Leibniz
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Convinced of the earlier existence in the evolution
of consciousness of archetypal matter
or "Edenstuff," Barfield seeks to reconsider the distinction between matter
and spirit that has proved so essential to the history of philosophy. He
hopes to free our understanding of the nature of matter from the grip of
current
idolatry and convince us that the
common
sense view of matter we now assume is completely time-bound.
Insisting--in "Matter, Imagination and Spirit"--that
we "begin by assuming straightaway not merely that matter is a form of
arrested physical energy, but that Leibniz was
right when he propounded that matter is coagulum spiritus--a kind
of coagulation or concentration of spirit--that the material is formed
from and within the immaterial rather as ice is formed from and within
water" (RM 145), Barfield theorizes that the evolution of consciousness
will produce, with the coming of final
participation, the "spiritualization of matter" as the long-term result
of an earlier "materialization of spirit" (SP 26).1
See in particular "Matter, Imagination, and
Spirit" (RM 143-54) and "The Coming Trauma of Materialism" (RM
187-200). |
1In
History,
Guilt, and Habit, Barfield shows that both materialist
and idealist
thinking have their disadvantages.
One of the disadvantages of being an out-and-out materialist is
that you can no longer use the word 'nature' with any consistency, because
in your system it includes everything; just as one of the disadvantages
of being an out-and-out idealist is that you can no longer use the word
'spirit' meaningfully, because in your system it includes everything. (HGH
5)
No doubt an awareness of this dilemma is what lead Barfield to espouse
the position known as "objective idealism." |
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