Optische Grenzgänge: Konstellationen des Sehens bei Nikolaus von Kues und Jeremy Bentham

This article juxtaposes two social configurations that share the constitutive aspect of an omnipresent gaze. On the one hand stands an instruction of Nicolaus Cusanus, given in the preface of De visione Dei. On the other hand, the Panopticon of Jeremy Bentham will be introduced and analyzed. Although connected through similar elements and figurations, both sketches lead to radically different forms of sociality. These differences will be uncovered in four analytical steps in order to finally raise the question of the possibility of overcoming panoptic techniques and technologies by means of Cusanic thought and practice.