Erfahrung,Weltbild und Erkenntnis bei Nikolaus Cusanus

To explain the interaction of stillness and motion of thought, Nicholas Cusanus formulated his renowned comparison with a cosmographer, which through five gateways, corresponding to the five senses, receives information about the world in the form of messages. What follows therefrom is not directly an analysis of the world but of the Creator, whom the philosopher mirrors in himself as a creator of scientific symbols. Cusanus was repeatedly suspected of Pantheism. What is crucial, however, for the critique of reasonning is the parallelism, that God's omnipresence in his creation corresponds to a universal capacity of the human mind to perceive everything by means of a hypothetical otherness (alteritate coniecturali). Therefrom proceeds the general projection that everything can be seen in mathematical terms. Mathematical calculating, working with figures, reducing to units, leads Cusanus to God's creative power as much as to the functioning of the intellect. However, his renowned mental experiments on the minimum and maximum were purely in pursuit of the goal of describing the fluid frontiers of defined thought. This is also true of his cosmology. Cusanus argued mathematically in order to prove the non-mathematical and the non-realistic.     

Die Mathematisierung der Naturwissenschaften vor dem Hinter-grund der Bildungsvorstellungen des 19. Jahrhunderts

Both, astronomy in the first half of the 19th century and physics in the second half of the 19th century functioned as models and paradigms for the other sciences. The paradigmatic character of a theoretical, mathematical astronomy was due mainly to its capability to predict future events. According to the influence of the Romantische Naturphilosophie the mathematization of physics in Germany took place belatedly compared to France. A modified Newtonian research program with its mathematical implications was adopted by German physicists only after the establishment of the principle of energy conservation. German physicists of the late 19th century claimed over and above the results of physicists the successes of German technology for physics and interpreted these achievements as “cultural” achievements. They combined this claim with a request for a better representation of physics in the curricula of secondary schools so as to be comparable to that of mathematics. The resistance of the most prestigious secondary schools, the Humanistische Gymnasien, against this request meant that the concept of Bildung as propagated by physicists was not accepted generally in Germany.     

Schweretheorie und Weltbild des Nikolaus von Kues: Zu ihrer vermeintlichen Modernität

Regarding his world view and his heaviness theory Nicolaus Cusanus is imputed to having used (at least to some extent) forebodings and anticipations of modern conceptions. In the dialog Idiota de staticis experimentis he imputed the quantitative points of view of modern physics programmatically. In contrast with this, this article will show that the quantitative point of view is proposed for an inapt object at least. Cusanus based his reflections on one hand on the Aristotelic theories of elements and their heaviness with ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ weight (only thus, assumed inconsistencies can be explained), on the other hand he wants to determine the essential, qualitative properties of the forma, while only their complete abstraction by reduction on the mass without properties should result in an object for comparative weighings — lately in different ways by René Descartes and Isaac Newton. The putative modernness of cusanian conceptions compared with Aristotle are based on the tradition of platonian and stoic modifications which sooner were compatible with christian ideas.     

West Indian archaeology. 2. After Columbus

The 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas sparked unprecedented interest in the Spanish invasion and in the native peoples of the West Indies. In response, archaeological investigations shed new light on Native, Spanish, and African cultures prior to 1492. In addition, contact-period documents were reexamined, leading to new reconstructions of these societies at contact. Finally, studies have focused on how the interaction and transculturation of native and invading groups led to the demise of the Tainos and the creation of Criollo and Island Carib cultures. The present review examines the changing face of West Indian archaeology in the context of colonialism and ethnohistory. The next part in this series will examine Ceramic Age archaeology.