There must be a substance with all possible attributes . There cannot be two substances with an attribute in common. So, there cannot be more than one substance.
What was Spinoza’s view on substance?
According to Spinoza, everything that exists is either a substance or a mode (E1a1) . A substance is something that needs nothing else in order to exist or be conceived. Substances are independent entities both conceptually and ontologically (E1d3).
What were Spinoza’s beliefs?
Spinoza’s most famous and provocative idea is that God is not the creator of the world, but that the world is part of God . This is often identified as pantheism, the doctrine that God and the world are the same thing – which conflicts with both Jewish and Christian teachings.
What was Spinoza’s dilemma?
In a stimulating recent paper, “Violations of the Principle of Sufficient Reason (in Leibniz and Spinoza),” Michael Della Rocca argues that rationalists face a daunting dilemma: either abandon the Principle of Sufficient Reason or embrace a radical, Parmenidian-style monism .
What is the only complete and independent substance?
There he defines ‘substance’ in terms of independence. ... Created Substance: A thing whose existence is dependent on nothing other than God. Strictly speaking, for Descartes there is only one Substance (as opposed to Created Substance), since there is only one thing whose existence is independent of all other things: God .
What did Spinoza say about God?
Spinoza believed that God is “the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator ”.
What does Spinoza mean by self caused?
In Id1, Spinoza defines self-causation (causa sui) as “ that whose essence involves existence or [sive] that whose nature cannot be conceived except as existing .” (Spinoza’s sive should not be read in a disjunctive sense, nor is it usually stating a mere equivalence.
Why did Spinoza reject the Bible?
Spinoza was not the first writer of his century to question the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch . ... In Spinoza’s day to deny the Mosaic authorship was widely regarded as a dangerous heresy, one punishable by law, because it called into question the status of the Bible as a divinely inspired document.
Did Spinoza argue for the existence of a transcendent God?
In those works, Spinoza denies the immortality of the soul; strongly rejects the notion of a transcendent , providential God—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and claims that the Law (i.e., the commandments of the Torah and rabbinic legal principles) was neither literally given by God nor any longer binding on Jews.
Is theism a philosophy?
Philosophical theism is the belief that the Supreme Being exists (or must exist) independent of the teaching or revelation of any particular religion . ... Philosophical theism has parallels with the 18th century philosophical view called Deism.
What is fatalism philosophy?
philosophy. Share Give Feedback External Websites. By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica View Edit History. Fatalism, the attitude of mind which accepts whatever happens as having been bound or decreed to happen . Such acceptance may be taken to imply belief in a binding or decreeing agent.
Who believed in monism?
The term “monism” itself is relatively recent, first used by the 18th Century German philosopher Christian von Wolff (1679 – 1754) to designate types of philosophical thought in which the attempt was made to eliminate the dichotomy of body and mind (see the section on Philosophy of Mind for more details).
What is nothingness philosophy?
“Nothingness” is a philosophical term for the general state of nonexistence , sometimes reified as a domain or dimension into which things pass when they cease to exist or out of which they may come to exist, e.g., in some cultures God is understood to have created the universe ex nihilo, “out of nothing”.
What does Descartes say about substance?
Descartes defines a substance as a thing that does not depend on anything else for its existence. That is to say, substance is a self-subsisting thing.
What are metaphysical commitments?
Such metaphysical commitments are necessary in order to set up experimental protocols , determine which variables to manipulate under experimental conditions, and which conclusions to draw from different scientific models and theories.
What are primary and secondary substances?
These are primary substances. Primary substances are certain kinds of things. These species and the genera of these species are all secondary substances . For example, Aristotle is a human being – the kind of thing that Aristotle is. ... So human beings and animals are both secondary substances of Aristotle.
