arndt@lymph.DEC (12/17/84)
Someone (I don't remember who) held up to ridicule (I forget on which net)
the Medieval Scholastic question: "How many angels can dance on the head of
a pin?" At the time I made myself a mental note to repy. Here 'tis.
In the first place it was used as a debating exercise.
In the second place it is a VERY serious philosophical/theological
question still with us in other forms today. The essence of the question is
at what point does a mental/spiritual reality (if one exists) intersect with
the material world. Those who have been asking for 'proof' of a spiritual
world and 'evidences' in order to believe in God would do well to ponder just
what form such an 'other' world would take if we with 'material' senses are
going to 'perceive' it.
Ergo, 'How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?' Does the 'spiritual'
world take up material space. So you'd notice, so to speak?
The usual answer judged correct was that angels were pure intelligences (not
sure I agree with that whatever it means) and as such not material but limited
so they could occupy location but not extension in space. Kind of like the
way we can all think about the same pinhead (Rosen? -:). Thought (if it is
not material) can be located on a pinhead and not elsewhere, but though it
is 'there' it occupies no space 'there' and there is nothing to prevent an
infinite number of people's thoughts from being 'located' there.
The debate therefore revolves around the concept of location and extension
in space. The MATTER on which the argument is exercised happens to be the
nature of angels though it might as well have been about something else like
thought. When one says 'there' does one mean 'located there' or 'occupying
space there'.
We would do as well today to define our terms and speak with clearness.
There is a lot of conceit in believing that our times, because we ride a bus
to work instead of a horse, are so far removed from days gone by in the sense
that our minds are more 'advanced' as well.
So 'there'!
Regards,
Ken Arndt
Question: Who sees all without looking?
Answer: Not Karnack, Mystical Seer of the East, but
Rich Rosen! (He's a know-it-all without reading)