Re-Evaluating Pico’s "Syncretism": The One in De Ente et Uno and Ficino’s Commentary on Parmenides

• In Event: Philosophy and Literature in Italy: Ficino, Patrizi, Alberti

Abstract

Pico della Mirandola has traditionally been understood as a ‘syncretist’: whether as a scholastic bringing new insights from other cultures, a philosopher attempting to marry Plato and Aristotle, or a thinker weaving diverse traditions into a perennial philosophy. Marsilio Ficino is understood as a ‘Platonist’. But Ficino also utilizes Aristotelianism and is a proponent of a perennial philosophy. He differs from Pico in weaving them around Platonism and Christianity to forms a Platonic revival re-marrying Philosophy and Theology. This paper uses a point of disagreement between the two — the idea of the One particularly in Ficino’s Commentary on ‘Parmenides’ and Pico’s De Ente et Uno — to re-evaluate the opposition between Ficino the Platonist and Pico the Syncretist, and re-explore Pico’s syncretism. I will argue they are on the same ‘syncretic’ mission to bring Christianity and Philosophy back in harmony at a time of religious uncertainty with nuanced differences in approach.

Author

• Sophia Howlett, School for International Training