Incorporeal, from Latin, means without the nature of a body or substance. The idea of the incorporeal refers to the notion that there is an incorporeal realm or place, that is distinct from the corporeal or material world. Incorporeal beings are not made out of matter in the way a physical, material being exists. The idea of the immaterial is often used in reference to God or the Divine. God has at times been carefully defined as the Prime Mover or First Cause that exists in an incorporeal or intelligible realm that transcends both space and time, especially in the physical realm. Many philosophers have referred to the incorporeal idea and methods. Most notable are:
- Plato, with his claims about the realm of immaterial, perfect Forms. Additionally, Plato's divided line involves ideas about the dialectic and the intelligible method.
- Plotinus, a Neo-Platonist with similar ideas of an unchanging and perfect realm (in contrast to a physical world of change and flux).
- Berkeley's notion of immaterialism is also similar to the concept of the incorporeal.
Thought thinking itself can also be considered to be an incorporeal method. Concepts in mathematics have also been considered by some to have an incorporeal nature.
