Spinoza#
Substance Monism, deus sive natura
Attributes, thought and extension
Infinite modes, laws of thought and laws of nature
Finite modes, ideas and bodies
Humans, mind and body
Determinism
Necessitarianism
Vertical causation
Texts#
Curley, Edwin. (1988). Behind the Geometrical Method. Princeton University Press.
Garrett, Don, ed. (1996). Cambridge Companion to Spinoza. Cambridge University Press.
Yovel, Yirmiyahu. (1989). Spinoza and Other Heretics. 2 vols. Princeton University Press.
Terms#
[SEP][W] Conatus
[SEP][W] Deus sive natura [god or nature]
[SEP][W] Natura naturans
[SEP][W] Natura naturata
[SEP][W] Parallelism
[SEP][W] Substance Monism
(1677). Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order.
(1670). Theologico-Political Treatise.
(1663). Descartes’ Principles of Philosophy Part I and II, Demonstrated in the Geometrical Manner.
(1663). Metaphysical Thoughts.
Notes#
spinoza
causality works only vertically, no causation across attributes
there is a harmony between mind and body
the possibility of causal interaction is excluded
substance monism: each attribute defines the substance of god fully
the distinction between attributes is just a conceptual distinction, just expressing the same thing in different ways
what’s happening in the mind and what’s happening in the body is the same thing expressed differently
causation works only vertically, only under one substance (under extension, under thought)
doctrine of parallelism
these two causal orders are one and the same, expressed differently
can be conceived one and then the other, but not at the same time
there is no theory of correspondence or horizontal causation
every idea is an idea of something (in extension)
ideas are complex, composed of many parts
we perceive the world through its impacts on our body
Part I - god or nature Part II - human
hierarchy
substance - god or nature
attributes - thought, extension, etc.
infinite modes
of thought (laws of logic, psychology)
of extension (laws of physics, geometry)
finite modes
of thought (minds)
of extension (bodies)
causation,limitation,conception,definition?
critique of theology
Aristotle
telos
four causes
material what is its matter?
formal - what is its form?
efficient - what did it?
final/teleological - why?
humans have a tendency to see themselves in nature
everything is acting with a purpose
instrumental
tendency to see things with a view to their usefulness for us
free will, another misconception
free will is attributed to god, hence god created the universe
sanctuary of ignorance
normative/evaluative concepts rooted in the anthropomorphic fallacy
these things are not inherent in nature, they are a misunderstanding
traditional ethics, praise and blame
ens realissimum “all reality”
substance is in itself and conceived through itself
ontological/existential/causal/conceptual/logical/definitional/explanatory independence
everything else is in S or conceived through S
god as substance is the ultimate cause of everything, everything is an effect of god
possibility, actuality, necessity are the same
analytic, synthetic
freedom: spontaneity or independence (self determination, not predetermination)
freedom is not about choosing
vs
free will
what is the relationship between Spinoza’s free will and conatus?
self-caused: substance
“in” not locative; God is not a container
“in” means cause, follows from
CONTINGENCY, alternative possibility
freedom is all about necessity
how are finite modes caused by infinite substance?
natura naturans (naturing nature, active)
natura naturata (natured nature, passive)
principle of plenitude
Abrahamic God
the creator ex nihilo, out of nothing
transcendental: God exists prior to, outside of, physical universe (space and time)
cause of its coming into existence, God’s free will/volition; God made a free choice to create the universe
personal God
God’s existence follows from God’s essence?
Spinoza’s God
for Spinoza, God is not a personal, Abrahamic God
deus siva natura “God or nature”
God is immanent to nature, not transcendant: God is the universe
impersonal God, lacks free will; therefore, God is not a creator (there is no creation)
everything follows from God through causal necessity
necessetarianism (a kind of determinism): nothing in nature happens by chance, free will
the more we know about the causal necessity of nature, the happier we get; happiness/joy is a matter of knowledge; unhappiness/sorrow is due to one’s lack of knowledge
Joy, related to Latin conatus “life energy, desire/determination to exist”
an existential, rational state (as opposed to emotional): act on the basis of reasons, causes, not passions
relation to inertia?
freedom from passions
Descartes’ Dualism
two finite substances, mind (thinking) and body (extended); infinite substance, God (not limited wrt thought or extension)
the two finite substances are in causal interaction
the problem is the explanation of the lateral causality
modes of attribute extension: size, mass, etc.
modes of attribute thought: sensation, imagination, understanding, will, notion
Malbranche
occasionalism, God intervenes every time there is an interaction between mind and body
Spinoza’s Monism
monism at every level
there is only one substance: God or nature; there is just one thing in the universe, the universe itself
this substance can be conceived of by the human intellect only in terms of thought or in terms of extension, though this substance may have an infinite number of attributes
modes come in two kinds: infinite modes and finite modes
infinite modes (laws of nature)
thought: laws of logic/thought/psychology (universal, timeless)
extension: laws of physics, geometry
finite modes
thought: particular ideas and their properties
extension: physical objects/things and their properties
causality is strictly vertical, there is no causal interaction between what’s under thought and what’s under extension: no intersubstantial causation bc there’s only one substance, there’s no interattribute causation
human mind is a collection of ideas, human body is a collection of body?
solution to the problem of mind-body duality?
modes of one and the same substance explains the correspondence
the same thing could be thought of as physical or as mental
Principle of Sufficient Reason
essence is existence
the necessity of existence, it exists by necessity
if something is the cause of itself (if cause and effect are the same thing), it cannot fail to exist
there is no need for external cause
finitude is about limitation; limitation has to do with things of the same kind; there is no cross limitation or cross causation
substance in itself; substance conceived through itself
in itself: independence of existence, ontological/epistemological/causal independence, self-caused
conceived through itself: logical, conceptual independence
attribute: essential property
mode: nonessential property
in itself: dependence of existence, ontological/epistemological/causal dependence, self-caused
conceived through itself: logical, conceptual dependence
God
finitude is limitation by the same kind
God is not limited by anything
infinite attributes: the nature of the attributes and the number of the attributes
each attribute expresses God’s essence completely
freedom
acting by its own nature/necessity
in itself: self-caused, independent existence
in something else: caused by something else, dependent existence
Principle of Sufficient Reason: for any fact, there is an explanation
axiom 3: any effect has a cause
effect follows from cause necessarily
existence has a causal explanation
knowledge is causal explanation
ens a se “being from itself”
causa sui “that which causes itself”
Leibniz’ Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles
Aristotelian Scholasticism vs Early Modern philosophical systems
Hobbes’ materialism and empiricism
Descartes’ dualism and innatism
Descartes
method of doubt
principle of clear and distinct ideas
Descartes claimed that synthesis, the method of demonstration that “uses a long series of definitions, postulates, and axioms, theorems, and problems…is not as satisfying as the method of analysis, nor does it engage the minds of those who are eager to learn, since it does not show how the thing was discovered.”
finitism, except the infinite substance God (who is therefore incomprehensible and beyond the grasp of the mind)
Spinoza
geometrical method: the whole as opposed to the part
“Descartes has gone far astray from knowledge of the first cause and origin of all things”
“[Descartes] has failed to achieve an understanding of the true nature of the human mind”
“[Descartes] has never grasped the true cause of error”
infinitism
our intellect is capable of reaching absolute knowledge because pure understanding has the same nature in humans and God
dual aspect theory: a metaphysics that attempts to find a middle ground between Cartesian dualism and Hobbesian materialism
Spinoza’s Dual Aspect Theory
substance: infinite
attributes: mental, corporeal
the order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things
Ethics
What is God for Spinoza?
What is substance for Spinoza?
What is the mind (and its affects) for Spinoza?
What is the power of the intellect? (human bondage, human freedom)
Part I - Concerning God
Definitions
Axioms
Definitions
self-caused
essence is existence
in suo genere finita “finite in its own kind”
that which can be limited by another of the same nature
a body may be limited by another body
a thought may be limited by another thought
body cannot be limited by thought nor can thought be limited by body
substance
that which is in (or conceived through) itself
attribute
that which the intellect perceives of substance as constituting its essence
mode
the affections of substance
that which is in (or conceived through) something else
God
an absolutely infinite being (NOT “infinite in its own kind”)
if a thing is “infinite in its own kind”, then it does not have infinite attributes
if a thing is infinite absolutely, then whatever both expresses essence and does not involve negation belongs to its essence
substance, consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence
free (liber), necessary (necessarius), constrained (coactus)
free (liber) that which
exists solely from the necessity of its own nature
is determined to action by itself alone
necessary (necessarius), constrained (coactus) that which
is determined by another thing to exist and to act in a definite and determinate way
eternity
existence itself, conceived of as necessarily following solely from the definition of an eternal thing
such existence is conceived of as an eternal truth (as is the essence of the thing); therefore, such existence cannot be explicated through duration/time even if such duration/time be conceived of as without beginning and end
Axioms
Being is either in (conceived through) itself or in (conceived through) another thing
If being is not in (not conceived through) another thing, then it is in (conceived through) itself
Propositions
P01 Substance is by nature prior to its affections
P02 Two substances having different attributes have nothing in common
P03 When things have nothing in common, one cannot be the cause of the other
P04 Two or more distinct things are distinguished from one another
either by the difference of the attributes of the substances
or by the difference of the affections of the substances
P05 In the universe there cannot be two or more substances of the same nature or attribute
P06 One substance cannot be produced by another substance
P07 Existence belongs to the nature of substance
P08 Every substance is necessarily infinite
P09 The more reality or being a thing has, the more attributes it has
P10 Each attribute of one substance must be conceived through itself
P11 God, or substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence, necessarily exists
P12 No attribute of substance can be truly conceived from which it would follow that substance can be divided
P13 Absolutely infinite substance is indivisible
P14 There can be, or be conceived, no other substance but God