$ 25. Nicolaus Cusanus (1401-1464). Nicolas of Cusa took a doctor's degree in law in the University of Padua, but instead of practising law, entered the Church. In 1448 he was appointed to a cardinalship, and two years later was made bishop (of Brixen), having performed important services as church-official. In the midst of ecclesiastical duties he carried on mathematical and astronomical studies, in which he was at least a century beyond his age, having even anticipated Copernicus in important regards. Works. The chief work of Nicolas is entitled "De docta Ignorantia" (1440). Other works are "De Conjecturis" (supplementary to the foregoing), "De Visione Dei," "De Ludo Globi," "De Beryllo." Philosophy. All human knowledge is, as such, mere "conjecture;" human learning is "learned ignorance ;" and our highest knowledge is the knowing that we do not know. True knowledge-knowledge of God-we have only by an intellectual intuition, a vision of God. God is the content or substance of all things, the unity of all oppositions in him absolute motion and absolute rest, the infinitely great and the infinitely little, reality and possibility, matter and form, subject and object, are one and the same. The universe is (not God himself, but) the explication, unfolding, externalization of God's nature. All things follow mathematically from the divine unity, and form together a cosmos governed by mathematical relations. The physical universe is infinite in time and space; the earth rotates on its axis. The destiny of man is to be united with God, by faith in the God-man, Christ. The ideas of Nicolas, through their direct influence upon Bruno, and their indirect influence on Spinoza, Leibnitz, and others, have been a very considerable factor in modern philosophy. Particularly original and modern in Nicolas is the idea of the infinitude of the universe, on account of which chiefly is he to be classed with modern rather than with (early) medieval philosophers. § 26. Theophrastus Bombastus Paracelsus1 (1493-1541). — Paracelsus, who was educated by his father and at several universities, spent a considerable portion of his life roving about the countries of Europe, seeking a knowledge of the world in general and medicine in particular. He had already studied medicine under his father and other instructors. In 1526 he was appointed professor of medicine in the University of Basel. He is reported to have opened his first course of lectures by burning the works of Galen and Avicenna, to symbolize his conception of the duty of investigators as regards independence of the past and the direct study of nature and life. He attempted to introduce a reform in the art of medicine upon the basis of a philosophical knowledge of human nature as a whole. Works. - Works of Paracelsus are "Paramirum seu de Medica Industria," "Paragranum" (or the "Four Pillars of Medicine"), "Labyrinthus Medicorum et de Tartaro," "Pestilitate ex Influxu Siderum," etc. Philosophy. Philosophy has for its only subject nature, and is itself merely "invisible nature." Its instrument is the natural light of the mind, reason. Nature is to be comprehended only through the knowledge of its end, man, who is (therefore) the "book from which we may read the secrets of nature," the microcosm. Man is composed of an earthly body, which is tangible, a heavenly or astral body, which is æther-like in nature, and a "spirit," and a soul, which is purely of divine origin and destiny. The first of the three parts of man is nourished from the material elements (fire, air, earth, water), the second from the influences of the stars, the third from Christ through faith. The material elements are formed from salt, sulphur, and quicksilver, which in turn come from a primal matter 1 Zeller, Geschichte der deutschen Philosophie. (termed by Paracelsus mysterium magnum), which is not so much corporeal as incorporeal in nature. The essence of material things is force rather than matter. There is a universal life, each thing's peculiar share of which is its. quintessence (i. e., the fifth essence, fire, air, water, and earth being the other four), its virtue, or nature. Medicine is the art by which that virtue, in man, is, when obstructed in its operation, made effective. The virtue or quintessence of man is to be understood, of course, only through a knowledge of his various parts individually in their relations,— the earthly, the astral, and the divine parts of man: hence the "four pillars" of medicine, -philosophy (having to do with the earthly portion), astronomy (having to do with the astral portion), and theology (which is concerned with the soul), together with alchemy, or the applied theory of nature. Possessing a right knowledge of these, the physician can easily determine, in case of disease, whether the disease be earthly, sidereal, or divine, and accordingly stimulate to appropriate activity the inner human virtue. It is the business of medical chemistry (alchemy) to produce the quintessences or virtues of things at will. As a form of knowledge, medicine combines speculation and experience, either of which is false without the other. Paracelsus, it may be said in passing, seems to have a title to be regarded as a great reformer in the science of medicine. If so, he affords a striking illustration of a fact too often overlooked, that advances in science frequently have their initiative in philosophical theory. § 27. Hieronymus Cardanus, or Girolamo Cardano1 (1501– 1576), eminent as a physician and mathematician as well as a philosopher, studied philosophy and medicine at the universities of Pavia and Padua. He was at one time professor of medicine in Bologna. In his youth he was 1 Noack, Erdmann. a victim of strange visions and hallucinations, and his mind even in later life was filled with distempered imaginations. His character and life were eccentric: he was full of the restlessness of his age, and was a sensualist in his habits even in his old age. He is to be credited, however, with the possession of a genuinely scientific spirit. He was one of the early discoverers in the science of algebra. Works.—The principal works of Cardanus are entitled: "De Subtilitate" (1552), “De Varietate Rerum" (1556), "Arcana Æternitatis" (posthumous), the most important of all. Philosophy. In the system of Cardanus we have the conception of a coherent universe having its principle of unity and being in a world-soul, the phenomenal or material form of which is heat. All changes occur according to natural law and through natural causes, since to conceive them as occurring merely because God wills them is to assume God to be without reason and to be capable of occupying himself with trivial things. That all things are subject to law is sufficiently shown outwardly by the fact that the motions of the stars are governed by number. The will of man, who is a triple nature composed of body, soul, and an immortal mind, is, however, free from the law-governed influences of the heavenly bodies. Man is not merely an individual of a species, like the animal, but a whole in himself: he is, nevertheless, so far as he is an individual, not entirely selfsufficient, hence society. Human laws have binding force only if accordant with philosophy or religion; tyrannical laws may rightfully be broken, and tyrants murdered. Ancient theories of the state were constructed too little with reference to the actual, varying conditions of social life. Philosophy has to do solely with theory: perfect religious freedom should be accorded to thinkers. By divine grace the mind rises in mystical ecstasy to the intuition of the divine, and becomes one with God. ·Cardanus had a close follower in Telesius. § 28. Bernardinus Telesius, or Telesio (1508-1588). -Telesius, first instructed by an uncle, afterwards studied philosophy and mathematics at Padua, and the natural sciences at Rome. He conceived a scientific antipathy to Aristotle, and formed a plan of reforming philosophy. Under the auspices of the prince of Naples he founded an academy for the cultivation of natural philosophy and the antagonizing of the revived Aristotelianism. Works. An early work, the first indeed of Telesius, is entitled "De Rerum Natura juxta Propria Principium" (1565-1586). Various treatises, on comets, atmospheric phenomena, the rainbow, etc., appear together in a work entitled "Varii de Naturalibus Rebus Libelli" (1590). Philosophy. Telesius like Cardanus-professes to philosophize in accordance with the conception of universal natural law and natural causes in the universe. Two commanding phenomena are (1) the heavens sending forth heat and the earth emitting cold, (2) the sun's heat producing life upon the earth. Heat and cold, then, are two "principles." Body without properties is a third. This third property is passive, the others are active, "soul-like." Heat is the cause, but not a consequence, of motion. Light is a manifestation of heat. Heat causes the earth to perspire, so to say, and thus produces water. Air is condensed or cooled fire. Body, or composite existence, presupposes a soul by which its parts are made to cohere. The human soul is a very subtle substance, the principle of which is heat. The seat of the soul in man and animals is the blood, the nerves, and, especially, the brain. The soul has its origin at the birth of the body. All knowledge- even geometryis grounded in sense-perception, or experience. Animals think. Volition in man is a consequence of thought: we will only what we determine to be good. The highest good merely the opera is self-preservation; and the virtues are tions of the impulse to self-preservation. To the immaterial |