One of the greatest philosophers, scientist and politician Nicholas of Cusa was born in the south of Germany, in the village of Kuza, in 1401. As a teenager, Nikolai ran away from his parents' home, after wandering he was sheltered by Count Theodorik von Manderscheid, who patronized him throughout his life. Presumably the guardian sent him to study in Holland. There, at the school of the "brothers of common life", he studied Greek and Latin, was engaged in commenting and rewriting books on philosophy and theology. After leaving school, he returned to Germany and continued his studies at the University of Heidelberg.
Nicholas of Cusa philosophy, biography and formation
Arriving in Padua, in 1417, Nicholas of Cusa began to study church law. But jurisprudence alone was not enough for a talented young man; he began to study medicine and mathematics, geography and astronomy, natural science and the exact sciences. In Padua, he met his future friends Paolo Toscanelli and Julian Cesarini, they instilled in Nicholas a craving for philosophy and literature.
Having received a doctorate in canon law, in 1423Nicholas of Cusa went to Italy, where he met the Roman Chancellor Poggio Bracciolini, who interested him in his craving for theology. After returning to Germany, he began to study theological work in Cologne. In 1426, having become a priest, he was appointed secretary of the papal legate, Cardinal Orsini, and later he himself became rector of the church in Koblenz.
In the first half of the 15th century, the authority of the Catholic Church was undermined, numerous feuds between cathedrals and the pope, feudal lords and the clergy led to a split in the church world. Reforms were needed to restore the church's influence, and many cardinals proposed limiting papal influence and strengthening conciliar power. Nicholas of Cusa also came to the cathedral in 1433, who advocated depriving the pope of supreme power.
Reforms of Nicholas of Cusa in church and state
Reformist ideas concerned both the church and the state as a whole. Nicholas of Cusa, whose philosophy manifested itself in his first work "On the Consent of Catholics", questioned the document, the so-called gift of Constantine, which spoke of the transfer of not only spiritual, but also secular power to the church by Emperor Constantine. Also, Nicholas of Cusa proclaimed the idea, proposed earlier by Ockham, about the will of the people, equal for the state and the church. And any ruler is only the bearer of the will of the people. He also proposed to separate the power of the church from the state power.
Under the threat of the invasion of Turkish troops, the Greeks and the Byzantines held negotiations on the unificationeastern and western churches, to which Nicholas of Cusa also came. There he met Vissarion and Plethon, known at that time as Neoplatonists, it was they who played the main role in the formation of the worldview of the future philosopher.
The ideas about the reforms proposed by Nicholas of Cusa, philosophy, the main ideas, which are briefly described, of course, are quite difficult - all this was inspired by the influence of the era, its inconsistency, the struggle of various trends. Only the emerging anti-feudal position in life is still quite dependent on medieval ideas and lifestyles. The ex altation of faith, excessive asceticism, calls to mortify the flesh, absolutely did not combine with the cheerfulness of the era. A vivid interest in the knowledge of the laws of nature, an assessment of the merits of mathematics and other exact sciences, the influence of antiquity and mythology - such was the philosophy of the Renaissance. Nicholas of Cusa took an active part in church and political life, but at the same time devoted a lot of time to science.
Renaissance philosophy, pantheism. Nicholas of Cusa, Bruno
Acquaintance with Ambrogio Traversari, Lorenzo Valla, Silvius Piccolomini (future Pope Pius II) famous humanists of that time affected the perception of the worldview of Nicholas of Cusa. Turning to ancient philosophical works, he read Proclus and Plato in the originals.
Deep study of astronomy, cosmography, mathematics, common interests connected him with humanists such as his friend Toscanelli. The philosophy of infinity of Nicholas of Cusa, corresponded to that time. scientific principlesrequired a methodical study of mathematics, counting, measuring, weighing. His treatise "On Experience with Weighing" was the first step towards a new era of scientific and technological progress. In his work, Nikolai Kuzansky touches on experimental physics, dynamics, statics, he manages to connect theory with practice. He was the first to create a geographical map in Europe, and also proposed to reform the Julian calendar, which was later corrected, but only after a century and a half.
The philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa and Giordano Bruno is somewhat similar. Ideas regarding cosmology were much newer than the ideas of Copernicus and prepared a kind of ground for Bruno's teachings. They left many scientific works on theology, philosophy, ecclesiastical and political topics, united by one idea, about an infinite universe. The transition from the traditions of the Middle Ages is clearly demonstrated by the philosophy of the Renaissance. Nicholas of Cusa develops the concept of limit, which he uses in explaining God and figures in geometry.
God is the world, and the world is God. Ratio theory
The main problem in the thoughts of Nicholas of Cusa was the relationship between the world and God, the theocentrism of his philosophy was completely alien to medieval theology. Scholastic knowledge about God was contrasted by Cuzansky with the theory of "scientific ignorance", which gave the name to his first philosophical work.
Scientific ignorance does not mean a rejection of God and knowledge of the world, it is not a rejection of skepticism, but the ability to express the full amount of knowledge using scholasticlogic. Philosophy must proceed in solving the questions of God and the world, precisely from ignorance and incommensurability of concepts and ideas about the object. Pantheism in the philosophy of the Renaissance, Nicholas of Cusa explains not only from a religious point of view, but rather from a philosophical one. The identification of God as a single whole with the world and the essence of everything formed the basis of his philosophy. This made it possible to move away from religiosity and the personalization of God, simplified ideas about spirituality and the sublimity of everything.
When Johann Wenck accused Nicholas of Cusa of hereticism, in his defense he expressed the need to separate God - the object of veneration, based on the perception of the worship cult, from God - the object of study. Thus, Nicholas of Cusa, posed God as his own philosophical perception, and not as a problem of theology. At the same time, we are talking about the relationship of the completed world of things with the world of the infinite, the original.
The self-unfolding of the absolute maximum, the starting point of reference
God, whom he considered in complete renunciation of the world of things - the beginning of the greatest being, the absolute maximum. This is the beginning of everything and a single whole with everything, as Nikolai of Kuzan claimed. Philosophy comes from the fact that God contains everything else. And surpasses all.
It is the negative concept of God that Nicholas of Cusa introduced, whose philosophy of correlation rejects his otherworldliness, unites him with the world. God, as it were, embraces the world, and the world is in God. Such a positionclose to pantheism, since not God is identified with nature, but the world and nature are inside him, just as he himself is inside a person.
To characterize the process, Nicholas of Cusa, whose philosophy lies in the process of transition from the divine to the mundane, uses the term "deployment". The very unfolding of the absolute is implied, this leads to the deepest understanding of the unity of the world, the destruction of hierarchical concepts.
As a scientist like Nicholas of Cusa explained, philosophy, the main ideas of which are contained in the concept of an essence that is in a folded form inside God, the unfolding of rest is movement, the time interval is an instant, and the line of deployment is a point. The doctrine itself contains the dialectical basis of the coincidence of the opposites of the world and God. Creation, interpreted as unfolding, cannot be temporary, because creation is the existence of God, and it is eternal. Thus, the creation itself, not being temporary, turns out to be a manifestation of necessity, and not a divine plan, as religion teaches.
Cosmology in the ideas of Kuzansky. The concept of the infinity of the universe and the divine essence
The Universe exists as a constant deployment of God, since only in it, the absolute maximum, the existence of the most perfect state in the set is possible, in other words, outside of God the Universe can exist only in a limited form. This limitation is the main indicator of the difference between God and the Universe. As Nicholas of Cusa imagined, philosophy briefly explains this problem and needs to be completely revised. The scholastic picture of the world, when the created world, moved in time, is limited to the immobility of celestial bodies and identified with the Christian God, does not coincide with the teaching presented by Nicholas of Cusa. Philosophy, the main ideas of which are contained in the pantheistic representation of the divine and the mundane, explains the concept of God and the world as a circle with a center inside, since it is nowhere and at the same time everywhere.
Space is inside man, and man is inside God
Based on this theory of likening God to the natural cosmos, the world does not have its own circumference, but its center is everywhere. But still, the world is not infinite, otherwise it would be equal to God, and in this case it would have a circle with a center, there would be an end and, accordingly, a beginning, there would be an end. This is how the connection between the dependence of the world on God is manifested, explains Nikolai Kuzansky. Philosophy, the main ideas of which can be briefly explained by infinity, the dependence of the mundane on the divine principles, the phenomenon of curtailment in physical and spatial existence. Based on this, we can draw a conclusion about cosmology. It turns out that the Earth is not the center of the world, and motionless celestial bodies cannot be its circumference, says Kuzansky Nikolai.
Philosophy about cosmology deprives the earth, which was previously considered the center of the universe, and god becomes the center of everything, at the same time it explains the mobility of the earth. Rejecting the centrality and immobility of the earth,not presenting the scheme of movement of all bodies in the sky, having shaken the already established idea of the earth, he paved the way for the development of cosmology and deprived geocentrism of a logical justification.
Comprehension of the divine essence, scientific ignorance
Destroying the religious idea of the universe, which is characteristic of the Neoplatonists, Nicholas of Cusa presented God not as a descending, descending to the level of a material being, but as a manifestation of the highest divine essence. Thus, the world is presented as a beautiful divine creation, which allows you to see the superiority and art of God. The perishability of all that exists cannot hide the nobility of God's plan. The beauty of the world, which was described by Nicholas of Cusa, the philosophy of universal connections and harmony of creation are justified. When creating the world, God used geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music and all the arts used by man.
The harmony of the world is clearly expressed in man - the greatest creation of God. Nicholas of Cusa speaks about this. Philosophy, the main idea of which lies in the explanation of everything beautiful that is created by God, is closely connected with the study of cosmology and pantheistic ontology. Man is regarded as the highest creation of God. By placing him above everything, placing him at a certain level in the hierarchy, we can say that he is, as it were, deified. Thus, he turns out to be the supreme being, enclosing the whole world.
What is characteristic of everything essential: the attraction of opposites is brightexpressed in human existence. The correspondence of the folded maximum in God and the cosmic unfolding of infinity are also reflected in the nature of man, the so-called reduced world. This complete perfection is the divine essence, which is characteristic of humanity as a whole, and not of an individual. A person, having risen to the maximum step, becoming one with it, could become the same god, be perceived as a god-man.
This union of human and divine nature is possible only in God's son, Christ. Thus, the theory of man is closely intertwined with Christology, and that with the theory of unfolding, which was put forward by Nicholas of Cusa. Philosophy briefly and clearly explains that the absolutely perfect nature of the son of God is the curtailment of human nature, like the cosmos in a coiled state contained in God. The human essence embodied in Christ is infinite, but limited in the individual, it is finite. Thus, man is an infinitely finite being. The identification of Christ and man by Nicholas of Cusa helped him to shift the idea of the creation of man, inherent in the teachings of the church. He considers man not as a creature, but as a creator, and this is what likens him to the divine essence. This is evidenced by the ability of human thinking to endlessly comprehend the world, to learn new things.
Philosophy of pantheism by Nicholas of Cusa and his followers
The idea of the ratio ofknowledge and faith. The doctrine was based on the representation of the cosmos as a book of divine origin, where God is revealed to human knowledge. Therefore, faith is a way of comprehending the divine essence in a folded form, located in the person himself. But, on the other hand, awareness of the unfolded essence, awareness of God is a matter of the human mind, which cannot be replaced by blind faith. Nicholas of Cusa contrasted insufficient knowledge with intellectual contemplation, which gives the concept of the attraction of opposites. He calls such knowledge intellectual vision or intuition, awareness of the unconscious, subconscious, in other words, scientific ignorance.
The desire to comprehend the true meaning, the inability to grasp the immensity show the incompleteness of objects. And the truth is presented as something objective, but unattainable, since knowledge, study cannot stop, and truth is infinite. Kuzansky's thoughts that human knowledge is relative extended to religious knowledge as well. Thus, any religion is only remotely close to the truth, so one should adhere to religious tolerance and rejection of religious fanaticism.
Outstanding philosopher, thinker or heretic?
The main ideas of Nicholas of Cusa proved to be very fruitful for the further development of progressive philosophy. The influence exerted by the development of natural science, humanism, made him an outstanding philosopher of the Renaissance. The doctrine of dialectics, the attraction of opposites gavecontinuation of the development of German idealism in the philosophy of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Cosmology, the idea of an infinite Universe, the absence of a circle and a center in it, also had a strong influence on the perception of the world. Later, it was continued in the writings of a follower of Cusa, Giordano Bruno.
Perceiving man as a god, a creator, contributed to raising the importance of man Kuzansky. He extolled the mental abilities of a person to unlimited knowledge, although, in essence, this was incompatible with the then idea of the church about a person and was perceived as hereticism. Many ideas of Nicholas of Cusa contradicted the feudal system and undermined the authority of the church. But it was he who initiated the philosophy of the Renaissance and became an outstanding representative of the culture of his time.
