Florentine Neoplatonism Florentine Neoplatonism Florentine Neoplatonism is the Italian Renaissance revival of Neoplatonism, led by Marsilio Ficino (1433–99) and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–94), that flourished in 15th century Florence This renewed interest in Neoplatonism, or the philosophy formulated by Plotinus (205–270 c.e.) and founded upon the thought of Plato (427–347 b.c.e.), was due both to the waning religious values of the time and to the aristocratic shift of emphasis under members of the Medici family from worldly affairs to a life of contemplation Plato’s portrayal of Socrates in the Republic as a sage critical of Greek democracy and devoted to meditation on timeless and immaterial truths lent itself so well to the new social sentiment that it supplanted the Roman statesman as the ideal of human life Fascinated by the humanist rediscovery of classical ideals Cosimo de’ Medici selected his doctor’s gifted young son, Marsilio Ficino, to become a Greek scholar and Platonic philosopher An intellectual giant whose mind comprehended and synthesized complete philosophical systems, Ficino opened his Platonic Academy, not a school in the formal sense, but a salon where he oversaw the scholarly discussions of friends and visitors, at Careggi in 1466 Two years later he edited the entire corpus of Plato, published by the Aldine Press in Venice, and translated Plato’s Dialogues into Latin In 1469 Ficino composed his commentary on Plato’s Symposium and translated various treatises of Plotinus, Proclus, Porphyry, and Dionysius the Areopagite From 1469 to 1474, he developed his “pious philosophy” or “learned religion,” an elaborate Neoplatonic philosophical edifice, in his masterpiece, the Theologia Platonica Emphasizing that divine poetry and allegory furnish the veil of true religion, which can only be expressed mystically and not in precise syllogisms, Ficino’s system proved quite congenial to several Renaissance poets, authors, and artists Central to Ficino’s system were the twin suppositions that the individual constitutes the center of the universe and that the goal of human life lies in the internal ascent of the soul toward the divine or God Drawing heavily on Plotinus’s Enneads, Ficino pictured the cosmos and everything within it as a great hierarchy of being and described the “One,” or God, as the absolute universal essence God is the coincidentia oppositorum, or the reconciliation of all opposites, in whom all things find unity Embracing infinity within himself, God brings the lesser orders into being through emanations from his substance, resulting in a ladder of bodies, 127 natural attributes, souls, and angelic minds that delineates the way of ascent to the One At the center of this ladder, humanity is bound to the material realm by the body and to the intelligible, or spiritual, realm by the soul, which facilitates its rise to divine reunion through contemplation For Ficino such philosophical contemplation comprises a spiritual experience in which the soul retreats from the body and from all external things into its own being, learning that it is a product of divine emanation and that God is therefore immanent Derivative from this conception is the immortality of the soul, as Ficino insists that no mortal entity can partake of the beatific vision At this juncture Ficino imports Christian theology into his system: Where Plotinus had envisaged a mediator, or demiurge, between the untainted One and the subdivided intelligible and material realm, Ficino identified this mediator with the divine Logos, or Christ, “the Word who became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:14) As the intermediary between God and humanity, Christ both serves as an archetype of sanctified humanity and leads fallen humanity to love God Moreover Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross proves God’s unfailing love for humanity and frees all human souls for the ascent to God In order for the individual to reach the divine, however, Ficino contended that the soul must make a leap of spiritual love by loving God for his own sake, thereby attaining participation in the One, who is, by nature, love This notion of “Platonic love” is the nucleus of Ficino’s philosophy, since the universe is formed and ruled by the ideal of love Accordingly, four spheres of aesthetic values find their center in the good, the moral nature of God, which is immovable and emanates divine majesty throughout the universe Ficino maintained that body and soul could only be inseparable, as they will be in the general resurrection, if they are merged into the activity of love Therefore love originates in God and manifests as spiritual love in the angelic minds and becomes sensual, pleasurable, and erotic love in the corporeal realm Since humans possess free will, they can choose between the spiritual love of the intelligible realm and the erotic love of the physical domain Ficino postulated a “light metaphysic” in which light is the laughter of heaven and expresses the joy of the communion of saints This cosmology harmonized nicely with prevailing astrological theories already exerting a profound influence on many Renaissance thinkers Most brilliant of Ficino’s pupils was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, the youngest son of Francesco Pico, count of Mirandola and Concordia, a small principality just west of Ferrara Although matriculating at the