Incorporeal

Use in the book

The report about Aristotle makes bodies act and undergo effects through incorporeal powers. Porphyry distinguishes the soul’s activities from bodily alteration: heating and cooling are not models for every affection attributed to soul. The Hermetic account says that incorporeal activities operate in and through bodies. These are different explanations of how something nonbodily can be connected with bodily effects.

Places to read

1. I.14.1c.3Incorporeal powers explain the action and passivity of bodies.
2. I.49.21.1Psychic activity is distinguished from bodily alteration.
3. I.41.6.4Incorporeal activities act through bodies.
4. Arith.9Numbers and numbered things illustrate the contrast of incorporeal and bodily.

Translation in this edition

“Incorporeal” is kept distinct from “immaterial” unless matter itself is the subject of the contrast. Neither word alone establishes separability.

The adjective asōmatos

The adjective asōmatos means incorporeal or bodiless. Arith.9 contrasts numbers with numbered things as incorporeal things with bodies. Its “One,” however, is a bodily unit divisible without limit. The passage therefore provides a particularly clear warning that incorporeality cannot be assigned to every occurrence of the One merely because other passages treat unity as an intelligible principle.

Use in the book

The supplied Latin uses both incorporeus and incorporalis for what is not bodily. This is not automatically equivalent to immaterialis, “without matter.” In his reports of Averroes and Proclus, Ficino explicitly describes celestial bodies as having dimension while lacking matter in the relevant sense. Those passages make the distinction indispensable: something can be called immaterial without thereby being unextended or incorporeal. Elsewhere qualities are said not to be bodies because several can coincide in the same place and because extension is not essential to quality. Yet material qualities are still divided along with their subjects. The soul's incorporeality is a stronger independence: it lacks bodily division and subsists without being tied to a material support. Nonbodily, separated, and immaterial consequently identify different kinds or degrees of independence within the ascent.

Further passage references. I.2.3–I.2.523, I.2.15–I.2.1723; I.3.24–I.3.2923456, I.3.33.

Places to read

1. I.3.27The reported heavenly form lacks matter while retaining dimension
2. I.3.28Proclus’s classification distinguishes material composition, elemental simplicity, and immaterial celestial body
3. II.6.1Incorporeal substance touches through power rather than dimensions

Translation in this edition

The supplied translation deliberately retains celestial bodies “with quantity, but without matter” in I.3.27 and “simple and immaterial” in I.3.28. These are the positions Ficino reports from Averroes and Proclus. They cannot be silently recast as claims that the heavens are incorporeal.

Averrois / Aristoteles

Averrois / Aristoteles. Printed forms: Aristotelis; Averrois.

Averroes and Aristotle in a reported account of celestial form. Ficino presents dimension without material potency as an intermediate and then makes his own further inference to dimensionless substance. References: I.3.27. See Incorporeal and immaterial.

brevitas / raritas

brevitas / raritas. Printed forms: brevitatem; raritatem.

Smallness and rarity or low density. With lightness they make a body approach an incorporeal condition in the argument; they do not literally make every small body an incorporeal substance. References: I.2.3. See Incorporeal and immaterial.

immaterialis / incorporeus

immaterialis / incorporeus. Printed forms: immaterialia; incorporeum.

Without matter and without body, distinguished locally. Proclus’s celestial bodies are called immaterial yet retain bodily dimension; incorporeality therefore cannot simply be substituted for immateriality. References: I.3.28, I.3.31. See Incorporeal and immaterial.

incorporeus / incorporalis / indivisibilis

incorporeus / incorporalis / indivisibilis. Printed forms: incorporalis; incorporea; indivisibile.

Nonbodily and indivisible, distinct from merely occupying a very small place. An incorporeal stable cause supports bodies; indivisible spirit’s spatial presence belongs to the authorities’ account. References: II.6.1, II.6.16, II.7.8. See Incorporeal and immaterial.

neque ... neque

neque... neque. Printed forms: Neque; neque.

Neither... nor, coordinating distinct exclusions. The third essence’s freedom from divisibility, subject-dependence, contrariety and spatial-temporal restriction is accumulated through repeated negatives; the list should not be reduced to one generic immateriality claim. References: I.3.33. See Incorporeal and immaterial.

pullulare / alligare

pullulare / alligare. Printed forms: alligantur; pullulant.

To spring up or sprout; to bind to a dimension. The authorities’ argument denies rational spirit’s origin from matter and infers freedom from determinate extension. References: II.6.15. See Incorporeal and immaterial.

Averroes (authorities and cited works)

Averroes. A source for celestial form having dimension without matter, and later a target of Ficino's polemic against restricting divine knowledge of particulars. These are two distinct uses of his name. I.3.27–282; II.9.20–2223. See Incorporeal and immaterial; Universals and individuals.

Proclus (authorities and cited works)

Proclus. A source for classifications of bodies and forms, arguments for incorporeal substance with Syrianus, and angelic numerical orders with Iamblichus. I.3.28–31234; I.5.27. See Form; Incorporeal and immaterial; Angel.

Syrianus (authorities and cited works)

Syrianus. With Proclus, supports the argument distinguishing the extended recipient from its extending cause, and thus the case for an incorporeal principle. I.3.29–3123. See Incorporeal and immaterial; Unity and multiplicity.