Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494) was an Italian philosopher and scholar during the Renaissance. He is best known for his work "Oration on the Dignity of Man," where he argued that humans have the unique ability to shape their own nature through free will and intelligence. Pico believed that all knowledge and religious teachings could be understood as part of a single, divine truth, emphasizing the potential for human greatness. His ideas promoted the idea of intellectual freedom and the pursuit of understanding across different fields, making him a key figure in early humanist thought.