Oration on the Dignity of Man is basically a book written by a rich Renaissance noble that explains how great mankind and its achievements are. Many of the things he claims are greatly exaggerated, which is important to note. This collection of the great works of man was simply the "beginning", as Pico put it, and he was never able to finish because he died rather unexpectedly.
One of the first sections in the book speaks of man's dignity in the field of liberal arts. Although Pico originally intended to speak this in front of a large audience, he never got the chance to do anything but write it down. The section speaks of three angels, all of whom represent something positive in relation to man. Basically, Pico concludes that, because we possess the same traits as these angels, we have much dignity. These traits include charity, complexity, and knowledge (wisdom).
While explaining how humans have a natural desire to learn more, he compares humanity to when God first created the Earth. He says that God did not stop until he created humans, because he wanted a species that could fully appreciate his work on the Earth and the Heavens. This does indeed seem a bit selfish of God, but Pico goes even further to say that man is completely unrelated in any fashion to any other life on the planet. Humans can learn anything and imitate any other creature, therefore God created them completely independently from any other beings.
Near the end of his book, Pico explains why he became a philosopher in the first place. He feels it wrong when other philosophers are simply in their line of work for the profit, which he says he is not. Explaining that philosophy has taught him to know when he is right, ignoring the beliefs of others, he says that it is important for all to lose themselves to thoughts at times. In many ways, this behavior is not societally acceptable, because simply saying your thoughts are fact has no factual basis compared to others.
