Nicholas of Cusa on God As Not-Other: A Translation and an Appraisal of De Li Non Aliud

188 Pages·1979·7.86 MB·English

by  Jasper Hopkins

nicholas of cusa on God as not-other
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nicholas of cusa
on God
as not-other
a translation and an appraisal
of de li non auud
By Jasper hopkins
university of minnesota press, minneapolis
Copyright © 1979 by the University of Minnesota.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
at the University of Minnesota Printing Department, Minneapolis.
Published by the University of Minnesota Press,
2037 University Avenue Southeast, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Nicolaus Cusanus, Cardinal, 1401-1464.
Nicholas of Cusa on God as Not-other.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
I.God. I. Hopkins, Jasper. II. Title.
BT100.N4913 1979 231 78-22006
ISBN 0-8166-0881-4
The University of Minnesota
is an equal-opportunity
educator and employer.
Preface
American and British students of Nicholas of Cusa seem seldom to ad-
vance beyond familiarizing themselves with the system of thought con-
tained in De Docta Ignorantia. This failure of movement is not neces-
sarily a failure of progress. For given the wealth of content of this
magnificent but cryptic work, our understanding of its central ideas can
only be progressive. Still, there comes a time when we need to move
onward to a careful consideration of Nicholas's other philosophical
works as well—if only to afford ourselves the opportunity of viewing
De Docta Ignorantia in a different light when we subsequently return to
reexamine it. In particular, the time has come to explore more fully such
later works as De Possest and De Li Non Aliud. I previously have made
available an English translation of the former;1 I now present an equally
close rendering of the latter.2 I am grateful to both Karsten Harries
and Thomas McTighe, who read through the entire manuscript and of-
fered helpful suggestions for its improvement. I cannot be certain, how-
ever, that either of them would sanction all aspects of the final product.
De Li Non Aliud is not an easy work. (Indeed, even its main theme has
sometimes been misunderstood.)3 Nor is it a work which can suitably
stand alone, as can De Possest. Rather, if it is to be appreciated at all,
it must be read against the backdrop of De Docta Ignorantia. And it
must be approached with some allowance for its conceptual style—i.e.,
with no expectation of its being anything other than what it is: viz., a
highly original speculation. In breaking away from the conceptual con-
straints of scholasticism, Nicholas sometimes, as in the present dialogue,
gives only light rein to his metaphysical musings. In the present instance
he guides his meditation along a single path: viz., the pathway to God
through the signification of the symbolic name "Not-other."
V
vi PREFACE
The importance of this dialogue will, I suspect, be best discerned by
the intellectual historian, who will be able to recognize its proper place
within the long and pervasive tradition of medieval Neoplatonism. The
intellectual historian will see too, no doubt, the significance of Chapter
14 as a source book of themes which motivate certain forms of Renais-
sance reasoning.
My introductory appraisal of the dialogue aims at being concise and
evenhanded; it is an appraisal and not a summary, a commentary, or an
appreciation. A student of the present dialogue should already be famil-
iar with the Platonic and the Aristotelian traditions and with the com-
plex metaphysical problems about being and not-being, singularity and
plurality, sameness and otherness, substance and accident, form and
matter, universality and particularity —some of which topics reached
early focal points in Plato's Parmenides and Sophist as well as in Aris-
totle's Metaphysics. The reader of De Li Non Aliud may well be amazed
at how many of these themes the single motif of non-aliud manages to
encompass. Nicholas's extensive exploration of this rich motif—his
relating of it to the views of Plato, Aristotle, Proclus, Dionysius, and
David of Dinant —testifies amply to his imaginativeness and ingenuity.
Once we realize that he is exploring a motif rather than formulating
lines of argument, we will understand why we may need to approach
his text more as historians than as philosophers and theologians.
Jasper Hopkins
Philosophy Department
University of Minnesota
contents
Introduction 3
On Not-other (De Li Non Aliud) 27
P. Wilpert's Addenda et Corrigenda for the
Heidelberg Academy Edition of the Latin Text 155
Alia Addenda et Corrigenda for the
Heidelberg Academy Edition of the Latin Text 156
Notes 158
Index 175
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nicholas of cusa on God as not-other