Philosophical Concepts: Matter, Soul, and Christian Trisubstantialism
Berkeley’s View on the Existence of Matter
According to Berkeley, matter is endowed with “primary” qualities (quantity) and secondary qualities (color). These qualities exist only within our senses and vary from person to person.
Therefore, for Berkeley, matter is merely a collection of subjective impressions existing solely in the mind. The physical world exists only as a subjective idea. In modern terms, reality is simply information within the subject’s mind.
Pythagorean Dualism
Pythagoras of Samos (6th century BC) posited that humans are a temporary union of a spiritual soul and a body. The soul originates from a higher realm and pre-exists before inhabiting a body. Joining a body stains the soul, leading to its expulsion from the world of pure souls.
The soul’s purpose in this world is purification through a philosophical life. Successfully purified souls return to their origin, while those that fail are reincarnated into other beings, such as animals. Pythagoras, influenced by the Orphic sect, introduced the concept of the spiritual soul and original sin to the West. The “stain” he mentioned was later transformed into the concept of original sin by St. Paul.
Plato’s Three Substances
Plato (427-347 BC) argued for the existence of three distinct realms: the material world, the world of souls, and the world of ideas (or the intelligible world). Each realm possesses unique qualities that grant it autonomy. Plato, following Pythagorean thought, defended the existence of both the world of souls and the material world. The world of souls is immaterial and incorporeal, while the material world occupies space and is corporeal. Both are present in humans, who are composed of soul and body.
Plato added a third world: the world of ideas. Ideas are not merely contents of our minds or souls; they are objective realities existing independently in their own realm, beyond the physical sky. These ideas are intrinsically linked to the soul. Before entering the material world, souls encountered and incorporated these ideas.
Christian Trisubstantialism: The “Otherness” of Substances
Christianity aligns with a Platonic trisubstantialism, featuring God (the infinite spirit akin to Plato’s world of ideas), souls and divine beings like angels (finite spirits created by God), and the material world (created and formed by God according to divine ideas).
Christianity strongly defends the independence of these three realms or substances for religious reasons. God created finite spirits “from scratch.” An essential difference (otherness) must exist between finite spirits and God to uphold the spirit’s freedom, responsibility for actions, and the justification for divine judgment.
Christianity is a religion of salvation. The soul is either saved or damned based on its responsible actions. If the soul lacks free will and is not responsible for its sins, the Passion of Christ loses its meaning. “Otherness” must also exist between God and the material world. Thus, it is said that God created the world “from nothing,” implying that God first created matter and then imprinted it with forms conceived in the divine intellect.
Critique of the Expression: “God Created the World Out of Nothing”
Creation always involves shaping pre-existing matter. Therefore, Hegel argues that God does not create nature from nothing but rather externalizes Himself into nature. However, this equates God with nature (pantheism).
The phrase “out of nothing” has been a mantra used by religious preachers to defend the otherness between God and creatures, obscuring the inherent absurdity of constructing otherness in this way.