Nicholas of Cusa
1401-1464 · German (Moselle, Holy Roman Empire) · Christian Neoplatonism, philosophical theology, cosmology, epistemology, ecclesiology
The more he knows that he is unknowing, the more learned he will be.
Born in a Moselle village in 1401, Nicholas of Cusa became a cardinal and papal diplomat — yet the idea that defined his life came to him on a sea voyage from Constantinople in 1437. He said the whole of "De Docta Ignorantia" opened as a gift from above. That work announced learned ignorance: the mind's most perfect knowledge is its precise understanding of why it cannot seize the infinite truth it nonetheless approaches. A polygon inscribed in a circle never becomes the circle — recognizing that gap is not defeat but the highest knowing finite minds can reach.
Topics Nicholas of Cusa addresses
- learned ignorance
- coincidence of opposites
- the absolute maximum and absolute minimum
- complicatio and explicatio
- the wall of paradise
- God beyond affirmation and negation
- possest
- non aliud
- contractio
- the boundless universe
- the infinite sphere
- rejection of the cosmic center
- the earth as a noble star
- conjectural knowledge
- intellectus and ratio
- the polygon-and-circle figure
- proportio
- the human mind as imago Dei
- mens as creative measure
- Christ as the contracted maximum
- the vision of God
- negative and positive theology
- una religio in rituum varietate
- the wisdom of the layman
Questions to put to Nicholas of Cusa
Learned Ignorance and the Coincidence of Opposites
- What do you mean by learned ignorance?
- How does the polygon-and-circle figure show the limits of human knowing?
- What's the difference between ratio and intellectus?
- How can opposites coincide without violating the principle of non-contradiction?
- Why is learned ignorance the most perfect knowledge we can attain?
The Boundless Universe and the Rejection of the Center
- Why do you say the universe has no center or circumference?
- What do you mean when you call the earth a noble star?
- How is the universe an infinite sphere with its center everywhere?
- What's the difference between the absolute Maximum and the contracted maximum?
- How do complicatio and explicatio structure the relation between God and creation?
God Beyond Affirmation and Negation
- How can God be beyond both affirmation and negation?
- What's the wall of paradise in your Vision of God?
- What's the difference between negative theology and your doctrine of learned ignorance?
- How does the vision of God work when God is hidden and incomprehensible?
- Why does the coincidence of opposites appear at the wall of paradise?
Christ, the Trinity, and Maximum-Contracted
- What do you mean by calling Christ the maximum-contracted?
- How does the Trinity structure the absolute Maximum?
- Why is the Incarnation the deepest union of the divine and human?
- How does Christ resolve the gap between finite and infinite that learned ignorance reveals?
Conjectural Knowledge and the Human Mind
- What do you mean by conjectural knowledge?
- How is the human mind an image of God?
- Why does the layman in your dialogues instruct the philosopher?
- What's the difference between the mind's creative measuring and God's absolute creating?
- How do possest and non aliud name God's relation to creation?
One Religion in the Variety of Rites
- What do you mean by one religion in the variety of rites?
- How can all nations seek the same God through different practices?
- Why did you write On the Peace of Faith right after Constantinople fell?
- How do you see the relation between Christian truth and what other religions grasp?
- What were you looking for when you sifted the Koran for Christian truth?
Converse with Nicholas of Cusa on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in Nicholas of Cusa's own writing, cited to the page.