In this article the question is posed whether the modern concept of tolerance is an appropriate category with which to evaluate the thought of Nicholas of Cusa. The classic question of unity and pluriformity is linked by Cusanus to the problem of the plurality of contradictory forms of truth. Thus for Cusanus the problem of truth can never be thought without the possibility of tolerance. Vice versa this implies that the subject of tolerance can never be broached without broaching the (...) subject of the problematics of truth. This is why Cusanus understands man as a 'second god', who is the border of his own world, and who is confronted with the problem that there are 'several gods'. If we develop the thought of tolerance in this way along with Cusanus, it has much in common with the enquiry into the possibilities and limits of the concepts of god in and for human existence. (shrink)

The thinking of Nicholas of Cusa is characterized by a very refined sensibility for the plurality of truths and values. The ultimate truth can never be reached by human beings and there are as many truths as there are human individuals. Nevertheless, Cusanus believes that there can be found a common measure, with which the different religious truths can be reconciliated. This is the principle of the una religio in rituum varietate. The article shows the differences between this cusanian principle (...) of pluralism and the modern – political – solutions of the social and religious conflicts. This comparison shows that the cusanian way of thinking can offer a contribution to the actual debates on the multicultural society, debates in which the liberal solution is questioned. The metaphysical way of arguing which we can find in the work of Cusanus – in De coniecturis and De pace fidei is not just a restoration of the medieval ‘order’ , but offers the possibility to think about the relation to the absolute which every individual according Cusanus has. But this relation to the absolute is embedded in the traditional ways of life, the consuetudines . In modern philosophy these consuetudines got a negative meaning in advantage of a more abstract idea of truth. In the discussions on the crisis of modernity and the limits of liberal thinking, this way of thinking may show some new directions. (shrink)

L' art de la collection est une traduction libre de l'ars coniecturalis, le nouveau paradigme que le Cusain propose et met en oeuvre dans son livre, le De Coniecturis (1441-1445).

Nikolaus von Kues, eine Schwellengestalt zwischen Mittelalter und Neuzeit, gewinnt in einer Zeit, die sich selbst als Ubergangsepoche wahrnimmt, wieder starkere Aufmerksamkeit. Er steht in dem noch ungewissen Morgenlicht einer Epoche, deren Abenddammerung gegenwartig vielfach diagnostiziert wird. Wichtige Themen, an denen Stellung und Bedeutung des Cusanus immer wieder aufbrechen, sind der Individualitatsbegriff, der cusanische Beitrag zur Ausbildung der modernen Naturwissenschaften, die Kreativitat des Denkens, die Reichweite seiner konjekturalen Erkenntnislehre und die gesellschaftliche Rolle der Toleranz im Dialog der Kulturen. Die kulturwissenschaftliche (...) Neuorientierung der Geisteswissenschaften schuf auch in der Cusanusforschung Raum fur neue Forschungsfelder wie das Verhaltnis von Malerei und Philosophie. Die sich seit Jahrzehnten anbahnende Neubewertung der cusanischen Philosophie wird im vorliegenden Band umfassend dokumentiert und weitergefuhrt. Alle Beitrage eint die Uberzeugung, dass die Hinterlassenschaften des Theologen, Philosophen, Naturwissenschaftlers, Mystikers, Juristen und Politikers Nicolaus Cusanus fur ein an der Praxis des menschlichen Lebens orientiertes gegenwartiges Philosophieren fruchtbar gemacht werden kann. Der vorliegende Band dokumentiert Ergebnisse von sechs selbstandigen, aber koordinierten Tagungen der internationalen Cusanusforschung aus dem Jubilaumsjahr 2014. (shrink)