Emma Pollock
Drs. Merz and Rennie
HON 202
18 February 2017
De Docta Ignorantia: As a triangle is a circle, man is unbound from Being
On a temperate day, centuries ago, Nicholas of Cusa was at sea returning to Venice from Constantinople when he claims he was led, through “supernatural generosity of the Father, so that he grasped the incomprehensible incomprehensibility in learned ignorance through the transcendence of humanly knowable yet incorruptible truths.” (Miller) A disciplined and varied learner, Cusanus was born in Germany in 1401. He is often referred to as the first ‘modern’ philosopher. A successful lawyer, theologian, astronomer, mathematician, and bishop, Nicholas of Cusa found his true scholarship in the study of man’s incomplete …show more content…
According to Pauline Morffitt Watts in Nicholas Cusanus: A Fifteenth-Century Vision of Man, the average man desires to know but does not realize his own ignorance, thus De Docta Ignorantia is “intended to be a kind of pedagogical aid or guide to such a man, illustrating to him both what he can hope to achieve and what lies beyond his ability to grasp.” (36) The work is composed of three books devoted to God, the universe, and the incarnation respectively. The average man is thought to discover his learned ignorance through contemplation of these three areas. The first book explores the detachment between the human mind and the divinely created universe. In this book, Cusanus uses mathematical symbolism to reason the infinite oneness of God and the approximate nature of man’s knowledge on created things. Nicholas of Cusa concludes “that the precise truth shines incomprehensibly within the darkness of our ignorance. This is the learned ignorance we have been seeking and through which alone, as I explained, we can approach the maximum.” (85) In chapters prior, it is found that God is the maximum, proposing that God is the ‘coincidence of opposites’, or that God’s reality lies beyond any familiar domain where the principle of contradiction holds …show more content…
Uniquely and notably skilled in his ability to blend the borders of science and ignorance, he was able to convey that both reason and a surpa-rational understanding are needed to understand God. In his work De Docta Ignorantia, he explained that since mankind cannot comprehend the infinity of God through rational knowledge, the limits of science and mind must be passed through speculation. It is in turn through this speculation and learned ignorance that man is unbound from Being, and able to further understand the incomprehensible God. For the Renaissance man is a learned men, and the learned man is one who is aware of his own ignorance.
Bibliography
Hopkins, Jasper Stephen, and Nicolas De Cusa. A Concise Introduction to the Philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 1980. Print.
Hopkins, Jasper. Nicholas of Cusa's Debate with John Wenck. Minneapolis (Minn.): A.J. Banning, 1981. Print.
Miller, Clyde Lee, "Cusanus, Nicolaus [Nicolas of Cusa]", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .
Nicholas, and Jasper Hopkins. Nicholas of Cusa On Learned Ignorance: A Translation and an Appraisal of De Docta Ignorantia. Minneapolis: A.J. Benning, 1996. Print.
“Nicholas of Cusa.” New Catholic Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia.com. 17 Feb. 2017 .
Watts, Pauline Moffitt. Nicolaus Cusanus, a Fifteenth-century Vision of Man. Leiden:
Drs. Merz and Rennie
HON 202
18 February 2017
De Docta Ignorantia: As a triangle is a circle, man is unbound from Being
On a temperate day, centuries ago, Nicholas of Cusa was at sea returning to Venice from Constantinople when he claims he was led, through “supernatural generosity of the Father, so that he grasped the incomprehensible incomprehensibility in learned ignorance through the transcendence of humanly knowable yet incorruptible truths.” (Miller) A disciplined and varied learner, Cusanus was born in Germany in 1401. He is often referred to as the first ‘modern’ philosopher. A successful lawyer, theologian, astronomer, mathematician, and bishop, Nicholas of Cusa found his true scholarship in the study of man’s incomplete …show more content…
According to Pauline Morffitt Watts in Nicholas Cusanus: A Fifteenth-Century Vision of Man, the average man desires to know but does not realize his own ignorance, thus De Docta Ignorantia is “intended to be a kind of pedagogical aid or guide to such a man, illustrating to him both what he can hope to achieve and what lies beyond his ability to grasp.” (36) The work is composed of three books devoted to God, the universe, and the incarnation respectively. The average man is thought to discover his learned ignorance through contemplation of these three areas. The first book explores the detachment between the human mind and the divinely created universe. In this book, Cusanus uses mathematical symbolism to reason the infinite oneness of God and the approximate nature of man’s knowledge on created things. Nicholas of Cusa concludes “that the precise truth shines incomprehensibly within the darkness of our ignorance. This is the learned ignorance we have been seeking and through which alone, as I explained, we can approach the maximum.” (85) In chapters prior, it is found that God is the maximum, proposing that God is the ‘coincidence of opposites’, or that God’s reality lies beyond any familiar domain where the principle of contradiction holds …show more content…
Uniquely and notably skilled in his ability to blend the borders of science and ignorance, he was able to convey that both reason and a surpa-rational understanding are needed to understand God. In his work De Docta Ignorantia, he explained that since mankind cannot comprehend the infinity of God through rational knowledge, the limits of science and mind must be passed through speculation. It is in turn through this speculation and learned ignorance that man is unbound from Being, and able to further understand the incomprehensible God. For the Renaissance man is a learned men, and the learned man is one who is aware of his own ignorance.
Bibliography
Hopkins, Jasper Stephen, and Nicolas De Cusa. A Concise Introduction to the Philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 1980. Print.
Hopkins, Jasper. Nicholas of Cusa's Debate with John Wenck. Minneapolis (Minn.): A.J. Banning, 1981. Print.
Miller, Clyde Lee, "Cusanus, Nicolaus [Nicolas of Cusa]", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .
Nicholas, and Jasper Hopkins. Nicholas of Cusa On Learned Ignorance: A Translation and an Appraisal of De Docta Ignorantia. Minneapolis: A.J. Benning, 1996. Print.
“Nicholas of Cusa.” New Catholic Encyclopedia. Encyclopedia.com. 17 Feb. 2017 .
Watts, Pauline Moffitt. Nicolaus Cusanus, a Fifteenth-century Vision of Man. Leiden: