Comparing Dante´s The Divine Comedy And Pico's Philosophy

There is a conflict, however, between Dante's philosophy and Pico's philosophy. In Dante's The Divine Comedy, each soul sought to achieve Heaven, and those in Heaven were in bliss no matter where they were in Heaven. Even the souls that were further away from God in Heaven did not want to be higher up because they completely accepted the role of God in deciding where they would end up. One soul that Dante talked to in this circle of Heaven said, "We thirst for this alone. If we desired to be higher up, then our desires would not be in accord with His will Who assigns us to this sphere" (Dante 406). However, Pico believes that Man should constantly "despise the things of heaven, and, judging little of what is in this world, fly to the court
Each of the punishments in Inferno distracts from some aspect of each soul's humanity. This is reflected especially in the forest of shades that committed suicide. This sin against their body and their humanity caused them to lose one of the most important aspects of humanity-their human form. "Men were we once, now we are changed to shrubs" (Dante 69). These souls have lost their ability to move, to defend themselves, or to ever be reunited with their earthly bodies. The harpies were free to feast on the leaves of these shades, showing their utter lack of defense without a body, creating a rather desolate place. The form of the tree is reminiscent of the Tree of Knowledge, which is a constant reminder of sin, so these shades are always gloomy, losing the human emotion of happiness as well. This text heavily implies that having a human body, which was created in the image and likeness of God, is part of humanity and painful to lose; therefore, mankind must be good and honored. The center of Hell houses a frozen lake in which bodies of betrayers are stored and forced to remain for eternity. This eternal freezing made the shades unable to move and forced to simply stare at the other sinners while reflecting. God gave humans the gift of being able to go wherever he pleases, but in the frozen lake, this gift was taken away, separating them from humanity. Pico describes what God said to Adam upon creation: "'Adam, we give you no fixed place to live, no form that is peculiar to you, nor any function that is yours alone'" (Pico 1). God has lovingly bestowed these gifts upon humanity, and any deviation from them is against humanity, so those souls who have sinned are losing part of their humanity. This is like how Pico says that by choosing to live against God makes one more like an animal or a