Abstract

Jacobi first gives a comprehensive survey of interpretations that Nicholas of Cusa's thought has undergone. After examining the methodological problems of reading Nicholas, he reviews earlier Thomistic and Platonic interpretations, as well as the opinion which considers him too original to be included within any school. He then examines those commentators who stress Christian elements in Nicholas' thought, and his place at the beginning of modern philosophy. Part II of the book is a speculative analysis of his thought, centered around the distinction between "functional science" and "identity-ontology." The former is the purely secular analysis of the appearance and structure of things; the latter is a metaphysical and theological grasp of the unity beyond all differences and appearances, the ground for all beings which appear to the human mind, and the origin of the mind's ability to know. Jacobi interprets Nicholas with the help of such modern terms as transcendental reflection and ontological difference, illuminating both the subject of his study and the modern viewpoint from which he examines it. The study is influenced by the work of H. Rombach of Freiburg, where Jacobi presented it as a dissertation. There is a good bibliography and index of passages cited.--R. S.