Rethinking the Renaissance: Pico on Aquinas in the 900 Theses

Speaker: Prof. Leon Chai, UIUC

Moderator: Prof. Hao Tianhu, Zhejiang University

Time: 19:00-21:00 pm, Oct. 28, 2024 (Monday)

Venue: 腾讯会议 690 262 214

Bilibili Live：https://live.bilibili.com/24519212

I propose a new way of arriving at a Renaissance-Medieval distinction. Medieval theology had favored the independent status of ideas, defined by Aquinas and others as existing in the mind of God. By contrast Pico sees only a divine emanationism, by which God creates or produces only a first hypostasis from which ideas arise subsequently. Thus we can associate the Renaissance with a new primacy of creative activity or process over a previously-stable medieval world order based on ideationism.