This year marks the 420th anniversary of Giordano Bruno’s death. As his burning at the stake is often mentioned more frequently than the significance of his philosophy, we consider it necessary to briefly outline the basic features of Giordano Bruno’s philosophical thought.
Bruno expanded Copernicus’ heliocentric system to include the “infinity of the universe and the multitude of worlds,” thus providing the first clear picture of the physical universe that we still accept today.
He spoke about how planets have a different nature than fiery stars; how stars have their own light, while planets reflect the light of stars; planets have a fiery core deep beneath their surface and move around the sun along less symmetrical paths… He claimed that comets are icy blocks that come from outer space near stars, which was only discovered with the help of satellites at the end of the 20th century. In addition to these, he presented a series of concrete data, so far scientifically confirmed, but also those that modern science has not yet explored. Interestingly, he claimed all of this. The story of the invention of the first primitive telescope and the evidence that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
Bruno was called the messenger and martyr of natural sciences. However, he was not, because he opposed the effort to explain the world solely through observation and “mathematical” methods. He believed that natural science can only find “the contingency of contingency” because it deals only with shadows, i.e. the physical universe.
He was not an opponent of religion, as is commonly believed. He believed that religion provides moral guidance, but does not speak about reality.
For him, the correct path to knowledge is the one that encompasses the whole, the one that does not limit, but liberates the mind. He believed that knowledge should be based on objective thinking and intuition, through which it is possible to come into contact with the divine and the true, which is, according to him, the understanding of the laws and causes of all phenomena.
Nature is the divine shadow, or – nature is God in things (natura est deus in rebus). The whole universe is a great living being, i.e. it exists. The day Life in which countless divine monads – living beings participate. It is in accordance with the most modern, ecological standpoint of science.
But Bruno goes even further and, starting from Plato’s teachings about ideas, presents his cognitive method – “the art of memory and imagination” – which represents an expression of unlimited creative ability.
Modern thought reluctantly engages in a serious evaluation of the concept of imagination because today’s materialistic cognitive path, overly fascinated with technological toys, does not significantly differentiate the value of creative imagination from ordinary fantasy. Here Bruno clearly states: “Imagination must be the first connection of the soul, the mediator between the temporal and the eternal. It is the sense or, more precisely, the only true sense. It is the body and bearer of the soul, the source from which human life flows, the noblest method for communicating with God.”
Just as he spoke about the infinity of the universe and the multitude of worlds at the level of the universe, affirming the cognitive path through creative imagination at the level of man (creative imagination), reveals unfathomable depths of human dignity grounded in the divine identity of man – the microcosm, which contains all the characteristics of the entire universe – the macrocosm.
The pinnacle of his philosophical thought is the heroic fervor, the way of acting of the heroic philosopher who uses the power of the divine within himself, the power that enables the soul to rise. This is spiritual birth – maieutics, and it implies the birth of what is within one’s own soul: “One should have their own muse, and not flirt with Homer’s”, “One should know how to sow the seeds of their own virtuosity and talent, instead of nibbling, dirtying, sullying, chewing on others’ studies and efforts.”
Bruno fought against religious fanaticism and the blindness of the official science of his time, of which he says: “They call madmen those who do not know how to work according to the usual rules, either because they aspire downwards, being less rational, or because they aspire upwards, being more intelligent.” Therefore, he fought for the revival of vital values of the human spirit, giving Guidelines for emerging from the darkness of the Middle Ages.
After four centuries, we have once again fallen into cultural and civilizational stagnation. Who will show us the much-needed new and more humane directions of knowledge in the 21st century?
Perhaps it will once again be Giordano Bruno.