PHL 205 Final Spinoza

Substance

• something that exists independently of other things, and can be understood without presupposing other concepts.

• Substances cannot share attributes because attributes are the way that the mind can characterize substance, allowing the mind to distinguish one thing from another so if that is not possible, they cannot be the same substance

Mode

 Modification of a substance, depends on something else for its existence (does not exist independently)

Attribute

How the intellect conceives of the essence of substances

Freedom

self-determined, only is caused by itself when acting

Pantheism

• Against the doctrine of creation → asserts that God did not create the world because God is the world (God is the only substance, and everything that exists is a modification of God) 

• If two substances were to exist, they would need to have distinct attributes. God is infinite, and God’s infinity requires it to have an infinitude of attributes as a lack of attributes would effectively inhibit its infinity. If God exists, then God must be the only substance because God has all the attributes and there could be no conceived attribute that is not a part of God’s infinite attributes

Determinism

• God is free because God is self determined (nothing is external to God so there is nothing that is not God that could cause God to act)

• God does not choose to do anything, and all modifications of the substance are a necessary consequence of its essence

• Human beings do not have free will because humans are necessary consequences of God’s essence (modes): God causes each mode to exist, causes their essence to exist, and causes all of their actions (using other modes to act on the individual) → Modes cannot determine how they will act because the will is also a mode (a necessary part of God’s infinite essence)

Rejection of final causes

• A final cause explains an object through its purpose/ end 

• Spinoza rejects final causes because he only utilizes efficient causes → believes that people explain their actions in terms of goals and purposes because they are unaware of the conditions that efficiently cause their actions

Mind body problem

• Spinoza does not believe that there is correspondence between the mind and body because both necessary parallel sequences (of actions of the body and thoughts of the mind) are the same thing

• They appear to be different because one is conceived through the attribute of thought (the mind) and the other is conceived through the attribute of extension (body) 

• Does not believe that a body can cause an idea or an idea can cause a body → the two seem to cause each other due to their parallel causal sequences and possible unawareness of the prior idea that efficiently caused the present idea & and the prior body that affected current body