"So that Cogitation is in Order of Nature, before Local Motion, and Incorporeal before Corporeal Substance, the Former having a Natural Imperium upon the Latter."
— Cudworth, Ralph (1617-1688)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Richard Royston
Date
1678, 2nd edition in 1743
Metaphor
"So that Cogitation is in Order of Nature, before Local Motion, and Incorporeal before Corporeal Substance, the Former having a Natural Imperium upon the Latter."
Metaphor in Context
Moreover it is certain from hence also, That there is another Species of Action, distinct from Local Motion, and such as is not Heterochinesie, but Autochinesie or Self-Activity. For since the Local Motion of Body is Essentially Heterochinesie, not Caused by the Substance it self Moving, but by something else Acting upon it, that Action by which Local Motion is First Caused, cannot be it self Local Motion, but must be Autochinesie or Self-Activity, That which is not a Passion from any other Agent, but springs from the immediate Agent it self; which Species of Action is called Cogitation. All the Local Motion that is in the World, was First Caused by some Cogitative or Thinking Being, which not Acted upon by any thing without it, nor at all Locally Moved, but only Mentally; is the Immoveable Mover of the Heaven, or Vortices. So that Cogitation is in Order of Nature, before Local Motion, and Incorporeal before Corporeal Substance, the Former having a Natural Imperium upon the Latter. And now have we not only Confuted the Ninth Atheistick Argument, from Motion, but also Demonstrated against the Democritick Atheists from their own Principle, that there is an Incorporeal and Cogitative Substance, the First Immoveable Mover of the Heavens, and Vortices; that is, an Incorporeal Deity.
(I.v, p. 844)
(I.v, p. 844)
Categories
Provenance
Searching "imperium" in EEBO
Citation
4 entries in ESTC (1678, 1732, 1723). An abridgment was published in 1732.
Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe: Wherein all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted and its Impossibility Demonstrated (London: Royston, 1678). <Link to EEBO>
See also Cudworth, Ralph. The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; Wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is confuted, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London: Printed for J. Walthoe, D. Midwinter, J. and J. Bonwick, W. Innys, R. Ware, 1743). <Link to ECCO>
Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe: Wherein all the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted and its Impossibility Demonstrated (London: Royston, 1678). <Link to EEBO>
See also Cudworth, Ralph. The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; Wherein All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is confuted, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London: Printed for J. Walthoe, D. Midwinter, J. and J. Bonwick, W. Innys, R. Ware, 1743). <Link to ECCO>
Date of Entry
03/29/2012
