库萨的尼古拉论美

Nicolas of Cusa On Beauty

库萨的尼古拉作为15世纪的"第一哲学家",其美学思想历来为后人关注。虽然,美作为上帝的属性,在中世纪神学中地位并不低下,但是就美展开大量论述的哲人,除了我们熟悉的奥古斯丁、伪狄奥尼修、托马斯·阿奎那等人,其他并不多见。由此来看库萨别开生面的美论,与其极具神秘主义色彩的否定神学相似,不妨说是进一步推进了高扬精神的柏拉图主义,摆脱是时更重视亚里士多德逻辑理性传统的经院哲学而异军突起,一方面呼应意大利文艺复兴,在北方演绎了人文主义的初潮,一方面也悄悄开启了后代的解构哲学传统。

As the first philosopher in the 15th century, Nicolas of Cusa＇s aesthetic theory has always been influential. While it is true that being an attribute of God, beauty＇s place in medieval theology is by no means humble, apart from St. Augus- tine, Pseudo-Dionysius, Thomas Aquinas and a few other theologians that we know well not many philosophers left behind extensive arguments on it. Seen in this light, Cusa＇s theory of beauty, like his mysterious negativist theology, is nothing short of a new force that suddenly comes to the fore. It further enhances Platonism which upholds spirituality and breaks way from scholasticism which prizes Aristotelian logical reason. Echoing the Renaissance in Italy and helping bring about the first flowering of humanism in the north, it also unspectacularly opens the way to the subsequent deconstructionist philosophical tradition.