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Den matematiska punkten

Dunér, David LU orcid (2004)
Abstract
THE POINT has its point of departure in the indivisible point of mathematics. In Swedenborg's Principia rerum naturalium (1734) the mathematical points are given an ontological significance. The world appears when God, like an artist drawing with his pencil, gives motion to the point. The world consists of circulating points. With spider metaphors Swedenborg postulated that the world is built on mathematics, and with labyrinth metaphors he formulated the philosophers' feeling of disorientation in the chaos of nature. The mind is often described as a journey in a labyrinth in darkness, striving to find the plan of the labyrinth and to see the light. Behind this is a conception of the creation of the world as an exercise in geometry. The... (More)
THE POINT has its point of departure in the indivisible point of mathematics. In Swedenborg's Principia rerum naturalium (1734) the mathematical points are given an ontological significance. The world appears when God, like an artist drawing with his pencil, gives motion to the point. The world consists of circulating points. With spider metaphors Swedenborg postulated that the world is built on mathematics, and with labyrinth metaphors he formulated the philosophers' feeling of disorientation in the chaos of nature. The mind is often described as a journey in a labyrinth in darkness, striving to find the plan of the labyrinth and to see the light. Behind this is a conception of the creation of the world as an exercise in geometry. The world is geometry. The mathematical point is a dot conceptualized as something that has no substantiality. Around 1730 he began sketching a second version of a theory of matter, in the work commonly called the Minor Principia. It differs considerably from the published work of 1734. In 1730, however, he had still not come across the philosophical terminology of the German philosopher Christian von Wolff. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Book/Report
publication status
published
subject
keywords
history of mathematics, natural philosophy, history of science
publisher
Skandinaviska Swedenborgsällskapet
language
Swedish
LU publication?
yes
id
4c039a01-a3ec-49b5-ba5f-265507691fc0 (old id 536141)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 11:41:14
date last changed
2018-11-21 21:06:30
@book{4c039a01-a3ec-49b5-ba5f-265507691fc0,
  abstract     = {{THE POINT has its point of departure in the indivisible point of mathematics. In Swedenborg's Principia rerum naturalium (1734) the mathematical points are given an ontological significance. The world appears when God, like an artist drawing with his pencil, gives motion to the point. The world consists of circulating points. With spider metaphors Swedenborg postulated that the world is built on mathematics, and with labyrinth metaphors he formulated the philosophers' feeling of disorientation in the chaos of nature. The mind is often described as a journey in a labyrinth in darkness, striving to find the plan of the labyrinth and to see the light. Behind this is a conception of the creation of the world as an exercise in geometry. The world is geometry. The mathematical point is a dot conceptualized as something that has no substantiality. Around 1730 he began sketching a second version of a theory of matter, in the work commonly called the Minor Principia. It differs considerably from the published work of 1734. In 1730, however, he had still not come across the philosophical terminology of the German philosopher Christian von Wolff.}},
  author       = {{Dunér, David}},
  keywords     = {{history of mathematics; natural philosophy; history of science}},
  language     = {{swe}},
  publisher    = {{Skandinaviska Swedenborgsällskapet}},
  title        = {{Den matematiska punkten}},
  year         = {{2004}},
}