Everything about De Docta Ignorantia totally explained

De docta ignorantia is a book on philosophy and theology by Nicholas of Cusa (or Nicolaus Cusanus), who finished writing it on 12 February 1440 in his mother-town of Kues, Germany. Earlier scholars had discussed the matter, for example

Augustine of Hippo stated »Est ergo in nobis quaedam, ut dicam, docta ignorantia, sed docta spiritu dei, qui adiuvat infirmitatem nostram« (Epist. ad Probam 130, c. 15, § 28)
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite coined agnôstôs anatathêti (De myst. theol.c. 1, § 1)
Bonaventura of Bagnoregio declared »spiritus noster non solum efficitur agilis ad ascensum verum etiam quadam ignorantia docta supra se ipsum rapitur in caliginem et excessum« (Übinger, Docta ignor S. 8)

For Cusanus, the docta ignorantia means a »visio sine comprehensione, speculatio« (De docta ignor. I, 26). As mankind can not grasp the infinity of a deity by extending rational knowledge, the limits of science need to be passed by means of speculation that blur the borders between science and ignorantia, leading to a coincidentia oppositorum.

External links

Learned Ignorance and other works by Nicolas de Cusa

— Full-texts in English
Further Information

Get more info on 'De Docta Ignorantia'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://de_docta_ignorantia.totallyexplained.com">De Docta Ignorantia Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.