José GONZÁLEZ RÍOS

Considerations on Nicholas of Cusa’s De genesi. Thinking beyond the coincidentia oppositorum in light of the enigmatic name “idem”

Consideraciones en torno al De genesi de Nicolás de Cusa. Pensar más allá de la coincidentia oppositorum a la luz del nombre enigmático “idem”

Published in Nicholas of Cusa in Dialogue

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In De docta ignorantia (1440), Nicholas of Cusa presents the first comprehensive formulation of his system of thought. In De coniecturis, which he began writing at the time, he not only completes the anthropology and theory of knowledge, which he suggested in De docta ignorantia, but also presents the proposal of thinking the divine beyond thecoincidentia oppositorum. In the following years, he writes a group of opuscula in which he revists the topics treated in his previous works. Notorious amongst them is the dialog De genesi (1447). In it, Cusanus speculates on one of the most cherished subjects of his investigation, i.e. the relationship between the one and the multiple, by means of a new aenigmatic name: “idem”. Our work seeks to show that Nicholas of Cusa conjectures about that problem –in terms of identity and difference– in taking up his proposal of thinking the absolute beyond the coincidentia oppositorum.