Spiritual Presence and Dimensional Space beyond the Cosmos

Abstract

This paper examines connections between concepts of space and extension on the one hand and immaterial spirits on the other, specifically the immanentist concept of spirits as present in rerum natura. Those holding an immanentist concept, such as Thomas Aquinas, typically understood spirits non-dimensionally as present by essence and power; and that concept was historically linked to holenmerism, the doctrine that the spirit is whole in every part. Yet as Aristotelian ideas about extension were challenged and an actual, infinite, dimensional space readmitted, a dimensionalist concept of spirit became possible-that asserted by the mature Henry More, as he repudiated holenmerism. Despite More's intentions, his dimensionalist concept opens the door to materialism, for supposing that spirits have parts outside parts implies that those parts could in principle be mapped onto the parts of divisible bodies. The specter of materialism broadens our interest in More's unconventional ideas, for the question of whether other early modern thinkers, including Isaac Newton, followed More becomes a question of whether they too unwittingly helped usher in materialism. This paper shows that More's attack upon holenmerism fails. He illegitimately injects his dimensionalist concept of spirit into the doctrine, failing to recognize it as a consequence of the non-dimensionalist concept of spirit, which in itself secures indivisibility. The interpretive consequence for Newton is that there is no prima facie reason to suppose that the charitable interpretation takes him to deny holenmerism.

Descartes’s Holenmerism: From metaphysics to phenomenology

“…Holenmerizam je teza da postoje entiteti koji su prisutni u prostoru na način različit od načina na koji su materijalna tela prisutna u prostoru. Konkretnije, holenmeri-14 O istoriji holenmerizma i primarnim izvorima javljanja ove pozicije od antike do ranog modernog perioda, videti (Grant, 1981), (Rozemond, 2003), (Reid, 2007(Reid, , 2012 (Pasnau, 2011: 337-8) i (Kochiras, 2012). 15 Videti (Rozemond, 2003(Rozemond, , 2014, (Pasnau, 2011) i (Anfray, 2014.…”

“…O nedimenzionalnom prostornom prisustvu videti(Kochiras, 2012). 30 O Morovoj metafizici videti(Reid, 2007(Reid, , 2012.…”

Locke and Holenmerism

“…See, for instance, Edward Grant, Much Ado about Nothing: Theories of Space and Vacuum from the Middle Ages to the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 253-54 and Edward Slowik, The Deep Metaphysics of Space: An Alternative History and Ontology beyondSubstantivalism and Relationism (Cham: Springer, 2016), 50-52. Metaphysical Themes, 338; Reid, Metaphysics, 227-29;Hylarie Kochiras, …”