无限的根基——论库萨的尼古拉之不可言说的言说

The Infifinite Foundation:Nicolaus Cusanus’Ineffable Way of Speaking(ineffabile fari)

哲学不可避免地面临着不可言说性(Unsagbarkeit)或不可理解性(Unbegreiflichkeit)的问题。人们想要利用语言,去探求一个根本原则。而作为其产物,人们极尽所能地设计出各种思维和语言手段,也由此不可避免地触及到了概念性思维的极限,即没有任何一个词的使用能唤起一个明确无二的意义^(①),也就是说,在每一次使用概念时,包括这个概念本身,都会涉及超概念的(überbegrifflich)内涵。

Concerning Nicolaus Cusanus’(Nicholas of Cusa,1401-1464)mysticism of the intellect,his approach to the problem of ineffability deserves the special attention of researchers.Preceded by a general exposition on the topic of the inconceivability of the experience of the foundational autopoietic self-reference of thinking and speaking,this article shows how Nicolaus Cusanus has developed a complex approach to the problem of an“ineffable way of speaking”(ineffable fari).Cusanus developed a set of approaches to non-negatable cataphatic“pointing rods”(Max Scheler)and apophatic ways of thinking about what is to be understood as ineffable in the sense of a philosophical form of mysticism.Both are still inspiring and highly relevant for the discussion today.In terms of the overall interior development of his philosophical way of“eloquent silence”(German:beredtes Schweigen),it is notable that Cusanus eventually referred to both ways of affirmative and negative theology in their dialectic interdependence.Eventually,he found increasingly simple ways to point the way towards the“likeness of the path along which the seeker must walk.”In his later works,Cusanus developed a unique understanding of the problem of ineffability about philosophical mysticism,the potential of which remains to be explored further in the future.