Nikolai Kuzansky: philosophy is brief and biography. The main ideas of the philosophy of Nikolai Cusa in brief

One of the greatest philosophers, scientist and politician Nikolai Kuzansky was born in the south of Germany, in the village of Kuza, in 1401. As a teenager, Nikolai escaped from his parents' house, after his wanderings, Count Theodoric von Manderscheid, who had patronized him throughout his life, sheltered him. Presumably the guardian sent him to study in Holland. There, at the school of "brothers in the common life," he studied Greek and Latin, was engaged in commenting and rewriting books on philosophy and theology. After graduation, he returned to Germany and continued his studies at the University of Heidelberg.

Nikolai Kuzansky philosophy, biography and formation

Arriving in Padua, in 1417, Nikolai Kuzansky began to study church law. But one jurisprudence to a talented young man was not enough, he began to study medicine and mathematics, geography and astronomy, natural science and exact sciences. In Padua, he met his future friends Paolo Toscanelli and Julian Caesarini, they instilled in Nicholas a craving for philosophy and literature.

After receiving a doctorate in canon law, in 1423 Nikolai Kuzansky went to Italy, where he became acquainted with the Roman Chancellor Poggio Bracciolini, who was interested in his thirst 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 of Cardinal Orsini, and later himself became the rector of the church in Koblenz.

In the first half of the 15th century, the authority of the Catholic Church was undermined, numerous conflicts between the councils and pope, feudal lords and clergy led to a split in the church world. To restore the influence of the church, reforms were required, many cardinals proposed limiting papal influence and strengthening the conciliar power. At the cathedral in 1433 came and Nikolai Kuzansky, who advocated the deprivation of the pope's supreme authority.

Reforms of Nicholas of Cusa in the Church and State

Reformatory ideas concerned both the church and the state as a whole. Nikolai Kuzansky, whose philosophy manifested itself in his first work On the Consent of Catholics, questioned the document, the so-called Constantine gift, which referred to the transfer of the church not only spiritual, but secular power by the Emperor Constantine. Also, Nikolai Kuzansky proclaimed the idea proposed by Ockham earlier, about the will of the people, 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 authority of the church from state power.

Under the threat of invasion of the Turkish troops, the Greeks and Byzantines held talks on the unification of the Eastern and Western churches, to which Nikolai Kuzansky came. There he met Vissarion and Plephon, then known as the Neoplatonists, who played the main role in the formation of the worldview of the future philosopher.

The ideas about the reforms proposed by Nikolai Kuzansky, philosophy, basic ideas, briefly described, of course, are quite difficult - all this was inspired by the influence of the era, its contradictions, the struggle of various trends. Only the nascent anti-feudal life position, still quite dependent on medieval ideas and way of life. The elevation of faith, excessive asceticism, calls for mortification of the flesh, were absolutely not combined with the cheerfulness of the epoch. A vivid interest in understanding the laws of nature, assessing the merits of mathematics and other exact sciences, the influence of antiquity and mythology - such was the philosophy of the Renaissance. Nikolay Kuzansky took an active part in church and political life, but at the same time he devoted much time to studying science.

Philosophy of the Renaissance, pantheism. Nikolai Kuzansky, Bruno

Acquaintance with Ambrogio Traversari, Lorenzo Valla, Sylvia Piccolomini (future Pope Pius II), well-known humanists of the time, affected the perception of the worldview of Nikolai Cusa. Turning to ancient philosophical works, he read in the original Proclus and Plato.

Deeply occupied with astronomy, cosmography, mathematics, community of interests, he associated with humanists, such as his friend Toscanelli. The philosophy of the infinity of Nicholas of Cusa corresponded to that time. The scientific principles required 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 link theory and practice together. He was the first to create a geographical map in Europe, and he also proposed reforming the Julian calendar, which was later corrected, but only a century and a half later.

The philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa and Giordano Bruno is somewhat similar. Ideas concerning cosmology, were significantly new Copernicus' ideas and prepared a kind of ground for the teachings of Bruno. They left a lot of scientific works on theology, philosophy, church and political topics, united by one idea, about the infinite universe. The transition from the traditions of the Middle Ages is vividly demonstrated by the philosophy of the Renaissance. Nikolai Kuzansky develops the concept of limit used by him in explaining God and figures in geometry.

God is peace, and the world is God. Theory of the relation

The main problem in the reflections of Nicholas of Cusa was the correlation of peace and god, the theocentricism of his philosophy was completely alien to medieval theology. Scholastic knowledge of God, Cusa contrasted the theory of "scientific ignorance", which gave the name of his first philosophical work.

Scholarly ignorance does not mean abandoning God and understanding the world, it is not a rejection of skepticism, but an opportunity to express the full amount of knowledge with the help of scholastic logic. Philosophy must proceed in solving the problems of God and the world, namely, from ignorance and incommensurability of concepts and concepts 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 point of view. The identification of God as a whole with the world and the essence of everything, formed the basis of his philosophy. This allowed us to move away from the religiosity and personalization of God, the simplistic notions of spirituality and the sublimity of everything.

When Johann Venk accused Nicholas of Cusa of heretics, in his defense he expressed the need to separate God - the object of reverence, 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 between the finished world of things and the infinite world, the original.

The unfolding of the absolute maximum, the initial 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, so said Nikolai Kuzansky. Philosophy comes from the fact that God contains all the rest. And he surpasses everything.

It is the negative concept of God that Nikolai Kuzansky introduced, whose philosophy of correlation rejects his otherworldness, unites him with the world. God seems to embrace the world, and the world is in God. Such a position is close to pantheism, since God is not identified with nature, and peace and nature are within it, just as it is inside the person.

To characterize the process, Nikolai Kuzansky, whose philosophy is contained in the process of transition from the divine to the worldly, uses the term "deployment". It involves the very unfolding of the absolute, this leads to a profound understanding of the unity of the world, the destruction of hierarchical concepts.

As explained by such a scientist as Nikolai Kuzansky, philosophy, whose basic ideas are embodied in the concept of essence being in a folded form within God, the unfolding of rest is movement, the time interval is instant, and the line of deployment is a point. In the teaching itself lies the dialectical basis of the coincidence of the opposites of the world and God. Creation, interpreted as unfolding, can not be temporary, because creation is the existence of God, and it is eternal. Thus, the creation itself, not being temporary, is obtained by the manifestation of necessity, and not by the divine design, as religion teaches.

Cosmology in the ideas of the Cusa. The concept of the infinity of the universe and the divine essence

The universe exists as a constant unfolding of the god, since only in it, to the absolute maximum, the existence of the most perfect state in the set is possible, in a word, outside of the God the Universe can be only in a limited form. This restriction is the main indicator of God's excellence from the universe. As Nikolai Kuzansky imagined, philosophy briefly explains this problem and needs a complete revision. The scholastic picture of the world, when the created world-driven world is limited to the immobility of celestial bodies and identified with the Christian God, does not coincide with the teaching that Nikolai Kuzansky introduced. Philosophy, whose main ideas are embodied in the pantheistic representation of the divine and the mundane, explains the notion of God and the world as a circle with a center inside, since it is nowhere and at the same time everywhere.

The cosmos inside man, but the man within God

Proceeding from such a theory of the likeness of 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 an equal god, and in that case he would have a circle with a center, would be the end and, accordingly, the beginning, there would be a completion. Thus, the relationship between the world and God is manifested, explains Nikolai Kuzansky. Philosophy, the basic ideas of which can be briefly explained by the limitlessness, the dependence of the worldly on the divine principles, the phenomenon of coagulation in physical and spatial existence. Proceeding from this, it is possible to draw a conclusion about cosmology. It turns out, the Earth is not the center of the world, and its circumference can not be fixed celestial bodies, says Nikolai Kuzansky.

The philosophy of cosmology deprives the privileged of land that was previously considered the center of the universe, and God becomes the center of everything, while at the same time it explains the mobility of the earth. Rejecting the central location and immobility of the earth, did not represent the pattern of motion of all bodies in the sky, shaking the already established notion of the earth, he paved the way for the development of cosmology and deprived geocentrism of logical justification.

Comprehension of the divine essence, learned ignorance

Destroying the religious idea of the universe, which is characteristic of the Neoplatonists, Nicholas of Cusa presented the god not as a descending material being descended to the stage, but as a manifestation of the higher divine essence. Thus, the world is represented as a beautiful divine creation, which allows you to see the superiority and art of God. The gloominess of all things can not hide the nobility of God's design. The beauty of the world, described by Nikolai Kuzansky, the philosophy of universal ties and the harmony of creation is justified. In the creation of 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. This is said by Nikolai Kuzansky. Philosophy, whose main idea is to explain everything beautiful that God created, is closely related to the study of cosmology and pantheistic ontology. Man is regarded as the supreme creation of God. Putting it above everything, putting it on a certain level in the hierarchy, we can say that it is, as it were, deified. Thus, he appears to be a supreme being, enclosing the whole world in himself.

What is characteristic of everything essential: the attraction of opposites is clearly expressed in human existence. The correspondence of the folded maximum in God and the cosmic unfolding of infinity are reflected in the nature of man, the so-called diminished world. This complete perfection is the divine essence that is characteristic of mankind as a whole, and not of an individual person. Man, having risen to the maximum degree, becoming with it a single whole, could become such a god, be perceived as a God-man.

This unification of the 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 deployment, which Nicholas of Cusa put forward. Philosophy briefly and understandably explains that the absolutely perfect nature of the son of God is the curtailing of human nature, like the cosmos in a collapsed state contained in God. The human essence embodied in Christ is infinite, but limited in a separate person, 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 teaching of the church. He regards man not as a creature, but as a creator, and this likens his divine essence. This is indicated by the ability of human thinking to comprehend the world endlessly, to learn new things.

Philosophy of pantheism of Nikolai Kuzansky and his followers

The philosophy of pantheism of Nicholas of Cusa is connected with the idea of the correlation of knowledge and faith. The basis of the teaching lay the idea of the cosmos as books of divine origin, where God reveals for human knowledge. Therefore, faith is the way of comprehending the divine essence in a collapsed form, located in the person himself. But, on the other hand, the realization of the unfolded essence, the realization of God is a matter of the human mind, which can not be replaced by blind faith. Insufficient knowledge of Nikolai Kuzansky opposed intellectual contemplation, which gives the concept of the attraction of opposites. He calls such knowledge an intellectual vision or intuition, an awareness of the unconscious, the subconscious, in other words, scientific ignorance.

The desire to understand the true meaning, the impossibility of embracing the immense show the incompleteness of objects. And the truth is presented as something objective, but unattainable, since knowledge, learning can not stop, and the truth is infinite. Cusa's thoughts that human knowledge is relative have spread to religious knowledge. Thus, any religion is only remotely close to the truth, therefore it is necessary to 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, gave a continuation to the development of German idealism in the philosophy of the 18th-19th centuries.

The cosmology, the idea of an infinite universe, the absence of a circle and center in it, had a strong influence on the perception of the world. Later it was continued in the writings of a follower of the Cusa, Giordano Bruno.

Perceiving the person as a god, the creator, contributed to raising the importance of man Cusa. He extolled man's mental faculties to limitless cognition, although, in essence, it was incompatible with the then representation of the church about man and was perceived as heretical. Many of the ideas of Nikolai Kuzansky 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.