Docta Ignorantia

DOCTA IGNORANTIA. - An expression deriving from letter 130 of St. Augustine to Proba, concerning the "quid oremus sicut oportet nescimus" (Rom. 8:26); he adds: "est ergo in nobis quaedam ut ita dicam d. i. sed docta spiritu Dei qui adiuvat infirmitatem nostram" (15, 28; PL 33, col. 505). The formula owes its fame above all to the work of Nicholas of Cusa entitled De d. i. (1440).

Taking up again the ideas of Pseudo-Dionysius and of the medieval theologians on negative theology, and affirming the impotence of reason in the face of the knowledge of intellectual truth, Nicholas strives to establish the rights of a higher, intuitive knowledge, freed from the laws of Aristotelian logic, and particularly from the principle of non-contradiction, the only knowledge that allows us to reach God; all creatures that owe their existence to Him tend to draw near to Him, in particular man, the microcosm that sums up in himself the whole of creation; this is possible only through Jesus Christ and the Church. Nicholas wished in this way to free the science of his time from the yoke of nominalist Aristotelianism; but he was violently attacked, and not without reason, because his manner of expression seemed, at first glance, inspired by pantheistic doctrines. But the substance of his thought is thoroughly orthodox, however much he fails to acknowledge the part that belongs to reason in knowledge.

Ferdinando Cavallera