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Nicolas Keenan

Jason B. Crawford

Humanities: The Rise of Humanism

345-2LA-LA

March 22nd, 2024

Essay Outline

Introduction:

A: Religious and Secular humanist worldviews cannot coexist together.

B: The religious worldview of Giovanni Pico and the secular worldview of Karl Marx represent

two completely different perspectives on the themes of religion, Justice, and purpose.

Body:

First paragraph: Pico:

Theme 1: religion.

- Place in “the chain of being.”

o Universal Chain of Being

o Creation

 Ponder the plan.

 Love the beauty.

 Wonder at its vastness and “Cultivate your seeds.”

- To Pico, religion is not everything, he commends and acknowledges philosophy with his

900 theses.
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- He challenged the church with his Oration on the dignity of Man by emphasizing

individual growth but was still religious and faithful to only God.

- To Pico the value of religion is being faithful to God, and trusting that God gave humans

all the tools we need to achieve.

Theme 2: Freedom

- Pico’s conception of freedom is correlated to his thought on the purpose of human

beings.

- His oration is regarded as a salute and a declaration of the freedom and the ability of

humans.

- Rather than the church telling people are stuck in the middle of the chain of being, Pico

says that you are free to move up or down that ladder dependant on your faith to God.

- Pico’s definition of freedom also was more metaphysical, as to him, it also included the

freedom of knowledge.

Theme 3: Purpose.

- Throughout Pico’s books, humans have a holy ambition. Humans are driven with holy

ambition, so we are not content with being average. He thinks god gave humans a gift

to DO, instead of just nothing.

- Humans need guidance of God, the type of angelic hierarchy that inspires us. There is

a set of 3 angels that give a purpose for us humans to live an active life. That is where

we get inspirational guidance.

- Another point of Pico is that the point of education isn’t just studying and impressing

people, but it’s meant to study God. If you learn of God, you will begin to love him.
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- In other words, use your given inspiration and freedom to move up the chain of being

and become closer to god.

- In a way, Pico claims that as we learn and get close to god, we can become “perfect”.

- An analogy of a ladder. To climb up and down the closeness to God.

Second Paragraph: Karl Marx:

Theme 1: religion.

- Marx critiqued religion as the "opium of the masses," arguing that it functions to

maintain social control and distract people from their material exploitation.

- Because of his ideology on the Bourgoise and Proletariat, he viewed religious beliefs

as reflecting and perpetuating the interests of the ruling class(bourgoise).

- Basially, religion was made to take advantage of the people who believed in it.

Theme 2: Freedom

- Karl Marx talked about freedom a lot, much different than Pico’s idea of freedom.

- Marx mainly encouraged people to be freed from the class structure, and to be free of

the capitalist system that exploited people.

- Freedom also meant to be freed from the alienation of the system people are in, so

people can focus on themselves and flourish.

- More specifically, Marx wanted freedom without the need of independence. Freedom

from being dominated economically and politically but also being able to depend on

institutes.u

Theme 3: Purpose.
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- Marx thought that most of human societies is all a hunt for resources, and production

and industrialization was critical for human life.

- But more importantly, Marx found that the Capitalist system paved way for a lack of

purpose in human beings, so although fond of it, he found that capitalism alienated

humans from the beauty of life.

- He thought that a person’s purpose is to be free from the chains of classes.

- A big purpose for marx was for the people to surpass any political and economical

domination of big capitalist.

Third Paragraph: Comparison

Theme 1: religion:

- This is the simplest of themes to say. Firstly, Pico was religious but critical of the

Church, considered Pro-Protestant in today’s terms. Karl Marx was against religion.

Theme 2: Freedom:

- They both believed in freedom, but for different meanings and reasons. Marx freedom

was more based in society, and he looked at how people should be freed from the

chains of the higher ups to work on themselves and other reasons. For Pico, freedom

is more metaphysical, where you have free will to do what you can. But the

connection is that for both these men, freedom for a human is of the benefit of the

individual.

Theme 3: Purpose

- Marx’s idea of purpose is that the base of society is all about production and

resources. A persons purpose was as a whole to escape capitalism’s negative aspects

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of being dominated. While Pico’s meaning of purpose was the perfection of the

individual in all factors of life, and primarily due to the closeness of God.

Conclusion Paragraph.

In conclusion, the secular humanist Karl Marx and the religious humanist Giovanni Pico have

different thinks to say about religion, freedom, and purpose. Whilst Pico focuses on individual,

spiritual and religious freedom, and development of the individual and Marx is against religion

and has very different meanings for purpose and freedom for human beings, there some

similarities to take notice of.

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Works Cited

Claire Roberts, William. “Karl Marx Loved Freedom.” Jacobin, 11 July 2021,

jacobin.com/2021/07/karl-marx-capital-marxs-inferno-political-theory-anti-domination-

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%20write,upon%20large%2Dscale%20social%20cooperation. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.

Ball, Terrance et al. “The Development of Politcal Ideals.” Political Ideologies and the

Democratic Ideal, Routledge, no.11, 2019, pp. 128- 136. Omnivox,

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Kristeller, Oscar et al. “Pico: Introduction” The Renaissance Philosophy of man, University of

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Truglia, Craig. "AL-GHAZALI AND GIOVANNI PICO DELLA MIRANDOLA ON THE

QUESTION OF HUMAN FREEDOM AND THE CHAIN OF BEING." Philosophy East

and West, vol. 60, no. 2, 2010, pp. 143-166. ProQuest,

https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/al-ghazali-giovanni-pico-della-mirandola-

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