Immanence

Immanence is the religious and metaphysicalconcept of existing and acting within the physical world. It is derived from the Latin words, in and manere, the original meaning being "to exist or remain within". Gilles Deleuzequalified Spinozaas the "prince of philosophers" for his theory of immanence, which Spinoza resumed by "Deus sive Natura" ("God is Nature"). Such a theory considers that there is no transcendentprinciple or external cause to the world, and that the process of life production is contained in life itself. ^{[{{fullurl:Template:FULLPAGENAME}}#endnote_Negri]}

Immanence in philosophy

The term "immanence" is usually understood to mean that the divine force, or the divine being, pervades through all things that exist, and is able to influence them. Such a meaning is common in pantheism& panpsychism, and it implies that divinity is inseparably present in all things. In this meaning immanence is distinct from transcendence, the latter being understood as the divinity being set apart from or transcending the World. Giordano Bruno, Baruch Spinozaand, it may be argued, Hegel's philosophy were philosophies of immanence, as well as stoicism, versus philosophies of transcendence such as thomismor Aristotelian tradition.

The French 20th century philosopher Gilles Deleuzeused the term immanence to refer to his "empiricist philosophy", which was obliged to create action and results rather than establish transcendentals. His final text was titled Immanence: a life..., spoke of a plane of immanence.[1]Similarly, Giorgio Agambenwrites in The Coming Community (1993) : "There is an effect something that humans are and have to be, but this is not an essence nor properly a thing: It is the simple fact of one's own existence as possibility or potentiality".

Immanence in religion

In worship, a believer in immanence might say that one can find God wherever one seeks Him. This view was popularised by scholars such as Henry David Thoreau. This understanding is often used in Hinduismto describe the relationship of Brahmanor the divine power, to the World. (i.e., monistic theism.) Immanence is one of the five key concepts in Druze, and is represented by the color white.

Also Ayyavazhiasserts the same thing that 'if one seeks himself he will seek his master(God)'. It also says that Humans is the reflection of the rest or Ekam.

Tzimtzum in the Kabbalistic theory

Main article: Tzimtzum

In Jewish Mysticism, Tzimtzum (????? Hebrew: "contraction" or "constriction") refers to the notion in the Kabbalistic theory of creation that God "contracted" his infinite essence in order to allow for a "conceptual space" in which a finite, independent world could exist. The concept of Tzimtzum contains a built-in paradox, as it requires that God be simultaneously transcendent and immanent:

• On the one hand, if the "Infinite" did not restrict itself, then nothing could exist - everything would be overwhelmed by God's totality. Thus existence requires God's transcendence, as above.
• On the other hand, God continuously maintains the existence of, and is thus not absent from, the created universe. "The Divine life-force which brings all creatures into existence must constantly be present within them... were this life-force to forsake any created being for even one brief moment, it would revert to a state of utter nothingness, as before the creation...".

Contained

Another meaning of immanence is that it is something that is contained within, or remains within the boundaries of a person, of the world, or of the mind.

This meaning is more common within Christianand other monotheisttheology, in which the one Godis considered to transcend his creation.

Endnotes

1. ^  See Antonio Negri, The Savage Anomaly: The Power of Spinoza's Metaphysics and Politics (transl. 1991, Minnesota Univ. Press)

See also

• Substance(God is either transcendent or immanent, as is the case in Spinoza's philosophy)
• Transcendence (philosophy), often considered as the opposite of immanence

External links

• Catholic encyclopedia: Immanence
• "Immanence and Deterritorialization: The Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari"

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanence Wikipedia article Immanence.