rough classical learning, later known as Studia Humanitatis. He probably makes the first humanistic attempt to stress out the significance of the humans in the modern philosophical thought. The characteristic feature of the Renaissance is the praise of human mind, first found in the ancient Greece. Nothing is admirable besides the mind; compared to its greatness nothing is great. Man is primarily praised for his reason, for his arts and skills, derived from his own potential through the path of secular knowledge. But humans dignity has to be attained and realized through mans effort. Only then, as expressed in Marsilio Ficinos writing in 1468, man becomes a dominant power over all elements and animals, he is the ruler of nature; he is assigned a central place in the hierarchy of the universe. While being extremely religious Five Questions Concerning the Mind deal with a system of the universe only because it justifies the glorification of the human soul. The entire concept of human dignity was, in fact, based upon a heroic vision of humanity. The glorification of man goes further in Vives stories where human is given the power of self-transformation: A Fable about Man. The perfect human determines his own being, has material power over the world and moral power over himself. Man is able to choose his own destiny, to become sovereign beautiful being. Everything depends on his free will, according to Pico; mans dignity is based on his freedom. The human has to strive to dignity by asserting his potentials, by cultivating reason rather than blind feeling within his mind. Only tasks that are morally and intellectually worthwhile can lead us beyond the narrow confines of his personal interests and ambitions. A number of humanistic treatises deal with individual virtues. Some of them are discussed in the works of Neapolitan humanist, Giovanni Pontano: courage, altruism or discretion. The notion of finding the precise philosophica...
