The Ways God Overcomes Contradictions in Human Understanding: Nicholas of Cusa

Kód výsledku v IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15210%2F25%3A73632296" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15210/25:73632296 - isvavai.cz</a>

Výsledek na webu

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783111369983-009" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783111369983-009</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783111369983-009" target="_blank" >10.1515/9783111369983-009</a>

Jazyk výsledku

angličtina

Název v původním jazyce

The Ways God Overcomes Contradictions in Human Understanding: Nicholas of Cusa

Popis výsledku v původním jazyce

Paradoxes and logical impossibilities are at the core of negative theology. Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus) made it his major task to investigate, outline, and accept those conditions for speaking of God. “Learned ignorance” was one of his formulas, that is, to understand what is unintelligible by transcending what is understandable so that contradictions coincide. In his dialogue On the Hidden God,he addresses the epistemological problem by stating that God is not even the root of contradictions, but God is simplicity preceding any root. Propositions about God are caused by God himself. With that, Cusanus qualifies all theology as apophatic: nothing is God if ‘nothing’ is supposed to have a referent. Thus, he circumvents pantheism that purports to understand God by His works. This program is elaborated upon in the conversation De non aliud. With explicit reference to the philosophical theologies of Proclus and Plato’s Parmenidesand mainly profiting from Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, Cusanus aims at the identity of definition and defined, which amounts to the proposition that the defined is ‘non-other’ than the definition. Hence, God is all that can be defined and none of it. God gives the definition to the defined. The non-other (God), then, is present in that which is other. One implication is that that which is identical with its definition – and which defines all there is – is “all in all and nothing in nothing.” What sounds like a version of pantheism, however, is the contrary to it, provided we acknowledge the hypothetical character of the discourse and, along with that, the divine perspective – which eventually is inaccessible to humans. God ‘acts’ as his own contradiction: the double negation entailed in ‘non-other.’

Název v anglickém jazyce

The Ways God Overcomes Contradictions in Human Understanding: Nicholas of Cusa

Popis výsledku anglicky

Paradoxes and logical impossibilities are at the core of negative theology. Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus) made it his major task to investigate, outline, and accept those conditions for speaking of God. “Learned ignorance” was one of his formulas, that is, to understand what is unintelligible by transcending what is understandable so that contradictions coincide. In his dialogue On the Hidden God,he addresses the epistemological problem by stating that God is not even the root of contradictions, but God is simplicity preceding any root. Propositions about God are caused by God himself. With that, Cusanus qualifies all theology as apophatic: nothing is God if ‘nothing’ is supposed to have a referent. Thus, he circumvents pantheism that purports to understand God by His works. This program is elaborated upon in the conversation De non aliud. With explicit reference to the philosophical theologies of Proclus and Plato’s Parmenidesand mainly profiting from Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, Cusanus aims at the identity of definition and defined, which amounts to the proposition that the defined is ‘non-other’ than the definition. Hence, God is all that can be defined and none of it. God gives the definition to the defined. The non-other (God), then, is present in that which is other. One implication is that that which is identical with its definition – and which defines all there is – is “all in all and nothing in nothing.” What sounds like a version of pantheism, however, is the contrary to it, provided we acknowledge the hypothetical character of the discourse and, along with that, the divine perspective – which eventually is inaccessible to humans. God ‘acts’ as his own contradiction: the double negation entailed in ‘non-other.’

Druh

C - Kapitola v odborné knize

CEP obor

—

OECD FORD obor

60301 - Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology

Projekt

<a href="/cs/project/GA21-17059S" target="_blank" >GA21-17059S: Pantheismus a panpsychismus v renesanci a zrod sekularismu</a><br>

Návaznosti

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Rok uplatnění

2025

Kód důvěrnosti údajů

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Název knihy nebo sborníku

Contradiction and the Absolute Theories engaging contradiction in five main world religions

ISBN

978-3-11-136498-8

Počet stran výsledku

16

Strana od-do

169-184

Počet stran knihy

400

Název nakladatele

Walter de Gruyter

Místo vydání

Berlin

Kód UT WoS kapitoly

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