Inenellinen

Inenellinen is a Finnish term used to describe something immaterial or non-material. In everyday language it can refer to phenomena that do not have physical substance but are nonetheless real in various senses, such as thoughts, consciousness, emotions, values, meanings, or cultural significance. The concept is often contrasted with aineellinen, meaning material or physical.

Linguistic and conceptual notes indicate that inenellinen is formed as a negation of matter-related concepts, signaling a lack of physical form rather than absence of importance or effect. The term appears most frequently in academic contexts—philosophy, theology, ethics, and cultural theory—where distinctions between the material and the immaterial help analyze minds, ideas, and abstract objects.

In philosophical discussions, inenellinen is central to debates about the nature of reality. Physicalists or materialists argue that all phenomena ultimately reduce to physical processes, while immaterialists and dualists defend the existence of non-physical aspects such as mind or spirit. The term also appears in dispute over how immaterial entities can interact with the physical world and how we can have knowledge of them.

See also: materialism, immaterialism, dualism, idealism, metaphysics, abstract objects, consciousness, meaning, value.

Note: Inenellinen is primarily a scholarly term in Finnish and may not have exact equivalents in every language. Its precise use can vary by discipline and context.