Alterity, number and trinitarian reflection in Nicholas of Cusa

Abstract

This article addresses the concomitant negativity regarding alterity in cusanian thought and the possibility of recognizing the traces of the unitrinity principle in the finite. To achieve this, (i) it is analysed the negative verification of alterity in the metaphysics of finitude linked to contingency; (ii) it is described the articulating function that the number plays in the understanding of finitude as created multiplicity by the first principle, God, insofar as this creation is a deployment of the divine number’s potency; finally, (ii) it is analysed the place that alterity has in the trinitarian argumentation of the first book of De docta ignorantia, with which it will be shown how alterity opens up a space for a consideration of the first principle that, although it excludes from itself all alterity, at the same time, grounds the totality.