As humanist scholars began to publish new translations and commentaries on Aristotle, they also recovered a whole range of neglected classical authors and philosophical perspectives, most significantly exponents of Stoicism, Scepticism, Epicureanism, and Platonism. The most decisive development was the recovery and translation of the works of Aristotle's teacher, Plato.

The mystical, idealist Platonism of Marsilio Ficino, Nicholas of Cusa, and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola argued that, contrary to Aristotle's belief, the soul was immortal, and aspired to a cosmic unity and love of ultimate truth. Imprisoned in its earthly body, the soul, according to Ficino in his Platonic Theology (1474), 'tries to liken itself to God'. Ficino argued that Plato 'deemed it just and pious that the human mind, which receives everything from God, should give everything back to him. Thus, if we devote ourselves to moral philosophy, he exhorts us to purify our soul so that it may eventually become unclouded, permitting it to see the divine light and worship of God'.

This Platonic approach had two distinct advantages over Aristotelianism. Firstly, it could be accommodated much more easily into 15th-century Christian belief in the immortality of the soul and the individual's worship of God. Secondly, it defined philosophical speculation as an individual's most precious possession. Ficino's version of Platonism cleverly elevated his own profession as philosopher. Its rejection of politics in favour of mystical contemplation also suited the political philosophy of Ficino's patron, the Florentine ruler Cosimo de' Medici, who appointed Ficino as head of his Platonic Academy in 1463.

Subsequent philosophers rapidly expanded and refined Ficino's Neoplatonism. In the introduction to his 900 theological theses entitled Conclusions (1486), Giovanni Pico della Mirandola claimed that in the Platonic scheme of things man is 'the maker and moulder of his own self, with the ability 'to have what he wishes, to be what he wants'. For 19th-century writers, Pico's introduction became the classic statement on the birth of Renaissance Man, and in 1882 it was given its English title, Oration on the. dignity of man. In fact, Pico's stated aim in the Conclu- siones was the 'concord of Plato and Aristotle', which he sought through the consultation of mystical Jewish and Arabic texts. It is our loss that, in concentrating on Pico's polemical celebration of 'man', his more inclusive attempt to unify Islamic, Jewish, and Christian theological philosophy has been mostly ignored