Neretina S.S. Alien in the Philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/lp.jvolsu.2025.3.5
Svetlana S. Neretina
Doctor of Sciences (Philosophy), Professor, Chief Researcher, Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Goncharnaya St, 12, Bld. 1, 109240 Moscow, Russian Federation
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2063-062X
Abstract. The main objective of the article is to reveal the concept of the Non-Other in the philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa and to show his method of working with definitions that allow us to understand the foundations that make a thing a thing with a paradoxical internal opposition. Unlike God, who, as the cause of all creation, is selfidentical and does not oppose anything, and therefore is the Non-Other, any created thing is both the other and the non-other. Like God, it is the non-other when taken in itself and the other when considered in relation to another thing. The term "non-other" is not a defined term, and this is what made it attractive to Nicholas of Cusa: it is through its obscurity that something one is incomprehensibly seen, something that is neither substance nor being nor unity nor even a name, because this vaguely seen thing is before name, before being, even before nothing; it has only the possibility of being, because the creation that is now incomprehensibly perceives the NonOther. This possibility of being before being and before nothing can only be attributed to God, whom Nicholas of Cusa defines through possible being (possest) as "actually infinite power," an a priori principle that permeates each and every thing. In this sense, the non-other is God, and a saint, and a thinker, and a righteous man, and all other things that can be named with the negation "not," taken by themselves. Nicholas of Cusa introduces a "clear and convenient method" of research – a special kind of schematism (scheme – shape, form, expression) – to discover the connection between the mental and the sensual. Such a scheme is the formula "not other than," which not only defines a thing but also reveals the direction of thought or the way in which things are compared.
Key words: thing, Other, Non-Other, definition, direction, scheme, possible, being.
Citation. Neretina S.S. Alien in the Philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa. Logos et Praxis, 2025, vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 35-45. (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.15688/lp.jvolsu.2025.3.5
Russia in Leibniz’s Early Linguistic Researches (1689–1698): Towards a Project for the Development of Sciences and Arts in Russia. © 2025 by Svetlana S. Neretina is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
 5_Neretina.pdfURL: http://psst.jvolsu.com/index.php/en/component/attachments/download/2077 | 3 Downloads |