rr113 As Ficino said, the trouble with the pleasures of the senses is not that they are pleasures, but that they do not last.
ZZ 208, Ficino, Neoplatonism. The variations different philosophers produce in the hypostases, the causes, the nature of substance, etc. Does that give an arbitrary feel to some of those systems? Ficino's aesthetic impulse, the unity of nature. "Natura non facit saltum". Deduction of reality from possibility.
The soul as the mid point of reality, the intermediary of all things.
The bond of love. Ficino's optimism, as distinct from the pessimism of ancient neoplatonists. Idea of the perfection of nature, as distinct from its salvation.
214&,
"Each of Plato's and Plotinus' utterances corresponds to a creative insight and is accompanied by the signs of direct experience and inspiration. Ficino, on the other hand, is preceded by a thousand year tradition of Christian theology, in which the existence of intelligible entities was taken as a matter of course, and as a reiterated truth. His frequent use of the rich treasure of coined formulae placed at his disposal by that tradition is therefore readily understood. In contrast to those formulae, direct expressions of his own concrete experience are relatively rare…..
In Plotinus…. The whole sphere of internal experience and contemplation is entirely separated by acts of sudden elevation for the preceding realm of ordinary experience as well as from the still higher state of transcendent consciousness. For Ficino, on the contrary, the clear cut separation of internal consciousness at its upper and lower limits has disappeared. For as we have seen it is connected with ordinary experience by a gradual transition; also on the upper limit there is no longer a sudden elevation towards transcendent consciousness. The degrees within the contemplation therefore necessarily assume a greater importance." (Kristeller - The Philosophy of Marsilio Ficino).
BC 173, Ficino admired Cusanus and saw him as a link in the great chain of Platonists, and so did Bruno.
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AR 29, Pico and Ficino accused of childishness in their love of mystery. I would want to argue for something worthwhile in it.
79,
