The principle of plenitude asserts that the universe contains all possible forms of existence.

Arthur Lovejoy Arthur Oncken Lovejoy (October 10, 1873 – December 30, 1962) was an American philosopher and intellectual historian, who founded the discipline known as the history of ideas with his book ''The Great Chain of Being'' (1936), on the topic o ...

, a historian of ideas, was the first to trace the history of this philosophically important principle explicitly. Lovejoy distinguishes two versions of the principle: a static version, in which the universe displays a constant fullness and diversity, and a temporalized version, in which fullness and diversity gradually increase over time. Lovejoy traces the principle of plenitude to the writings of

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

, finding in the ''

Timaeus Timaeus (or Timaios) is a Greek name. It may refer to: * ''Timaeus'' (dialogue), a Socratic dialogue by Plato *Timaeus of Locri, 5th-century BC Pythagorean philosopher, appearing in Plato's dialogue *Timaeus (historian) (c. 345 BC-c. 250 BC), Greek ...

'' an insistence on "the necessarily complete translation of all the ideal possibilities into actuality". By contrast, he takes

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ph ...

to reject the principle in his ''

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 ...

'', when he writes that "it is not necessary that everything that is possible should exist in actuality". Since Plato, the principle of plenitude has had the following adherents: * Epicurus reiterated the principle in fr.266 Us. His follower

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( , ; – ) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem ''De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which usually is translated into En ...

(''DRN'' V 526-33) famously applied the principle to the sets of multiple explanations by which the Epicureans account for astronomical and meteorological phenomena: every possible explanation is also true, if not in our world, then elsewhere in the infinite universe. * Augustine of Hippo brought the principle from

Neo-Platonic Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some ide ...

thought into early Christian

Theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. *

St Anselm Anselm of Canterbury, OSB (; 1033/4–1109), also called ( it, Anselmo d'Aosta, link=no) after his birthplace and (french: Anselme du Bec, link=no) after his monastery, was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the ...

's ontological arguments for God's existence used the principle's implication that nature will become as complete as it possibly can be, to argue that existence is a "perfection" in the sense of a completeness or fullness. *

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wit ...

accepted a modified form of the principle, but qualified it by making several distinctions that safeguard the freedom of God. * Giordano Bruno's insistence on an infinity of worlds was not based on the theories of

Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic canon, who formulated ...

, or on observation, but on the principle applied to God. His death may then be attributed to his conviction of its truth, as he refused to recant even while facing

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

for his view about this and other matters, which caused him to be convicted of

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

. *

Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, ...

, according to Lovejoy, "expressed the principle of plenitude in its most uncompromising form" and "represented it as necessary in the strict logical sense".Lovejoy 1936, p. 155. *

Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aest ...

believed in the principle but not in the possibility of its empirical verification. * Leibniz believed that the best of all possible worlds would actualize every genuine possibility.

Notes

References

, ''The Great Chain of Being''. Harvard University Press, 1936: {{ISBN, 0-674-36153-9 **Chapter IV "The Principle of Plenitude and the New Cosmography", p. 99–143. **Chapter V "Plenitude and Sufficient Reason in Leibniz and Spinoza", p. 144–182. Principles Concepts in metaphysics

See also

Notes

References