库萨的尼古拉哲学中的镜面隐喻

The Mirror Metaphor in the Philosophy of Nicolas of Cusa

镜面和镜面反照的隐喻在世界哲学史中具有重要的地位。即使在不同的时代与不同的文化语境中,比如在中国、印度以及地中海地区的古代哲学,还有在中世纪以及新时代的欧洲,我们都能发现这个隐喻的使用。在西方哲学世界中,柏拉图是第一位将哲思的行为比喻成擦拭镜面的哲学家。在他之后,伟大的新柏拉图主义哲学家普洛丁(Plotin)和普罗克洛(Proklus)都继续沿用了这个隐喻。

The mirror metaphor has been an essential asset especially during the pre-modern history of philosophy.The present article is concerned with its use in the philosophy of the German thinker Nicolas of Cusa(1401-1464).Being rooted in the intellectual traditions of Greek antiquity and Medieval Christian philosophy,Nicolas of Cusa has also been hailed as one of the first modern European philosophers.Long before other occidental thinkers,Nicolas of Cusa used the mirror metaphor to describe the foundational logic of self-consciousness on his own terms and in the context of his time and his cultural environment.This article presents the most important passages,in which Nicolas of Cusa uses the images of the mirror and of mirroring to explain the creative self-relation of consciousness as well as to hint at a way of a transformation of the common forms of reflexivity of the epistemological functions of the mind into its complete form of existence as absolute self-consciousness.In this context,Nicolas of Cusa’s use of the mirror metaphor is also concerned with the question of an all-encompassing humanistic self-perfection,practice as well as with basic anthropological considerations.