3.47 angels, cont. (46)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@VM.EPAS.UTORONTO.CA)
Thu, 18 May 89 20:48:58 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 47. Thursday, 18 May 1989.
(1) Date: Thu, 18 May 89 10:00:23 BST (17 lines)
From: "stephen r.l.clark" <AP01@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK>
Subject: angels and Cudworth
(2) Date: Thu, 18 May 89 14:57:18 EDT (9 lines)
From: Joseph Raben <JQRBH@CUNYVM.bitnet>
Subject: Re: 3.39 angels and revolutions, cont. (73)
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 18 May 89 10:00:23 BST
From: "stephen r.l.clark" <AP01@LIVERPOOL.AC.UK>
Subject: angels and Cudworth
I spent an hour yesterday skimming rapidly through Cudworth's True
Intellectual System in search of spirits on pins. Understandably, I
didn't locate them. But I came away with a suspicion that there is
indeed such a reference, and that it is *not* a satire on scholastics
(it would after all be a very bad satire), but part of an argument
with Cudworth's contemporaries about whether spirits have a local
habitation, an 'airy' body and so on. I'm not sure what conclusion
Cudworth draws, though he does insist both that spirits are essentially
incorporeal and that they do not exist except in conjunction with some
sort of body.
If there's a Cudworth expert on line, I'd be delighted to converse
on the subject.
Best wishes, Stephen
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------17----
Date: Thu, 18 May 89 14:57:18 EDT
From: Joseph Raben <JQRBH@CUNYVM.bitnet>
Subject: Re: 3.39 angels and revolutions, cont. (73)
As I understand "angels dancing on the point of a pin," the phrase was an
attempt to concretize a major philosophic debate, namely whether immaterial
objects existed. If so, they would not occupy space, i.e., more than one
could occupy a single spot. Angels were the most obvious type of immateri-
ality and the point of a pin the most obvious non-dimensional point.