1

I am neither a specialist for logic nor for theology. Yet, I was electrified about Nikolaus von Kues statement that God is the concept of concept.

Has Kues’ proposition somehow been applied as a real bridge between logic and theology, in order to improve the comprehension of these fields by their mutual coherence? Or, is Kues’ sentence not more than a bon mot?

What is the name of this interdisciplinary subject? Has it something to do with Platonism, or not? Did, for instance, Kant, Schopenhauer or any of the philosopher or logicians after Kues, investigate this? − If not, what is this coherence or how could it be investigated?

  • 1
    Theology, when properly understood, is completely coherent so there's nothing to bridge. –  Jun 10 '17 at 14:49
  • Cusanus was a neoplatonist. – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Jun 10 '17 at 15:42
  • 1
  • 1
    @Pé de Leão: OK, but if logicians and scientists could, on this basis, better discern what a concept really is, they could perhaps get rid of this monster here. − But if you are so off-hook, because your theology is so complete, then … –  Jun 10 '17 at 23:48
  • 1
    @Zeus. I doubt that logicians and scientists are really interested in getting rid of your monsters. –  Jun 11 '17 at 00:46
  • Nicolaus of Cusa was partial to negative theology, the tradition of understanding God by negating what he is not rather than asserting what he is. Since God is beyond our conceptual understanding we can only have a concept of his concept, not a concept of him. – Conifold Jun 13 '17 at 00:23
  • @Conifold, — “He (i.e. von Kues) thinks god as the concept of concept, as the absolute concept (…). This transcendental-logical component in the tradition of the philosophical science of god is still scarcely explored. It regards itself as thinking’s self-enlightenment about the bias of its rational (…) proceeding.” [Translated by Zeus from: Historisches Wörterbuch der Philosophie, Bd. 3, 1974, Ed.: J. Ritter, Schwabe & Co., Basel, p. 745.] –  Jun 13 '17 at 02:00
  • I am not sure what Ritter's "transcendental-logical component" means but logical aspects of theology have been discussed ad nauseam, see e.g. Logic in Orthodox Christian Thinking, Logic in Religious Discourse or Jacobs' paper on apophatic theology for recent entries. – Conifold Jun 13 '17 at 03:07
  • @Conifold, I feel nauseated too, when I see this. I just asked the question about von Kues because acid, base and salt are the only noncircular concepts that exist anyway. Since acid and base are salts too, I thought that hence everything is salt. In consequence salt represents God (because of the omnipresence). When I then heard the expression “concept of concept”, I hoped that this could support some further insights in the right direction. But now we have this awful nausea :(( –  Jun 13 '17 at 04:09

0 Answers0