In
metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
, impenetrability is the name given to that quality of
matter
In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic partic ...
whereby two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time. The philosopher
John Toland
John Toland (30 November 167011 March 1722) was an Irish people, Irish rationalist philosopher and freethought, freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, whi ...
argued that impenetrability and
extension
Extension, extend or extended may refer to:
Mathematics
Logic or set theory
* Axiom of extensionality
* Extensible cardinal
* Extension (model theory)
* Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate
* E ...
were sufficient to define matter, a contention strongly disputed by
Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...
.
Locke considered impenetrability to be "more a consequence of
solidity
Solidity is an object-oriented programming language for implementing smart contracts on various blockchain platforms, most notably, Ethereum. It was developed by Christian Reitwiessner, Alex Beregszaszi, and several former Ethereum core contri ...
, than solidity itself."
See also
* Locke's views on
extension
Extension, extend or extended may refer to:
Mathematics
Logic or set theory
* Axiom of extensionality
* Extensible cardinal
* Extension (model theory)
* Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that satisfy the predicate
* E ...
*
Interpenetration (disambiguation)
Interpenetration may refer to:
* Interpenetration (Buddhism), a concept of Buddhist philosophy
* Interpenetration (Christianity), a term in Christian theology
* Interpenetration, in computer 3D modelling collision detection
See also
* Impenetrab ...
Notes
References
*
* Heinemann, F. H. "Toland and Leibniz." ''The Philosophical Review'', Vol. 54, No. 5. (September, 1945), pp. 437–457.
Concepts in metaphysics
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