The Philosophy Book

96

See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Johannes Scotus Eriugena 332 ■ Meister Eckhart 333 ■

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola 334

N

ikolaus von Kues belongs

to a long tradition of

medieval philosophers

who attempt to describe the nature

of God, stressing how God is unlike

anything that the human mind is

capable of grasping. Von Kues

begins with the idea that we gain

knowledge by using our reason to

define things. So in order to know

God, he deduces that we must try

to define the basic nature of God.

Plato describes “the Good” or

“the One” as the ultimate source of

all other forms and knowledge, and

some early Christian theologians

talk of God as “above being.” Von

Kues, writing around 1440, goes

further, stating that God is what

comes before everything, even

before the possibility of something

existing. Yet reason tells us the

possibility of any phenomenon

existing must come before its

actual existence. It is impossible

for something to come into being

before the possibility of it arises.

The conclusion that von Kues

comes to, therefore, is that

something that is said to do this

must be described as “Not-other.”

Beyond apprehension

However, the use of the word

“thing” in the line of reasoning that

von Kues adopts is misleading, as

the “Not-other” has no substance.

It is, according to von Kues, “beyond

apprehension”, and is before all

things in such a way that “they

are not subsequent to it, but exist

through it.” For this reason too,

von Kues thinks “Not-other” comes

closer to a definition of God than

any other term. ■

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Philosophy of religion

APPROACH

Christian Platonism

BEFORE

380–360 BCE Plato writes on

“the Good” or “the One” as

the ultimate source of reason,

knowledge, and all existence.

Late 5th century CE

The Greek theologian and

philosopher Dionysius the

Areopagite describes God

as “above being.”

c.860 Johannes Scotus

Eriugena promotes the ideas

of Dionysius the Areopagite.

AFTER

1492 Giovanni Pico della

Mirandola’s On Being and

the One marks a turning

point in Renaissance

thinking about God.

1991 French philosopher

Jean-Luc Marion explores the

theme of God as not a being.

GOD IS THE

NOT-OTHER

NIKOLAUS VON KUES (1401–1464)

Whatever-I-know

is not God and

whatever-I-conceive

is not like God.

Nikolaus von Kues