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The Point

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Book cover The Natural philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg

Part of the book series: Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind ((SHPM,volume 11))

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Abstract

The world is geometry, a finite universe that obeys geometrical and mechanical laws. In the world geometry, the spider follows nature’s laws of mechanics and spins its web in polygonal and circular forms, the beaver builds dams according to geometrical principles, the bird makes its nest based on the figure of the circle, and bees shape their honeycombs in hexagons. There is a natural mechanics, Swedenborg writes in Principia rerum naturalium (1734), in which the senses are shaped in harmony with the elementary mechanics of the world. Geometry applies to everything that is finite and bounded, but there are things that are not geometrical or mechanical: the infinite, providence, love. This chapter focuses on the point, the mathematical and natural point. Swedenborg conceives the world as one large geometry in motion, where mathematical points outline the parts of the machine, the perfect geometrical figures. The world geometry rests on a number of metaphors, that matter is geometry, that mechanics is geometry in motion, that a point is a spot. It also concerns the hypostatization of geometry, making the abstract real. It was believed that geometry is found in the world, not only in our imagination of it. It is the world of the geometrical spider.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Principia, 14; translation I, 24; cf. Swedenborg, Argumenta quaedam in Principia rerum naturalium (1733); edition Opera II, 205f; Treatises, 110–112; a summary of the italicized passages in the printed Principia can be found in Ex Principiis rerum naturalium meis (1734), edition Opera II, 207–262; translation.

  2. 2.

    Principia, 19; translation I, 32.

  3. 3.

    Psychologica, xi; Treatises, 113.

  4. 4.

    Wolff (1731, 1737) edition, § 10.

  5. 5.

    Kircher (1650), book VI, 441f; cf. Kircher (1665), II, 369.

  6. 6.

    Ovid, Metamorphoseon, 6.5–145.

  7. 7.

    Stiernhielm, Samlade skrifter II:2:1, 7, cf. 6, commentary 222f; cf. I:1, 27.

  8. 8.

    Bacon (1620), I, § 95.

  9. 9.

    Swift, 11.

  10. 10.

    Polhem, ‘Dispu[ta]tion om olijka regementzformer’ (after 1718), Polhems skrifter II, 177.

  11. 11.

    Swedenborg, ‘Lusus extemporalis ad amicum qvendam Oxoniae 1712’, Ludus Heliconius, edition, 98f.

  12. 12.

    Swedenborg, Johannis Swammerdamii Biblia naturæ (1743). KVA, cod. 53, 167–175; Photolith. VI, 231–237; Swammerdam, II, 498.

  13. 13.

    Swedenborg, Ödmjukt memorial (1761). KVA, cod. 56; Documents I, 511–515; Bergquist (2005), 345–351; Högnäs, 93, 98.

  14. 14.

    Aristotle, Tōn peri ta zōia istoriōn, 8.38.622b23–24, 8.39.622b27–623b2; Seneca, Ad Lucilium epistulae morales, 121.22f; Pliny, 11.28.79–84.

  15. 15.

    Spegel (1685), edition, I:1, 365.

  16. 16.

    Swedberg (1709b), 158–160; Prov. 6:6.

  17. 17.

    C. J. Lohman, ‘Vyrdsam åminnelse’, Cited in Nyström, 228.

  18. 18.

    Swedenborg, De tarantula. KVA, cod. 55, 878; Photolith. V, 627.

  19. 19.

    Kircher (1643), 755–765; cf. Schott (1657), II, 236–250; Kircher (1667).

  20. 20.

    Cited in Broberg (1975), 132; cf. Linnaeus (1739), 14.

  21. 21.

    Augustine, 7.16.

  22. 22.

    Camena Borea, edition, 44f, 48f, 62f.

  23. 23.

    Principia, 13; translation I, 22.

  24. 24.

    Linnaeus (1968), 101f; translation, 90

  25. 25.

    Lakoff and Johnson (1999), 109.

  26. 26.

    Stiernhielm (1644), dedication.

  27. 27.

    Wisd. of Sol. 11:22f; cf. Job 28:25, Isa. 40:12, Ecclus. 1:2f; cf. Triewald (1734).

  28. 28.

    Spole (1946), 31f.

  29. 29.

    Swedberg to the nation, 21 November 1703. Constitutiones nationis Dalekarlo-Vestmannice, 14; Ecclus. 1:1–4.

  30. 30.

    Vitalis. UUB.

  31. 31.

    Roberg, Dædalus Hyperboreus II, 30.

  32. 32.

    Hoffmeyer, 38, cf. 36.

  33. 33.

    Gestrinius and Schomerus; Dahlin, 83f.

  34. 34.

    Euclid, 1.

  35. 35.

    Aristotle, Peri ouranou, 1.1.268a7–28; Philo, 16.49–52; Diogenes Laertius, 8.24f.

  36. 36.

    Opera II, 200; Treatises, 102; Principia, 28; translation I, 48f; Aristotle, Peri psychēs, 1.4.409a4f; Proclus, 97.6 ff.

  37. 37.

    Pochat, 95.

  38. 38.

    Pascal (1567/58), translation, 440.

  39. 39.

    Hooke, 1–3, cf. 154.

  40. 40.

    Kepler, ch. II, 49.

  41. 41.

    Plato, Timaeus, 32C–34B, 53B–C.

  42. 42.

    Stiernhielm, ‘Om tomrummet’, Samlade skrifter II:2:1, 21–31; cf. Nordström, cccxxxf; Lindborg (2000), 166.

  43. 43.

    Cf. Dear (1995), 211, 213; Dear (2006), 15–38.

  44. 44.

    Principia, 121; translation I, 207.

  45. 45.

    Hoffwenius (1698), VII:5, 26; Descartes (1664a), ch. VII; Oeuvres XI, 39f; Lindborg (1965), xiii, 63, 160f, 340, 347.

  46. 46.

    Swedenborg, Ontologia (1742). KVA, cod. 54; Photolith. VI, 333; Ontology, n. 50; Wolff (1730); 2nd ed. (1736), II, part I, ch. II.

  47. 47.

    H. Vallerius and Mozelius; Polhems skrifter III, 227, cf. 62f, 68.

  48. 48.

    Miscellanea, 132f; translation, 84.

  49. 49.

    Historie der Gelehrsamkeit (1722), 315–327.

  50. 50.

    Neue Zeitungen 1 August 1722, 616.

  51. 51.

    Acta literaria Sveciæ (1722), 356; cf. Nordenmark (1933), 54.

  52. 52.

    Swedenborg to A. Celsius, Stockholm, 27 November 1729. Opera I, 321; Bokwetts Gillets protokoll 12 December 1729, 174.

  53. 53.

    Opera II, 4; The Minor Principia, 2.

  54. 54.

    Opera II, 9, 33; The Minor Principia, 9, 36f.

  55. 55.

    Opera II, 10f; The Minor Principia, 10f.

  56. 56.

    Opera II, 20; The Minor Principia, 21.

  57. 57.

    Opera II, 11, 15f, 28; The Minor Principia, 11, 16, 31.

  58. 58.

    Resebeskrifningar 10 July 1733, 22; cf. Jonsson (1969), 47.

  59. 59.

    Swedenborg to Benzelius, Stockholm, 26 May 1724. Opera I, 314; Bokwetts Gillets protokoll, 108; cf. Jonsson (1983b), 164; Sandels, 15; Swedenborg is mentioned in a letter to J. C. Wolf, 13 July 1736. Benzelius (1983), 126.

  60. 60.

    Swedenborg to Benzelius, Greifswald, 4 April 1715. Opera I, 229; Wolff (1715).

  61. 61.

    Runcrantz, 21; cf. Frängsmyr (1972), 104.

  62. 62.

    Lagerbring, IV:3, 49.

  63. 63.

    Rescher, 29f, 39.

  64. 64.

    Resebeskrifningar 20 July 1736, 64; Photolith. III, 53; Wolff (1736–1737), II, 610ff; cf. Lamm (1915), 48; translation, 48; Jonsson (1967–1968), 35–37.

  65. 65.

    Opera II, 197; Treatises, 97.

  66. 66.

    From Wolff (1731), § 293–301 & Wolff (1730), § 866–873. KVA, cod. 88, 276–278; Photolith. III.

  67. 67.

    Principia, 452; translation II, 366.

  68. 68.

    Principia, 2; translation I, 4.

  69. 69.

    Principia, 4; translation I, 6.

  70. 70.

    KVA, cod. 37, 85; Ovid, Metamorphoseon, 8.162–164.

  71. 71.

    Camena Borea, edition, 142f.

  72. 72.

    Eco (1986), 149.

  73. 73.

    Bacon (1620), I, § 82, cf. § 61; translation, 67f.

  74. 74.

    Pascal (1999), 8.

  75. 75.

    Descartes (1637), III; Oeuvres VI, 24; translation, 43.

  76. 76.

    Hooke, 1, 87.

  77. 77.

    Linnaeus and Ramström, § 1; Broberg (1975), 105.

  78. 78.

    Principia, 8; translation I, 13f.

  79. 79.

    Principia, 4f; translation I, 7–9.

  80. 80.

    Principia, 14; translation I, 23f.

  81. 81.

    Principia, 16f, 24f; translation I, 28–30, 42; cf. Psychologica, 10f.

  82. 82.

    Lucretius, 1.1114–1117.

  83. 83.

    Descartes (1637), IV; Oeuvres VI, 33; translation, 53.

  84. 84.

    Psychologica, 12f; Wolff (1732b), § 35f, 38f.

  85. 85.

    Swedenborg, Fragmentum de infinito (c.1733–1734); edition Photolith. III, 173; Treatises, 121f.

  86. 86.

    Principia, 29f; translation I, 51; cf. Opera II, 201f; Treatises, 105.

  87. 87.

    Wolff (1731), § 215–218; Oeconomia I, n. 592; Jonsson (1969), 48.

  88. 88.

    Principia, 31; translation I, 53; cf. Oeconomia II, n. 116; Ovid, Fasti, 1.89–144; Pochat, 89–103.

  89. 89.

    Principia, 31; translation I, 54.

  90. 90.

    Principia, 33; translation I, 57.

  91. 91.

    Wolff (1731), § 166; Jonsson (1999), 30.

  92. 92.

    Westfall, 136; Blay, 104f.

  93. 93.

    Leibniz (1695); translation, 745.

  94. 94.

    Principia, 32; translation I, 55.

  95. 95.

    Opera II, 198; Treatises, 99.

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  1. Division of History of Ideas and Sciences Centre for Cognitive Semiotics, Lund University, Biskopsgatan 7, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    David Dunér

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Dunér, D. (2013). The Point. In: The Natural philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg. Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4560-5_6

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