Unity Out of Multiplicity: Nicholas of Cusa’s Theory of the Elements

Nicholas of Cusa develops an account of the elements of the material world that (like many of his philosophical views) is syncretistic, mystical, and even, at times, seemingly contradictory. On the one hand, Cusanus believes we have Aristotelian precedent for thinking matter is infinitely divisible; on the other hand, he holds that the human mind comprehends reality as a whole, and material things in particular, in a mathematical manner, and that our mathematical analysis of the elements that constitute material bodies cannot proceed ad infinitum. This paper investigates the seeming tension between these views and finds a resolution in Cusanus’s discussion of the quaternarium, or fourfold oneness, according to which the human mind knows all things. In particular, Cusanus says, we understand the composition of the elements according to a fourfold structure that mirrors the structure of all reality as it relates to its first divine principle. While the mathematical concepts of the human mind will, of course, fall short of those of the divine mind, nonetheless our human number is a reflection of the divine, and thus our mathematical knowledge of the world truly reflects something of its reality.