more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Bodies are those substances in which one finds three dimensions.
Gist of Idea
Bodies are three-dimensional substances
Source
Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologicae [1265], Ia Q18.2c), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 16.2
Book Ref
Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.324
A Reaction
Pasnau points out that this extensional view of physical bodies was a commonplace long before Descartes. Presumably there are also non-dimensional substances (such as angels?).
16687 | Bodies are three-dimensional substances [Aquinas] |
16684 | Impenetrability only belongs to the essence of extension [Descartes] |
16601 | Matter is not hard, heavy or coloured, but merely extended in space [Descartes] |
6518 | Matter can't just be Descartes's geometry, because a filler of the spaces is needed [Robinson,H on Descartes] |
13185 | Even if extension is impenetrable, this still offers no explanation for motion and its laws [Leibniz] |
16683 | Leibniz eventually said resistance, rather than extension, was the essence of body [Leibniz, by Pasnau] |
5615 | Extension and impenetrability together make the concept of matter [Kant] |
6519 | Locke's solidity is not matter, because that is impenetrability and hardness combined [Robinson,H] |