ANST - P-word lead-in ( REALITY CHECK )

[Tim McDaniel]

On Wed, 18 Feb 1998 Baron Bors of Lothian <Baronman at aol.com>
wrote:
> This issue had been debated so many times in the past that
> the number of angels on a pin head seems comprehensible.

It *is* comprehensible, as I've been told.  The issue wasn't
about what finite number would fit in a space.  The question
was whether angels had matter within them.  If so, it was a
finite number; if not, an infinite number.  The answer (no
matter within them, hence infinite) had theological (broad
definition) implications, about whether angels were
corruptable, whether matter could exist in Heaven, whether
matter meant corruption, and such.  The eventual scholastic
synthesis, If I Recall Correctly, was that objects
individuated from ideals because of the arrangement of
matter within them.  Since angels had no matter, they could
not individuate, so each angel was a separate species.

Daniel "I drove a total of 8 hours on Monday to hear Tadhg
Liath talk for two hours on moedieval scholastic theology at
the Steppes monthly collegium" de Lincolia
-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd at crl.com; if that fail, tmcd at austin.ibm.com
is work address.  tmcd at tmcd.austin.tx.us is wrong tool.  Never use this.
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