ABSTRACT
A finite intellect…cannot by means of comparison reach the absolute truth of things. Being by nature indivisible, truth excludes ‘more’ or ‘less’, so that nothing but truth itself can be the exact measure of truth …. In consequence, our intellect, which is not the truth, never grasps the truth with such precision that it could not be comprehended with infinitely greater precision. (Nicholas of Cusa)
1 The Greek legacy: reactions and developments
Two things dominated medieval and Renaissance philosophy in general, and philosophical thought about the infinite in particular: the legacy of the Greeks; and religion. Religion in this context virtually meant Christianity, but not exclusively so. And the legacy of the Greeks was eventually to become, more than anything else, the legacy of Aristotlealbeit tempered and informed by strands of Platonism.
