One of the greatest philosophers, scientist and politician Nikolai Kuzansky was born in southern Germany, in the village of Kuza, in 1401. As a teenager, Nicholas escaped from his parental home, after wandering he was sheltered by Count Theodoric von Manderscheid, who patronized him throughout his life. Presumably, the guardian sent him to study in Holland. There, at the school of “brothers in 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.
Nikolay Kuzansky philosophy, biography and formation
Arriving in Padua, in 1417, Nikolai Kuzansky 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 Nikolai a craving for philosophy and literature.
Having received a doctorate in canon law, in 1423 Nikolai Kuzansky went to Italy, where he met the Roman Chancellor Poggio Bracciolini, who interested him in a craving for theology. After returning to Germany, he began to study theological activities in Cologne. In 1426, becoming a priest, he was appointed secretary of the papal legate Cardinal Orsini, and later he himself became the head priest of the church in Koblenz.
In the first half of the 15th century, the authority of the Catholic Church was undermined, numerous strife between the cathedrals and the pope, feudal lords and the clergy led to a split in the church world. To restore the influence of the church, reforms were needed, many cardinals proposed to limit papal influence and strengthen the sovereign power. Nikolai Kuzansky came to the cathedral in 1433, who advocated depriving the pope of supreme power.
Reforms of Nicholas of Cusa in church and state
Reformed ideas concerned both the church and the state as a whole. Kuzansky Nicholas, whose philosophy was manifested in his first work “On the consent of Catholics,” questioned the document, the so-called Konstantinov gift, which referred to the transfer of the church not only spiritual but also secular power by Emperor Constantine. Nikolai Kuzansky also proclaimed the idea, previously proposed by Ockham, about the will of the people, which is equal for the state and the church. And any ruler is only a bearer of the will of the people. He also proposed to separate the power of the church from state power.
Under the threat of the invasion of Turkish troops, the Greeks and Byzantines held negotiations on the unification of the eastern and western churches, to which Nikolai Kuzansky also came. There he met with Vissarion and Plifon, then famous Neoplatonists, they played the main role in the formation of the worldview of the future philosopher.
The ideas of the reforms that Nikolay Kuzansky proposed, philosophy, the basic ideas that 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 nascent anti-feudal life position is still quite dependent on medieval ideas and lifestyle. The rise of faith, excessive asceticism, calls to kill the flesh, were absolutely not combined with the cheerfulness of the era. A keen interest in knowing 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. Nikolai Kuzansky took an active part in church and political life, but at the same time devoted much time to doing science.
Renaissance philosophy, pantheism. Nikolai Kuzansky, Bruno
Acquaintance with Ambrogio Traversari, Lorenzo Valla, Sylvia Piccolomini (future Pope Pius II) by famous humanists of that time affected the perception of the worldview of Nicholas of Cusa. Turning to the ancient philosophical works, he read in the originals of Proclus and Plato.
An in-depth study of astronomy, cosmography, mathematics, a community of interests connected him with humanists, such as his friend Toscanelli. The philosophy of infinity Nicholas of Cusa, consistent with that time. Scientific principles required a methodical study of mathematics, counting, measurement, and weighing. His treatise "On the experience of 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 combine theory with practice. He was the first to create a geographical map in Europe, and also proposed to reform the Julian calendar, which was subsequently 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 the teachings of Bruno. They left many scientific works on theology, philosophy, church 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. Nikolai Kuzansky develops the concept of limit, which he uses in explaining God and figures in geometry.
God is the world, and the world is God. Correlation 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. Kuzansky contrasted the scholastic knowledge of God 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 the knowledge of the world, it is not a rejection of skepticism, but the ability to express the full amount of knowledge using scholastic logic. Philosophy should proceed in solving the questions of God and the world, namely from ignorance and the incommensurability of concepts and ideas about the object. Pantheism in the philosophy of the Renaissance, Nikolai Kuzansky explains not only from a religious point of view, but rather from a philosophical one. The identification of God as a whole with the world and the essence of everything laid the foundation of his philosophy. This allowed us to move away from religiosity and personalization of God, simplified ideas about the spirituality and exaltation of all things.
When Johann Wenck accused Nikolai Kuzansky of hereticism, in his defense he expressed the need to separate God, the object of veneration, based on the perception of the cult of worship, from God, the object of study. Thus, Nikolai Kuzansky, put God as his own philosophical perception, and not as a problem of theology. In this case, we are talking about the relationship of the finished world of things with the infinite, initial world.
Absolute maximum self deployment, starting point
God, whom he considered in complete renunciation of the world of things, is the beginning of the greatest being, an absolute maximum. This is the beginning of everything and one whole with everything, as Nikolay Kuzansky claimed. Philosophy comes from the fact that God contains everything else. And surpasses everything.
It is the negative concept of God that was introduced by Nikolai Kuzansky, the philosophy of correlation of which rejects his otherworldliness, combines it with the world. God seems to embrace the world, and the world is in God. This position is close to pantheism, since God is not identified with nature, but the world and nature are inside him, just as he himself is inside man.
To characterize the process, Kuzansky Nikolai, whose philosophy is concluded in the process of transition from the divine to the secular, uses the term "deployment". The unfolding of the absolute is implied, this leads to a deeper understanding of the unity of the world, the destruction of hierarchical concepts.
As explained by such a scientist as Nikolai Kuzansky, philosophy, the main ideas of which are contained in the concept of an essence that is minimized inside God, the unfolding of peace is movement, the time interval is instant, and the line of deployment is a point. The doctrine itself contains the dialectical basis for 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, is obtained as a manifestation of necessity, and not of divine design, as religion teaches.
Cosmology in the ideas of Cuzan. The concept of the infinity of the universe and the divine essence
The Universe exists as a constant unfolding of God, since only in it, an absolute maximum, the existence of the most perfect state in the set is possible, in other words, outside the God the Universe can only be in a limited form. This limitation is the main indicator of the difference between God and the Universe. As Nikolai Kuzansky presented, philosophy briefly explains this problem and needs to be completely revised. The scholastic picture of the world, when the created time-driven world is limited by the immobility of celestial bodies and is identified with the Christian god, does not coincide with the teaching presented by Nikolai Kuzansky. Philosophy, the main ideas of which are contained in the pantheistic representation of the divine and worldly, 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.
Cosmos 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 circle, 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 the connection between the dependence of the world on God, explains Nikolai Kuzansky. Philosophy, the basic ideas of which can be briefly explained by infinity, worldly dependence on the divine principles, the phenomenon of coagulation in physical and spatial existence. Based on this, we can conclude about cosmology. It turns out that the Earth is not the center of the world, and motionless celestial bodies cannot be its circle, Nikolai Kuzansky claims.
The philosophy of cosmology deprives the privilege of the earth, which was previously considered the center of the universe, and God becomes the center of everything, at the same time this explains the mobility of the earth. Rejecting the central location and stillness of the earth, not having imagined the motion scheme 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 logical justification.
Comprehension of the divine essence, scientific ignorance
Having destroyed the religious idea of the universe, which is characteristic of the Neoplatonists, Nikolai Kuzansky presented God not as a descending, descended to the level of a material being, but as a manifestation of a higher divine essence. Thus, the world is presented as a wonderful divine creation, which allows you to see the superiority and art of God. The decay of all things cannot hide the nobility of God's design. The beauty of the world, which Nikolay Kuzansky described, the philosophy of universal connections and harmony of creation, is justified. When creating the world, God used geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, music and all the arts used by man.
The harmony of the world is pronounced in man - the greatest creation of God. This is evidenced by Nikolai Kuzansky. Philosophy, the main idea of which is to explain all the beautiful things that God created, is closely connected with the study of cosmology and pantheistic ontology. Man is regarded as the highest creation of God. Having placed it over everything, putting it on a certain step in the hierarchy, we can say that he is, as it were, deified. Thus, he is the supreme being, having enclosed the whole world.
What is characteristic of everything essential: the attraction of opposites is pronounced in human existence. The correspondence of the minimized maximum in God and the cosmic expansion of infinity are reflected in the nature of man, the so-called reduced world. This complete perfection is the divine essence that is characteristic of humanity as a whole, and not of an individual person. A person, having risen to the maximum step, becoming one with her, could become the same god, perceived by the God-man.
Such a union of human and divine nature is possible only in the Son of God, Christ. Thus, the theory of man is closely intertwined with Christology, and that with the theory of deployment, which was put forward by Nikolai Kuzansky. Philosophy briefly and clearly explains that the absolutely perfect nature of the son of God is the coagulation of human nature, like the cosmos in a folded state contained in God. The human being embodied in Christ is infinite, but limited in an individual person, it is finite. Thus, man is infinitely a finite being. The identification of Christ and man by Nikolai Kuzansky helped him to displace the idea of the creation of man inherent in the teaching of the church. He does not consider man as a creation, but as a creator, and this is what likens his divine essence. This is also evidenced by the ability of human thinking to endlessly comprehend the world, to learn new things.
The philosophy of pantheism of Nikolai Kuzansky and his followers
The philosophy of pantheism of Nicholas of Cusa is associated with the idea of the relationship of knowledge and faith. The basis of the doctrine was the idea 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 convoluted form, located in man himself. But, on the other hand, the awareness of the expanded essence, the awareness of God is the work of the human mind, which cannot be replaced by blind faith. Nikolai Kuzansky opposed insufficient knowledge with intellectual contemplation, which gives the concept of 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, because cognition, study cannot stop, and the truth is infinite. Kuzansky’s thoughts that human knowledge is relative have spread to religious knowledge. Thus, any religion is only remotely close to the truth, therefore one should adhere to religious tolerance and rejection of religious fanaticism.
An outstanding philosopher, thinker or heretic?
The main ideas of Nikolai Kuzansky turned out 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, continued the development of German idealism in philosophy of the 18-19 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 Cusan, Giordano Bruno.
Perceiving a person as a god, a creator, Kuzansky contributed to raising the significance of a person. He extolled man’s mental abilities for unlimited knowledge, although, in essence, this was incompatible with the then view of the church about man and was perceived as hereticism. Many of the ideas of Nicholas of Cusa contradicted the feudal system and undermined the authority of the church. But it was he who laid the foundation for the philosophy of the Renaissance and became an outstanding representative of the culture of his time.