Nicholas of Cusa and Ibn 'Arabi: Two Philosophies of Mysticism
Philosophy East and West 1993 DOI: 10.2307/1399469 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Mysticism |
| Citations | 20 |
| Key points | Argues that Nicholas of Cusa and Ibn 'Arabi share a common philosophical basis in two linked assertions: God is indefinable, and the world is not God but is not anything other than God. Contends that the mystical tradition, European and Islamic, gave these assertions an uncommon sense and was distinguished by closely linking them. |
Abstract
The common basis underlying a philosophical exploration of Nicholas of Cusa and Ibn 'ArabT could perhaps be presented in the form of two closely linked assertions: first, the thesis that God is indefinable, and, second, a formula which states that the world is not God but is not anything other than God. These assertions were certainly not unknown to medieval thinkers, but it was the mystical tradition (European as well as Islamic) that gave them rather uncommon sense. What distinguished the mystics also was their close, perhaps unbroken, linking of these two assertions.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on mysticism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The mystical mind: probing the biology of religious experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Religious and Mystical Experiences as Artifacts of Temporal Lobe Function: A General Hypothesis | 1983 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Problem of Pure Consciousness: Mysticism and Philosophy | 1993 | Edited collection of essays | |
| Irreducible Mind: Toward a Psychology for the 21st Century | 2020 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mysticism and schizophrenia: A phenomenological exploration of the structure of consciousness in the schizophrenia spectrum disorders. | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |