to drag the other. Who it's going to be? The strongest. The one you feed the most. These are the seeds you cultivate more. If you cultivate the human he'll be the strongest and he'll guide you. Do we cultivate the human in us? Isn't that relevant? Do we know

what the human is? It is this curiosity that the Renaissance had to discover what the human is. Go back to know ourselves, as Pindar said, "Know who you are, by knowing". we had to bring over the Renaissance. Go back to being curious about the human condition. Discover what nature has reserved for us. This box of possibilities of being humans. Open and look inside. See what nature has reserved for us. "If we use reasoning, we will elevate the celestial animal. But if we use intellect, we will be able to elevate the category of angel and son

of God. And if we still continue discontent, we will be able to gather ourselves, becoming one spirit with God, the one who is above all things." It is impressive. He says, well, you can go up, you can be like an angel, or like a star if you don't want any of that, and still understand multiplicity, to reach unity, you still can. You can become one with God. Another one of my examples: - that is not even mine, it's from Professor Jorge Angel Livraga - imagine that you are on a beach and make a mark in

the sand, and another one beside. Then you say, there are two of them. But if you look you'll see one and second are sand and the interval between them is too, momentarily differentiated. All multiplicity is an aspect of God, including myself. You can see God in all things and overcome multiplicity. It's said that man can come to be one with God. This is a lot! This is a lot! And it's a possibility. Imagine a spectrum of possibilities. Pico de la Mirandola said: when you look at the mineral kingdom, you will have from a raw stone

to a diamond. It's a lot of variety. When you look at the vegetable kingdom, you will have from a little grass to a large tree. A lot of variety. Animal kingdom, you will have from an insect to a lion. How can you say that the human being is a kingdom, as he believed? If you look at human beings, apparently are all the same. There is not much difference, and he says that it would be inside. From the point of view of development of the human soul, Humans can have a mosquito soul or a lion soul.

The variety came inside, in the case of the human being. Isn't that interesting? This variety that other beings have outside, the humans have inside. I think it's very beautiful and brilliant. This was a 23-year-old kid, don't forget about that. "Who will not admire this fascinating chameleon? The man." Who will not admire this fascinating chameleon? This fascinating chameleon. "It's not the shell that makes the plant, but its entorped nature and insensitive. It is not the leather that makes the beast, but the brute and sensual soul. It is not the circular shape that makes the sky, but

the straight reason. Nor is it the separation of the body that makes the angel, but the intelligence is spiritual." What does he mean by that? The packaging does not define the product! You can't define a human being by head, two arms, two legs, or biped. By the way, Thales of Miletus the Greek philosopher has a funny story that is told about him. He was in this conversation about what the human being really was. Then his friends came to the conclusion that the human being was a biped being whose body was not covered with hair or

feathers. Then he got a little upset, arrived home, pecked a chicken, threw it in the middle of the circle and said: "here is a human being." He was a little debauched, yeah. It's a good thing that modern philosophers are serious, we don't pull this kind of joke. Anyway, what he's trying to say? that the packaging does not define the content. Those who make purchases in the market should know better you look at that cute packaging, made by designers and everything, I'll buy it, this may be good. You take it home, and it's horrible. You'll not

buy it again because the packaging is cute sorry, designers, but we don't buy it. Because you don't choose things by the packaging, but by the content. There is a practice that we used to do, which is even dangerous, which was to put detergent inside a bottle of Coca-Cola. Is dangerous, a baby may drink or something. If I ask you what this is, "is it detergent or Coca-Cola?" You may ask me back: "What is it for? To drink or to clean the floor?" "To clean the floor." So it's detergent! It is a common sense. Will you

define a human being by a form? No, it is a form with human potential, but perhaps not realized. You don't define things by packaging. And that's obvious, do you realize? That's obvious. The human condition, in most of humanity, is a potential, still not realized, regardless of the form, whatever it is. "By their deeds, you will know them" not for your packaging, dear designers. Unfortunately, it's not like that. "Abusing the very indulgent liberalism of God the Father, we do not become harmful, instead of greeting the free choice that he granted us. May our soul be invaded

by a sacred ambition not to be content with mediocre things, but to seek the highest, to strive to reach them, since, when we want everything is possible." That is, free will cannot become a curse, but a privilege. One of the Orpheus's verses, which says: "poor human beings, beings of one day, mortals by choice." I think this is beautiful. Mortals by choice. After many options, they decided to become beings of one day. It is said that once there was a master who was walking and a bandit passed by, and stole his wallet. He was accompanied by

some students, they wanted to run after him, and he said, no, leave it there, I could give him so much, he just wanted the wallet, poor thing. He had so much to give him, he just wanted the wallet. I think this is very interesting. It becomes a maleficent because we do not know how to choose. It was better that someone chose for us, because the life poorly managed is really a burden. We do not make a punishment and a prison this privilege that was given to us by the divinity. "The famous, know thyself, incites and

exhorts the knowledge of nature in its entirety, that man is a bond and almost a synthesis. Who in fact knows himself, knows everything in itself, as wrote first Zoroaster and then Plato." Plato spoke about this, that man is a synthesis of nature and has within himself the possibilities of everything that comes before. And according to Pico Della Mirandola, of everything that comes after. Know thyself and make man become this bridge, this synthesis that organizes everything, harmonizes everything in the universe. "Know thyself" "Know who you are by knowing." Men, it's a microcosms within the macrocosm. Within

it exists the secret of understanding of everything. That is, the Man is the key. This is Platonic, Hermetic The Man is the key. "God made the Man in his likeness image" - micro and macrocosms. "As above, so below; as below, so above."—The Kybalion. The man, as a miniature of the mysteries of the universe, knows himself and, as the maxim of the temple of Delphi said, you will know the universes of the gods. Locating yourself, you harmonize the universe around you. As I told you, the ecological accident of humanity is the lack of men, the lack

of humanity. And here is a little piece that I brought from the second part, when he talks about philosophy, I think it's very beautiful. Constantly he makes this reference. He says that all he had written so far, everything he'd exposed, philosophy taught him. "It was philosophy that brought me to this point. That taught me to depend on my conscience than on others judgments, to always be attentive, not to the evil that is said of me, but not to say or do any evil myself." That is, philosophy taught me my place in the universe and my

moral duty to know the universe. How do I have to behave so that when I look at my trace, people say, here's just passed a human being. My moral duty, my place in the universe. A little bit of that Vitruvian man who embraces the four corners of the universe and takes responsibility and takes on his role before him. Here's a piece that I brought to you, which I found very beautiful, but is not from the speech on the dignity of man, it's from another work of Pico Della Mirandola is a speech that he makes against

astrological guesswork. He had a certain implication with that. He said, repeating the ancient Egyptian maxims, "About animals, about nature, the stars determine. About men, who are beings endowed with will, the stars incline, but do not determine." The stars all point to go there, you decide to go the other way and just go. And there is even a certain risk in this, because we tend to blame our defects on the horoscope, and do not try to change. The horoscope points everything to here, but I wanted to go there and I went there. Professor Jorge Angel Livraga,

who is the founder of Nova Acrópole, said that the difference between a wooden trunk and a boat made of the same wood is that the second has oars and can navigate with the current. Will, love, and intelligence are oars, which make man be able to navigate anywhere. So he didn't like this futuristic guesswork, through the actions of what man would do or would stop doing. He says, who knows what man will do? Himself. Because he is a being endowed with will and the ability to determine his destiny. And it ends with this wonderful phrase: "The

miracles of the Spirit are greater than those of heaven. There is nothing greater on earth than man. Nothing greater in man than his spirit and his soul. Rise up to them and you will rise up beyond heaven." How can a star going to tell you what to do? If you stand up, you will be taller than it. It won't boss you around. Get it? Even stars can determine your destiny, they are beings in evolution and deserving of respect, but so do you. They influence you and you cannot influence them. This is the dignity of man.

Meet, know yourself, dominate yourself, build yourself. Recognize the greatness of the human condition. And not just your smallness. Because this type of morbidity drags you down. Well, that's it. I know it's a well-known text, but it's worth saying a thousand times. Because how good it is to believe in man again. How necessary it is. I hope this is a breath of hope for you. I think it is a very necessary direction to act in today's humanity. To recover faith in man. (Answer to a question) He considers everything worthy of respect. Respect comes from respícere, "knowing

how to see." It is the old maxim of seeing God in all things. In all things, there is a divine flame. A greater or lesser degree of consciousness, of that reflexive consciousness. The man is not, let's say, more capable to help animals than animals to man, because he is superior. But because the flame of consciousness awakened more and increased responsibility. Because knowledge generates responsibility. Now, to see God in all things. All elements have within themselves a flame of the divine. It says that the universe is entirely qualified. The difference, I talked a little about it,

including in the lecture I gave last week here, the difference between one being and another is the amount of light he throws on what he is, and not that he is more or less. It is how much he saw of himself. This is a natural process that chained all beings. All are provided with dignity.