Space and Matter in Metaphysical Knowledge

Abstract

To show how metaphysics may come to know objects without matter, space or time, the author contrasts the Aristotelian notion of space, as the real distance between two material objects, against the Kantian space, conceived as geometrical and uniform. In a way similar to Avicebron, who proposes a uniform ontological 'subject' or 'matter' to every possible object, even in God, Kant extends the conditions of mathematical knowledge (spatial and temporal) to every possible kind of knowledge. Aquinas —following Aristotle—distinguishes mathematical and physical knowledge; so that the notion of space also differs in both sciences. This allows for a proper understanding of immaterial objects, which do not depend on these homogeneous matter, space or time.