Nicholas of Cusa as Scientist

The conclusion of an article on ‘Cusanus’ that was begun in the Summer 2024 issue of this journal

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), known as Cusanus, saw nature as a symbol of the Divinity. But what he asked of a symbol was not so much force and liveliness as clarity and certitude. ‘Nature’, he wrote, ‘is the book in which God has written with His own hand’. But he did not believe that the meaning of this book could be understood through mere subjective feeling. It must be investigated in detail. And the proper instruments for this task, he believed, are logic and numbers. Only they can set up the standard of necessity which rules out the arbitrariness and uncertainty of personal feeling and opinion.

Cusanus maintained that all science is nothing other than the unfoldment of what lies in the mind. The mind unfolds space from the principle of the point lying within it, and likewise unfolds time from the principle of the ‘now’. And in the same way, all the acts by which it seeks to control nature must be preceded by some form of ideal projection. All arts and skills are rooted in creative projections of this kind.