Journal of Modern Philosophy 1 (1):1-29 (2019)
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Abstract |
My two principal aims in this essay are interconnected. One aim is to provide a new interpretation of the ‘infinite modes’ in Spinoza’s Ethics. I argue that for Spinoza, God, conceived as the one infinite and eternal substance, is not to be understood as causing two kinds of modes, some infinite and eternal and the rest finite and non-eternal. That there cannot be such a bifurcation of divine effects is what I take the ‘infinite mode’ propositions, E1p21–23, to establish; E1p21–23 show that each and every one of the immanent effects of an infinite and eternal God is an infinite and eternal mode. The other aim is to show that these propositions can be understood as part of an extended critical response to Descartes’s infamous doctrine that God creates eternal truths and true and immutable natures. If we have the correct (Spinozan) conceptions of what God is and how God works, we see that an eternal and infinite God can only be understood to cause ‘eternal truths,’ and that these eternal truths are infinite and eternal modes of God.
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Keywords | infinite modes eternal truths true and immutable natures Spinoza's response to Descartes divine causation |
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DOI | 10.32881/jomp.69 |
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References found in this work BETA
Descartes: The Project of Pure Enquiry.Bernard Arthur Owen Williams (ed.) - 1978 - Hassocks: Harvester Press.
Spinoza's Metaphysics: Substance and Thought.Yitzhak Y. Melamed - 2013 - Oxford University Press USA.
View all 86 references / Add more references
Citations of this work BETA
Spinoza’s Monism I: Ruling Out Eternal-Durational Causation.Kristin Primus - forthcoming - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie.
Spinoza’s Monism II: A Proposal.Kristin Primus - forthcoming - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie.
Reflective Knowledge.Kristin Primus - 2021 - In Yitzhak Melamed (ed.), A Companion to Spinoza. Wiley Blackwell. pp. 265-275.
Being and Reason: An Essay on Spinoza’s Metaphysics, by Martin Lin.John Grey - 2022 - Mind 131 (522):659-667.
Part V of Spinoza's Ethics: Intuitive Knowledge, Contentment of Mind, and Intellectual Love of God.Kristin Primus - forthcoming - Philosophy Compass.
View all 7 citations / Add more citations
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