A Simpleminded Discourse on Enfolding and Unfolding

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paradigm of enfolded-unfolded (complicatio-explicatio) introduced by Nicolas of Cusa, poses a puzzling question: why and how are the enfolded and unfolded equal to itself and to each other (coincidentia oppositorum), adding nothing to itself while unfolding, and losing nothing while enfolding? That question had not been answered so far, since European philosophy, science, and thought in general followed a different, linear paradigm of deducing knowledge from first principles. The problem with that paradigm is that the First is always a posed, and therefore arbitrary, piece of knowledge not deduced and not justified by a chain of argument resting on that First principle. This does not violate scientific rationality, though it does contradict philosophy’s strive for final clarity and justification of any of the first principles. As for the enfolded-unfolded paradigm, it does comply with that philosophical quest for the final justification, since it avoids introducing anything arbitrary. This paradigm is elaborated along the lines of the tselostnost’ (integrity, entirety) and svyaznost’ (linkedness, cohesion) categories of Russian thought to provide a rational ground for applying the enfolded-unfolded paradigm in philosophy, the humanities, and the sciences. It opens up a new perspective for studying the human mind as a sense-positing activity without reducing it to brain-and-body neuroprocesses.