The Importance of Fourteenth-Century Natural Philosophy for Nicholas of Cusa’s Infinite Universe

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 87 (1):33-53 (2013)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper argues that Nicholas of Cusa’s investigation of infinity and incommensurability in De docta ignorantia was shaped by the mathematical innovations and thought experiments of fourteenth-century natural philosophy. Cusanus scholarship has overlooked this influence, in part because Raymond Klibansky’s influential edition of De docta ignorantia situated Cusa within the medieval Platonic tradition. However, Cusa departs from this tradition in a number of ways. His willingness to engage incommensurability and to compare different magnitudes of infinity distinguishes him from his Platonic predecessors, who had appropriated the Pythagorean model of universal harmonies. Cusa’s penchant for representing quantity geometrically suggests not only that he has adopted the fourteenth-century method of latitude measurement, but that he accepts incommensurability as normative. Finally, Cusa’s persistent attention to mathematical inaccuracy and to his own learned ignorance suggests his kinship with the meta-critical, conjectural quality of fourteenth-century thought.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 100,665

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Knowing Otherness: Martin Buber’s Appropriation of Nicholas of Cusa.Sarah Scott - 2015 - International Philosophical Quarterly 55 (4):399-416.
Nicholas of Cusa and Man’s Knowledge of God.John L. Longeway - 1987 - Philosophy Research Archives 13:289-313.
Nature and Grace in Nicholas of Cusa’s Mystical Philosophy.Louis Dupré - 1990 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 64 (1):153-170.
Nicholas of Cusa on learned ignorance - A translation and an Appraisal of De docta ignorantia.Jasper Hopkins - 1982 - Mitteilungen Und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus-Gesellschaft 15:150-151.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-04-04

Downloads
84 (#246,368)

6 months
10 (#376,108)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references