Squaring the Circle and the Origins of Learned Ignorance
Squaring the Circle and the Origins of Learned Ignorance

Summary/Abstract: The paper is focused on the concept of learned ignorance in Nicholas of Cusa’s writings and the problem of its genealogy and formation. According to the hypothesis here developed, the concept of learned ignorance is closely linked to the traditional mathematical problem of squaring of circle. The text examines a series of sources for this mathematical problem starting with Aristotle’s Physics, and suggests that some of the Late-Medieval scholastic commentaries on the Physics served as direct sources for Cusa’s philosophical-theological treatises, as well for his mathematical writings. Cusa’s interpretation of Aristotle’s system of three principles of being is regarded here as one of the fundamental philosophical elements that might have exerted influence on building the concept of learned ignorance.

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