Jaarboek Thomas Instituut 2006 - Thomas Instituut te Utrecht

NICHOLAS OF CUSA 43
God and believe Him to be the absolute Maximum.20
But what exactly does Nicholas mean by 'learned
ignorance'?" On the one hand he seems to think that one who knows
that (s)he does not know is wiser than one who thinks that (s)he
knows, but on the other he seems to imply that not-knowing bestows
a certain kind of knowledge as well, so that something can be learnt
by not-knowing. This is suggested by the final lines of chapter three:
"the more deeply we are instructed in this ignorance, the closer we
approach to truth".22
Toward the end of the first book, Nicholas distinguishes
between affirmative theology, according to which the many nations
give names to God in which they variously relate God to creatures,
and negative theology that critiques these creature-related names of
God. For instance, he gives the following remark on the name 'the
One' for God:
However, it is not the case that "oneness" is the name for God
in the way in which we either name or understand oneness; for
just as God transcends all understanding, so, a fortiori, [He
transcends] every name. Indeed, through a movement-ofreason
which is much lower than the intellect, names are
bestowed for distinguishing between things. But since reason
cannot leap beyond contradictories: as regards the movement
of reason, there is not a name to which another name is not
opposed. Therefore, as regards the movement of reason:
plurality or multiplicity is opposed to oneness. Hence, not
"oneness" but "oneness to which neither otherness nor
plurality nor multiplicity is opposed" befits God. This is the
maximum name, which enfolds all things in its simplicity of
oneness; this is the name which is ineffable and above all
understanding.P
20 De docta ignorantia I.7. Cf. Wilhelm Dupré, In jedem Namen wird
genannt was unnennbar bleibt. Wegmarken im Denken des Nikolaus von
Kues 1401-1464,Maastricht2001, 100-101.
21 Hopkins (1981) discusses this question on pages 2-5 of his introduction.
22 "Quante in hac ignorantia profundius docti fuerimus, tanto magis ipsam
accedimus veritatem" Latin text ed. Dupré (1964), o.c., I, 202; English
translation Hopkins (1981), o.c., 53.
23 "[ ... ] non est autem vnitas nomen dei eo modo quo nos aut nominamus aut
intelligimus vnitatem, quoniam sicut supergreditur deus ornnem intellectum
ita a fortiori omne nomen, nomina quidem per motum rationis qui intellectu