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THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
VOLUME I
LONDON *. HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
THE PHILOSOPHY
OF SPINOZA
UNFOLDING THE LATENT PROCESSES
OF HIS REASONING
BY
HARRY AUSTRYN WOLFSON
NATHAN LITTAUER PROFESSOR OF JEWISH LITERATURE
AND PHILOSOPHY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY
VOLUME I
CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
1934
COPYRIGHT, 1934
BY THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE
PRINTED AT THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U.S.A.
PREFACE
To THE trained observer the simplest thing in nature has
a structure and a history; to the naive mind the most com-
plicated product of human device appears simple and spon-
taneous. Imagine a primitive man, brought up in natural
surroundings and without ever having witnessed human art
in its making. Placed sudde/ily.in one of the canyon-like
streets of a modern metropolis, such a primitive man would
undoubtedly think of the flanking sky-soaring structures of
intricate design and workmanship as something which grew
out of the soil like trees and grass. Similarly, imagine a
student of philosophy, trained in some miraculous manner
in the usages of philosophic concepts and vocabulary of the
present day, without any inkling of their past history. Con-
fronted suddenly with the Ethics of Spinoza, such a trained
student would undoubtedly think of it as something which
sprang forth full-grown and completely armored, like Mi-
nerva, from the brain of its author, and he would quite
naturally try to interpret it in the light of whatever associa-
tions it evoked in his mind. Of course, there is no such pre-
posterously trained student of philosophy, any more than
there is such a naive-minded primitive man as he to whom
we have compared him. But, still, many a student of Spinoza
comes very near treating his Ethics in the fantastic fashion
which we have described. Like the Bible, the Ethics of
Spinoza has often been the subject of homiletical interpreta-
tions. It has been treated like an amorphous mass of float-
ing clouds in which one's fancy may cut whatever figures it
pleases.
vi PREFACE
Now, I will not deny that we must allow for philosophic
license as we allow for poetic license, and that the cutting of
imaginary figures in Spinoza's Ethics is not without its uses.
When Goethe confesses that he cannot tell what he got out
of the Ethics and what he may himself have put into it, we
can only say that we are grateful to Spinoza for having served
as a stimulus to the thought of Goethe. In the same way,
many a worthy thought of men less distinguished and per-
haps also less frank than Goethe has had its birth in a mis-
interpretation of Spinoza or else has received due attention
by its having been mounted, gratuitously, on Spinoza's writ-
ings. But it would be carrying the analogy of the license too
far if we should say that the philosopher in his interpreta-
tion is to be as little bound by the truth of scholarship as the
poet in his imagery is by the truth of science. It is certainly
no compliment to a philosopher of the past who is prominent
enough for us to study him to say that only by being mis-
understood does he become philosophically important. In-
deed, the entire field of the history of philosophy would be
placed outside the bounds of exact disciplined study if we
should maintain that its study is of philosophical impor-
tance only when we superciliously disregard its objective
meaning as established by research, or indolently make no
effort to acquaint ourselves with it, or blissfully keep our-
selves in ignorance of it. The fact is, what is often called
subjective interpretation in philosophy is nothing but the
explanation of a text in terms of the haphazard knowledge
that one happens to possess, just as what is called populariza-
tion means nothing but the explanation of a text in terms
of the ignorance supposed to be possessed by the readers for
whom it is intended. In either of these cases, whatever merit
the particular form of presentation possesses is derived from
the fact that it helps to give currency to the results of historical
PREFACE vii
scholarship, which in its proper sense means the interpreta-
tion of a text in terms of everything that can be known about
it, for which a systematic search must be made. The first
step, the basic step, in the understanding of any philosopher,
one upon which any subjective form of interpretation or
any literary form of presentation must rest, is the deter-
mination by the method of historical criticism of what the
philosopher meant by what he said, how he came to say
what he said, and why he said it in the manner in which he
happened to say it.
It is this threefold task that we have set ourselves in the
present study of Spinoza. Now, the historico-critical method
really means the presupposition that in any text treated by
it there is a sort of dual authorship an explicit author,
who expresses himself in certain conventional symbols and
patterns, and an implicit author, whose unuttered thoughts
furnish us with the material for grasping the full significance
of those symbols and patterns. In the case of the Ethics of
Spinoza, there is, on the one hand, an explicit Spinoza,
whom we shall call Benedictus. It is he who speaks in defini-
tions, axioms, and propositions; it is he, too, who reasons
according to the rigid method of the geometer. Then there
is, on the other hand, the implicit Spinoza, who lurks behind
these definitions, axioms, and propositions, only occasion-
ally revealing himself in the scholia; his mind is crammed
with traditional philosophic lore and his thought turns along
the beaten logical paths of mediaeval reasoning. Him we
shall call Baruch. Benedictus is the first of the moderns;
Baruch is the last of the mediaevals. It is our contention
that we cannot get the full meaning of what Benedictus says
unless we know what has passed through the mind of Baruch.
Starting with the assumption that the Ethics is primarily
a criticism of fundamental problems of philosophy as they
viii PREFACE
presented themselves to Spinoza, we proceed to analyze these
problems, to set forth their salient features, to construct
hypothetically the arguments which constitute the criticism,
and to show how these arguments and criticism underlie the
statements which we have before us in the Ethics. As a
result of this procedure, the Ethics emerges as a logically con-
structed work throughout which there is order and sequence
and continuity: propositions, apparently disconnected,
group themselves into unified and coherent chapters; words,
phrases, and passages, apparently meaningless or common-
place, assume meaning and significance; and the philosophy
of Spinoza, as a systematic whole and in all its fulness of
detail, appears in a new light and in a new setting and per-
spective. Into the fabric of this work, which in form follows
the order of the Ethics ', we have also woven relevant passages
from the other writings of Spinoza, so that the study of his
philosophy herein presented is based upon his Ethics as well
as upon all his other writings in so far as they are related to
the Ethics.
This work can be read as a self-explanatory systematic
presentation of the philosophy of Spinoza. It can be read
with greater profit as a companion volume to the Ethics
and a running commentary on it. It can be read with still
greater profit together with some standard works or special
studies on Spinoza, for, with the exception of general refer-
ences to the literature on Spinoza whenever they were neces-
sary either for the bibliographical guidance of the reader
or as an acknowledgment of indebtedness on certain points,
and with the further exception of an occasional expression of
disagreement, we have refrained from entering upon an ex-
amination and comparison or criticism of the various extant
interpretations of Spinoza a subject which, if dealt with
at all, is deserving of a study by itself. Independently of
PREFACE ix
Spinoza, this work can be read as a study of the development
of certain fundamental problems in the history of philosophy,
or of the understanding of certain points in the teachings of
the authors brought into the discussion and of certain signifi-
cant texts in their writings. Students who are interested in
the relation of Spinoza to other philosophers will find in
this work an abundance of undreamed-of new material, culled
from the writings of various philosophers ranging from Aris-
totle to Descartes, though we do not say that every author
whom we have found it useful or necessary to quote is to be
considered a forerunner of Spinoza or as having had a domi-
nant jnfluence upon his philosophy. The principles on which
the ^election of this material was made, the manner in which
it was used in the interpretation of Spinoza, and the method
by which its direct literary relationship to Spinoza and its
influence upon him can be determined, are discussed in the
opening chapter. The analytical table of contents at the be-
ginning of each volume and the several Indexes at the end of
the second volume will serve as guides to the reader in these
various uses to which the book may be put.
Chapters III, IV, V, and VIII were published in Chronicon
Spinozanum, Vols. I (1921), pp. 101-112, II (1922), pp. 92-
117, III (1923), pp. 142-178, and IV (1924-1926), pp. 79-
103, respectively. Chapter VI appeared in Italian transla-
tion in Ricerche Religiose^ Vol. IX (1933), pp. 193-236. All
these chapters are reprinted here with some revisions. The
original title and description of this work were announced
in the Chronicon Spinozanum as "Spinoza the Last of the
Mediaevals: a Study of the Ethlca Ordine Geometrico Demon-
strata in the light of a hypothetically constructed Ethica
More Scholastico Rabbinicoque Demonstrata." This title had
to be abandoned, as it did not seem advisable to have the
title begin with the word "Spinoza."
x PREFACE
The protracted delay in the completion of the work was
amply made up for by the promptness with which its publi-
cation was undertaken when the manuscript was finished.
This was made possible by the Fund for the Support of the
Humanities at Harvard University provided by the General
Education Board. For this I am profoundly grateful. I am
also deeply indebted to Miss Christabel Garner, of the Har-
vard University Press, for her searching reading of the proofs
and for valuable suggestions.
HARRY AUSTRYN WOLFSON
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
May, 1933
CONTENTS
VOLUME I
CHAPTER I
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 3
Method of procedure in the study of Spinoza's Ethics in this work,
i. ^Grouping of propositions into logically ordered topics, 5.
Coherence of propositions within each group, 6. The problem of
documentation, 8. Hebrew and Latin literatures the sources of
Spinoza's knowledge of philosophy, 8. The common tradition
underlying these literatures, 10. The literary languages of Spinoza,
n. Hebrew literature as the basic source of Spinoza's knowledge
of philosophy, 12. How the literary background of Spinoza is to
be studied, 14. How immediate sources of Spinoza are to be de-
termined, 15. The method used in this work in the collection
of literary sources, and the form in which this work is written,
17. The importance of the literary background as an aid to the
proper understanding of Spinoza, 20. The ellipticalness and al-
lusiveness of the Ethics, and the reason therefor: personality of
Spinoza, 22. The application of the scientific method of research
to the study of the Ethics, 25.
CHAFFER II
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 32
Classification of Spinoza's writings, 32. Central idea of all his
writings, 33. Titles of his works, 35. Why the title Ethics?
35. Historical background for the variety of literary forms em-
ployed by Spinoza, 39. Analysis of the geometrical method and
its history, 40. Was the geometrical method demanded by the
nature of Spinoza's philosophy? 44. Analysis of Descartes' state-
ments about the geometrical method: distinction between geometri-
cal method and geometrical form and the identity of the geometrical
and syllogistic methods, 45. Analysis of Meyer's statements about
the geometrical method, 51. Extent of Spinoza's mathematical
way of looking at things, 52. No metaphysical conception of the
Hebrew language in Spinoza, 54. Aesthetic reasons for the de-
mands of the use of the geometrical form in philosophy in the
seventeenth century, 55. The Ethica more scholastico rabbinicoquc
demonstrata behind the "Ethica ordine geometrico demonstrate" 59.
xii CONTENTS
(ETHICS, T)
CHAPTER III
DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE AND MODE 61
Traditional division of Being, 61. Division of Being into cate-
gories and into substance and accident, 62. Difficulties in Spinoza's
definitions of substance and mode, 63. Method of solving these
difficulties, 66. Traditional classifications of substance, 67.
Hypothetical construction of Spinoza's criticism of these classifica-
tions, 68. Spinoza's reduction of substances to one, and his defini-
tions of substance and mode, 71. Substance as "whole": meaning
of "whole," 73. Substance a sum mum genus and unknowable, 76.
Substance "prior in nature" (Prop. I): meaning of "prior in
nature," 77.
CHAPTER IV
UNITY OF SUBSTANCE . ... . 79
I. The philosophic dualism of traditional philosophy, 79. Pur-
pose and method of Spinoza's criticism of this dualism, So. Hypo-
thetical construction of mediaeval arguments against a duality of
gods as they formulated themselves in the mind of Spinoza, 81.
Reduction of Propositions II-VI to a syllogistic argument, 85.-
Detailed explanation of these propositions: restatement of medi-
aeval dualism (Prop. II), 86. Refutation of mediaeval dualism,
by showing untenability of the theory of creation, especially that of
emanation, to which it must resort (Prop. Ill), 88.- Tentative
defence of emanation, 91. Rebuttal of that tentative defence
(Props. IV-VI), 91. Explanation of Corollary to Proposition
VI, 94-
II. Criticism of mediaeval philosophic dualism, by showing the un-
tenability of creation, as treated in Short Treatise, 96. A. The
world could not have created itself, 98. B. Nor could it have been
created by God, for (a) creation is incompatible with God's immuta-
bility, omnipotence, and benevolence: history of this argument, 99;
(b] creation is incompatible with God's simplicity: history of this
argument, 105. Impossibility of the Platonic theory that the
world was created out of eternal formless matter: influence of Ger-
sonides, 108. Argument against an immaterial prime mover, no.
CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTER V
SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE . . 112
I. Simplicity and Attributes . . . . . 112
How the topic of the discussion in Propositions VII-X and XII-XIII
has been determined, 112. Twofold meaning of the traditional ex-
pression "unity of God," 113. Threefold implication of the tradi-
tional insistence upon the simplicity of God: (a) Exclusion of acci-
dents, 1 13. (b) Exclusion of distinction of genus and species, 114.
(c) Exclusion of distinction of essence and existence, 115. This
threefold implication of simplicity as reflected in Spinoza, 115.
Background of Spinoza's definition of God: influence of Albo, 116.
- - Simplicity and personality of God and the problem of attributes,
119. Logical structure of Propositions VII-X, XII-XIII, 120.
II. Essence and Existence . . 121
The two main sources of Spinoza's discussion of essence and existence,
121. -How the problem of essence and existence originated: the
views of Aristotle, Avicenna, and Averroes, 122. Spinoza on es-
sence and existence (Prop. VII), 125. Meanings of causa sui:
(a) negative, 127; (b) positive, 129. Essence and Existence
as treated in Short Treatise ^ 130.
IIF. Definition of the Term " Infinite" ... . . 133
Historical background of Spinoza's definition of the terms "infinite"
and "finite," 133. Meaning of the various kinds of ' finite" and
"infinite" in Spinoza, 135. Meaning of "infinite" when applied
to God, 137. Spinoza's analogy between his own "substance"
and the traditional God (Props. VIII-X), 139.
IV. Relation of Attribute to Substance .... . . 142
God unknown in His essence but known through His attributes, 142.
Certain points of agreement among mediaevals on the nature of
attributes, 143. The interpretation of the names of God in the
Bible as attributes, 144. Spinoza's definition of attribute: subjec-
tive and objective interpretations, 146. These two interpretations
are analogous to mediaeval controversies, 147. Analysis of medi-
aeval problem of essential attributes, 147. The case of those who
reject essential attributes: objective theory of attributes, 149.
The case of those who admit essential attributes: subjective theory
of attributes, 150. Evidence for the subjective interpretation of
Spinoza's conception of attributes, 151. The reducibleness of all
attributes to one, 154. Explanation of Propositions XII-XIII, 156.
xiv CONTENTS
CHAPTER VI
PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 158
I. The Ontological Proof 158
Transition from "substance" to "God" (Prop. XI), 158. Meaning
of necessano existit, 160. What the proofs of the existence of
God are meant to prove, 161. Being: real \ fictitious ', verbal, and of
reason, 161. Classification of the traditional methods of proving the
existence of God, 163. If God is known immediately, what need is
there for proof? 165. Meaning of the ontological proof, and the
stock objection against it, 167. Meaning of St. Anselm's answer
to Gaunilon, 170. -- Meaning of the syllogism employed in onto-
logical proofs, 174. The logical form of the syllogism underlying
the ontological proofs, 176.
II. Spinoza's Four Proofs 176
Evaluation of the ontological proof, 176. Analysis of the proofs of
Descartes and Spinoza and their relation to each other, 178.
Spinoza's first proof: its three types, and how the type used in the
Ethics is a modification of one of the two forms of the proof as given
by Descartes, 179. Spinoza's second proof: its composite origin,
184. Distinction between internal, external, and impedimental
causes, 186. Mediaeval proof for eternity of God, 186. Distinc-
tion between necessary, impossible, possible, and contingent, 187.
Analysis of the cosmological proof of the existence of God: its three
stages, 192. Transformation of the third stage of the cosmological
proof into an ontological proof in Spinoza's second proof ', 197.
Spinoza's third and fourth proofs: how related to Descartes' second
cosmological proof in Meditation III, 200. - Analysis of Descartes'
second cosmological proof: a modified form of the traditional proof
from creation or conservation, 201. Why Spinoza calls it a proof
from power, 204. Explanation of Spinoza's third proof ', 205. Ex-
planation of Spinoza's/0wrM/>r00/,207.- - Explanation of Scholium to
Proposition XI, 208. Concluding remarks on Spinoza's proofs, 212.
CHAPTER VII
EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 214
I. The Framework of Spinoza's Universe 214
Recapitulation of Spinoza's arguments leading up to his conclusion
that extension and thought are attributes of God (Prop. XIV), 214.
The framework of Spinoza's universe and how he came by it, 216.
CONTENTS xv
The mediaeval framework of the universe, 218. How a modi-
fied form of the mediaeval framework presented itself to the mind of
Spinoza, 219. Unfolding Spinoza's criticism of that framework
and his conclusion that God is material, 221. History of the con-
ception of the materiality of God and how little it has to do with
Spinoza's similar conclusion, 222.
II. Properties, Attributes, and Modes 224
Origin of the doctrine of the infinite number of attributes, 225.
Enumeration of attributes in mediaeval philosophy and Descartes,
226. Mediaeval attributes called propria by Spinoza: the meaning
of propria, 227. Spinoza's various lists of propria, 230. Attri-
butes: the logical steps by which Spinoza has arrived at the two
known attributes, and why he calls them extension and thought, 232.
Forma corporeatatis as the origin of extension, 234. Modes:
(a) Immediate infinite modes; how Spinoza came by them, 236.
The names for the immediate infinite mode of thought, 238.
Meaning of intellect us, 238. Meaning of idea Dei, 239. The
names for the immediate infinite mode of extension, 242. Why
the immediate infinite modes are called "Sons of God," 243.
(b} Mediate infinite mode: only one; how Spinoza came by it, 243.
Meaning of fades totius universi, 244. (c) Finite or particular
modes, 249. Meaning of the resfxae aeternaeque, 249. Varieties
of possibility and necessity, 252. Natura naturans and natura
naturata: influence of Thomas Aquinas, 253. How the attributes
of extension and thought may be conceived as really distinct, one
without the assistance of the other, and still not imply a plurality in
the nature of substance, 255. Attribute of extension not to be con-
fused with the popular conception of the corporeality of God, 258.
CHAPTER VIII
INFINITY OF EXTENSION 262
Spinoza's statement and refutation of the case of his opponents who
deny infinite extension, 262. How Spinoza seems to misrepresent
his opponents and to commit the fallacy of equivocation, 265.
Descartes not the one meant by his opponents, 268. Method to be
employed in arriving at an explanation of Spinoza's position, 270.
Aristotle and his followers on infinity, 271. How Crescas estab-
lishes the existence of an infinite extension, 275. Explanation of
Spinoza 'sfrst "example" and its corresponding first "distinction,"
281. Explanation of Spinoza's second "example" and its corre-
sponding second "distinction: the infinite and the indefinite," 286.
Explanation of Spinoza's third "example" and its corresponding
third "distinction," 291.
xvi CONTENTS
CHAPTER IX
THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 296
I. Materiality and Causality of God . -296
Traditional conception of omnipresence of God brought to its logical
conclusion by Spinoza (Prop. XV), 296. -- Variety of characteriza-
tions of Spinoza's conception of God: Deism, Atheism, Acosmism,
Pantheism, 298. Immateriality and causality two fundamental
characteristics of the traditional God, 301. Threefold causality of
the traditional God reduced by Spinoza to efficient causality, 302.
Conventional classification of God's efficient causality adopted by
Spinoza and applied to his God, 303. God a universal cause (Prop.
XVI), 304. God an efficient cause not in the restricted sense of
cmanatire cause, 306. - God an essential cause, 307. God a first
cause, 307.
II. God as Free Cause . . 308
God a principal and free cause (Prop. XVII), 308. Spinoza's defi-
nition of freedom, 309. - - Mediaeval conception of will and intelli-
gence in divine causality and Spinoza's refutation thereof, 312. -
Spinoza's refutation of the view that God omitted to create things
which He could create, 314. Spinoza's contention that the medi-
aeval conception of the homonymy of divine intelligence and will
amounts to an assertion of necessary causality, 316. - Denial of
chance and causelessness, 318.
III. The Meaning of Immanent Cause . . 319
Distinction between external and internal causes, 319. Two kinds
of internal or immanent causes, 321. Meaning of "transcendent,"
322. Meaning of Spinoza's conception of God as immanent cause
(Prop. XVIII), 323. Immanent as whole or universal, 324. The
two kinds of "whole," 325. Two differences mentioned by Spinoza
between the "whole" and the conceptual universal; how they are
traceable to Aristotle, 326. Conjectural addition of a third differ-
ence: the concrete and the abstract universal, 327.
IV. God as Conscious Cause . % }2tf
God as a conscious but non-volitional cause, 328.
CONTENTS xvii
CHAPTER X
DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 331
I. The Story of Duration 331
Analysis of Plotinus' discussion of time: definite and indefinite time,
332. How the term duration was given to indefinite time, 335.
Three forms of the Plotinian conception of duration in Arabic and
Hebrew texts, 336. First form: in opposition to Aristotle's defini-
tion of time, 337. --Second form: supplementary to Aristotle's defi-
nition of time, 338. Third form: similar to Aristotle's definition
of time, 339. Etymology of Arabic and Hebrew terms for dura-
tion, 340. Duration in Augustine: meaning o{distentio,34i. Com-
mon characteristics of duration in scholastic philosophy, 343.
Duration in Descartes and Locke, 345. General characteristics
of duration, 346.
II. Duration and Time in Spinoza 347
Formal definition of duration in Cogitata Metaphysica, and its three
verbal differences from that of Descartes, 347. Reason for first
verbal difference: substitution of "attribute" for "mode," 348.
Reason for second verbal difference: addition of term "actuality,"
349. Reason for third verbal difference: addition of term "cre-
ated," 350. Relation of duration to existence, 351. Defini-
tion of time in Cogttata Metaphyslca^ 353. Problem of the subjec-
tivity of time, 355. Duration and time in letter to Meyer, 356.
Duration and time in Ethics, 357.
III. Eternity . 358
Difference between Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of eternity,
and the reasons for that difference, 358. Platonic conception of
eternity in Plotinus, 361. Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of
eternity in Arabic and Hebrew philosophic texts, 361. Platonic
and Aristotelian conceptions of eternity in Latin philosophic texts,
364. Three common elements in mediaeval conceptions of eternity
when applied to God: (a) not infinite time, (b} immutability, (c)
identity of essence and existence, 366. Only two of these three ele-
ments adopted by Spinoza as properties to be applied exclusively to
God: (a) not infinite time or duration; examples of defective uses of
the term "eternity," 366; (b) identity of essence and existence,
367. - Meaning of Spinoza's comparison of the eternal existence of
God with "eternal truths," 368. Problem of the applicability of
duration to God, 369.
xviii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XI
MODES 370
Structure of Propositions X1X-XXXVI, 370. Spinoza's philos-
ophy in its relation to emanation, 371. Infinite modes: meaning
of "eternal " when applied to God (Props. XIX-XX), 375. Mean-
ing of "eternal" and "infinite" when applied to immediate modes
(Prop. XXI), 376. The mediate infinite and eternal mode (Prop.
XXII), 378. Introduction of the use of the term "mode" (Prop.
XXI 1 1), 379. The threefold sense in which God is said to be the
cause of the infinite and eternal modes: (a) as their efficient cause
(Prop. XXIV), 380; (b) as their immanent cause (Prop. XXV),
383; (c) as their free cause (Prop. XXVI), 385. Meaning of free-
dom and Spinoza's denial of it (Prop. XXVII), 385. Finite modes
or res singulares, 387. Where do they come from? 388. Spinoza's
apparent explanation (Prop. XXVIII), 389. An explanation which
does not explain, 392. Certain historical explanations: (a) Finitude
an illusion, 393. (b} Matter as -Aprineipium individuationis, 393.
(c] Cabalistic zimzum, 394. (d] "Emergent emanation," 395.
Spinoza's real explanation, 397. Conclusion of the discussion of
modes: no contingency in modes; all of them traceable to God as
their cause (Prop. XXIX), 398.
CHAPTER XII
NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 400
I. Intellect, Will, and Power 400
Mediaeval belief in design in the causality of God and freedom in the
action of man, 400. Design in God expressed in terms of attributes
of life, intellect , willy and power , 401. How Spinoza denies design
by attacking these attributes, 401. (a) Attribute of life \ is to be
included under power, 402. (b} Attributes of intellect and will;
(1) first method of attack: For God to act by intelligence and will as con-
ceived by the mediaevals is the same as to act by necessity, 402;
(2) second method of attack: Intellect and will do not pertain to the
essence of God and belong to natura naturata (Props. XXX-XXX1),
402. Hence there is no freedom of will in God (Prop. XXXII):
definition of will and its freedom, 405. Hence, the world could not
have been produced by God in another manner and in another order
than that in which it has been produced (Prop. XXXIII): history of
the problem, 408. Continuation of the same problem in Scholia I
and II of Proposition XXIII: analysis of Scholium II, 410. Two
mediaeval theories of divine will: (i) arbitrary and (2) for the sake of
CONTENTS xix
some good, 416. Unfolding of Spinoza's criticism of the second
view; explanation of his reference to "fate," 418. (c) Attribute of
power: the identity of power with the essence of God makes for
necessity in God's causality (Props. XXXIV-XXXV), 421.
II. Final Causes 422
How problem of final causes is introduced by Spinoza, 422.
Spinoza's denial of final causes by his reducing them to efficient
causes (Prop. XXXVI): historical background, 423. Appendix to
Part I as a Scholium to Proposition XXXVI, continuing the discus-
sion of final causes, 425. Analysis of the Appendix: (a) Statement
of the case for final causes, and its literary background, 425.
Spinoza's explanation of the origin of the belief in final causes, 426.
Problem of evil, 430. (b) Four arguments against final causes, 431.
(c) Some erroneous views arising from the belief in final causes:
relativity of good and evil, 436. Problem of moral evil or sin, 438.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
VOLUME I
CHAPTER I
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD
IN DISCUSSING once with a group of friends the importance of
philology and of bookish learning in general for the study of
the history of philosophy, I happened to remark that phi-
losophers, after all, see the universe which they try to explain
as already interpreted to them in books, with the only possi-
ble exception, perhaps, of the first recorded philosopher, and
all he could see was water. "How about Spinoza?" chal-
lenged one of the listeners. "Was he also a bookish philoso-
pher?" Without stopping to think, I took up the challenge.
"As for Spinoza," I said, "if we could cut up all the philo-
sophic literature available to him into slips of paper, toss
them up into the air, and let them fall back to the ground,
then out of these scattered slips of paper we could recon-
struct his Ethics."
Not long after that I found myself reconstructing the
Ethics out of scattered slips of paper figuratively cut out of
the philosophic literature available to Spinoza. The problem
before us, as I discovered, was like that of a jig-saw puzzle.
Suppose we have a box of pieces out of which we are to con-
struct a certain picture. But the pieces contained in the box
are more than can be used, and from among them we have to
select those which are needed for our purpose. Furthermore,
the pieces do not fit together, and they have to be reshaped.
Finally, many necessary pieces are missing, and we have to
supply them ourselves. But to offset all these difficulties, we
have an outline of the picture which we are to construct.
The picture which we have to construct in our own jig-saw
puzzle is the Ethics as it was originally formed in the mind of
4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
Spinoza, of which the present Ethics in its geometrical form
is only a bare outline. 1 Since, however, we do not know nor
can we ascertain exactly what books Spinoza had actually
read, what quotations he had come across in the course of
his readings, or what casual information he had gathered
from conversations with friends, we must take as our box of
pieces the entire philosophic literature available at the time
of Spinoza and out of this make our necessary selections.
Furthermore, since philosophic texts and ideas are the most
plastic of material, capable of assuming a variety of meanings
with different philosophers, we must reshape our pieces in the
form which we have reason to believe they assumed in the
mind of Spinoza. Finally, since the Ethics before us is not
the result of a syncretism of traditional philosophy but rather
the result of criticism, and since this criticism, though im-
plied, is not explicitly expressed, we shall have to supply it
ourselves.
In our study of the Ethics we must try to follow the same
method that Spinoza followed in writing it. Spinoza did not
start out with classified lists of bibliographies, outlines, ab-
stracts, quotations, and all the elaborate equipment with
which methodical scholarship of today prepares itself for the
writing of an informative work of reference. He started out
with a certain fund of knowledge acquired through miscel-
laneous reading which in his mind formed itself into a com-
posite picture of the salient features of traditional philosophy.
In this composite mental picture, we may assume, the prob-
lems of philosophy presented themselves in a certain order,
each problem modelled after a certain pattern and expressed
in a certain terminology. Tagged on to this picture, under-
neath its surface, and deep down into the recesses of Spi-
noza's consciousness, we may further assume, there was an
1 Cf. below, p. 59.
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 5
aggregation of notes swarming with references to sources of
texts, to parentages of ideas, to conflicts of opinions, and to
diversities of interpretations, all of them ready to come up to
the surface, whenever the occasion arose, and take their place
in the picture. In our endeavor to retrace the steps of Spi-
noza's reasoning, we must, therefore, first of all, equip our-
selves with a similar fund of knowledge, or philosophical
mass of apperception, as it may be called.
With such an apperceptive mass as our equipment we be-
gin to read the Ethics. Without forcing ourselves to under-
stand the book, we let its propositions penetrate into our
amassed fund of knowledge and by the natural process of
association and attraction become encrusted with terms,
phrases, and ideas out of the storehouse of our memory. At
first these encrustations are indistinguishable and shapeless
clumps, clinging to the propositions as bits of scrap-iron cling
to a magnet. But then we let our mind play upon them
to scrutinize them and to study them. By the catalytic
action of the mind these indistinguishable and shapeless
clumps begin to dissolve; they begin to group themselves,
to solidify themselves into larger units, to become differen-
tiated from each other, to assume form, and ultimately to
crystallize themselves into distinct topics of recognizable his-
torical problems of philosophy. Thus at the very outset of
the Ethics^ Proposition I, together with Definitions III and V
and Axioms I and II upon which it is based, emerges as a dis-
tinct topic by itself, which we label the definition of substance
and mode. The next five propositions, II- VI, crystallize
themselves into a discussion of the unity of substance, made
up of two historical problems, the unity of God and creation.
Propositions VII- X and XII-XIII shape themselves into a
discussion of three closely related topics under the general
heading of the Simplicity of Substance, and wedged in be-
6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
tween them is Proposition XI, where the term "substance"
gives way to the term "God"; this is easily recognized as a
discussion of the traditional proofs of the existence of God.
Next follow two propositions, XIV and XV, which deal with
the attributes of extension and thought, and a Scholium,
which deals with the infinity of extension. The remaining
propositions of the First Part of the Ethics readily group
themselves into discussions of the various meanings of the
causality of God, among which Spinoza dwells especially
upon the immanence, freedom, necessity, and purposelessness
of God's causality. In the Second Part of the Ethics the prop-
ositions fall into the traditional outline of the discussion of
the soul, dealing in the conventional order and manner with
the definition of the soul, its relation to the body, and the
classification of its faculties. The last three parts of the
Ethics deal with what is traditionally known as practical
philosophy as contrasted with the theoretical philosophy of
the first two parts, dealing successively with the problems of
the emotions, virtues, and the final happiness of man. As our
mind scrutinizes still further these groups of propositions it
discovers that they follow one upon the other according
to a certain order of sequence, which is at once intrinsically
logical and extrinsically in conformity with historical pat-
terns. With this, the first stage in our study of the Ethics
comes to an end.
Then the next stage in our investigation is to find a certain
coherence within each group of propositions. The data upon
which we have to work are twofold. On the one hand, there
are the problems of philosophy as they unfold themselves be-
fore us in all their variety of forms in the vast literature that
was available to Spinoza. On the other hand, there are the
utterances of Spinoza in the Ethics, elliptical, fragmentary,
disjointed, and oftentimes, if we are to admit the truth to
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 7
ourselves, enigmatic and unintelligible. Between these two
extremes we expect to find the problems as they must have
formulated themselves in the mind of Spinoza, the doubts
which he must have raised against accepted views, and his
own solutions of these doubts which he must have meant to
express in his uttered statements in the Ethics. The task be-
fore us, then, is to reconstruct the process of Spinoza's reason-
ing in all its dialectical niceties and in all its fulness of detail
so that it will lead us to a thorough understanding of the
statements which confront us in the Ethics. By the method
of trial and error we experiment with one conjecture after an-
other, until we finally arrive at a result which seems to us
satisfactory. Thus, for instance, at the very outset of the
Ethics, in Proposition I and its underlying Definitions III
and V and Axioms I and II, which we have already set apart
as a topic by itself, dealing with definition of substance and
mode, we reconstruct out of the material scattered in the
literature of philosophy the problem as we assume it pre-
sented itself to the mind of Spinoza the division of being,
the definition of substance and accident, the classification of
substances, and so on. Again, out of direct internal discus-
sions of these problems which occur in the philosophic liter-
ature of the past, or indirectly out of certain suggestions and
hints, and sometimes even without these direct or indirect
aids, we reconstruct a criticism of these traditional definitions
as we assume it formulated itself in the mind of Spinoza. As
a result we are enabled to integrate these Axioms, Defini-
tions, and Proposition I into a coherent chapter, containing
a logically formed argument. 1 We follow the same method in
our study of the next group of propositions, Propositions II-
VI, which we have found to reflect two historical problems,
the unity of God and creation, and which we have subsumed
1 Cf. below, pp. 6 1 ff.
8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
under the heading of the Unity of Substance. Here our task
is somewhat more difficult, for we have to deal here not with
one single proposition, as is the case in Proposition I, but
with five propositions, each of which is followed by a demon-
stration, and between which there seems to be no unity and
transition. Again, by the method of trial and error we ulti-
mately succeed in reconstructing the thought of Spinoza so
that in the light of it these five propositions form a connected
logical syllogism. 1 And so we go through the entire Ethics,
and by the use of different devices we succeed in bringing
unity, coherence, and harmony within each group of propo-
sitions. With this, the second stage of our investigation
comes to an end.
Then we take up the third and last stage of our investiga-
tion, that of documenting our findings so that we may con-
vince others of the truth of our statements and reasoning.
Here, too, we must follow the same method that Spinoza
would have followed, had he documented his Ethics. We feel
that it would not be enough to quote from books which we
happen to know, or which happen to be generally known. We
must ask ourselves what works Spinoza himself would have
used if he had chosen to document his writings. To answer
this question we must determine, even though only in a gen-
eral way, the extent and variety of the philosophic literature
available to Spinoza.
Two philosophic literatures were open to Spinoza, the
Hebrew and the Latin. His knowledge of Hebrew he had
acquired in a school where he had studied it systematically
under the guidance of competent teachers probably from the
age of seven to the age of eighteen (i 639-1 650) . 2 Latin he
' Cf. below, pp. 85 fT.
2 As for the years of Spinoza's entering and leaving the Hebrew School ' Ez
Hayyim y see Dunin-Borkowski, Derjunge De Spinoza (1910), p. 103, and Freuden-
thal, Spinoza Lebcn und Lehre (ed. Gebhardt, 1927), I, p. 31.
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 9
began to study later, at first not in a school but privately.
His systematic study of that language under the tutorage of
Francis van den Enden did not begin until 1652, when he was
already twenty years old. Though he had also a knowledge
of several modern languages, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch,
French, and possibly also Italian, German, and Flemish, 1 the
philosophic material in these languages was negligible. He-
brew made accessible to him not only the works of Jewish
philosophers but also the works of Arabic philosophers, the
works of Aristotle, mostly as incorporated in the commen-
taries of A verroes, the works of some of the Greek commen-
tators on Aristotle, and also the works of some of the Latin
scholastic philosophers. Latin similarly opened to him not
only the original Latin writings of the philosophers of the
Roman period, of mediaeval scholasticism, and of the Renais-
sance, but also translations from the Greek, Arabic, and
Hebrew. In Hebrew the most important works of Jewish
philosophers, whether those translated from the Arabic or
those written originally in Hebrew, were already accessible
to him in printed form, some of them in several editions; but
the translations from non-Jewish authors, with but a few
slight exceptions, were accessible to him only in manuscript
form. Manuscripts, however, at that time were not yet
gathered up and stored away in a few closely guarded central
libraries; they were still widely scattered among individual
owners and freely circulated, especially in Amsterdam, where
Hebrew scholarship and Hebrew printing presses flourished
and where privately owned collections of Hebrew manu-
scripts must have existed. Furthermore, the student of
Hebrew philosophic texts could gain a thorough knowledge
1 As for Spinoza's knowledge of languages, see Epistola 19 (Opera, IV, p. 95,
11. 12-15); Epistola 26 (p. 159, 1. 1 6); Lucas' La Vie de feu Monsieur de Spinoza in
A. Wolf, The Oldest Biography of Spinoza y pp. 51-52 and 104.
io THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
of the contents of the unpublished Hebrew translations of
Arabic and Greek authors through the numerous and exten-
sive quotations from their works as well as through the ela-
borate discussions of their views which were to be found in
Hebrew works already published. In Latin the proportion
of printed works in philosophy was greater than in Hebrew,
even of works which were translated into Latin from the
Hebrew. Thus, for instance, the bulk of Averroes' commen-
taries on Aristotle, which were translated into Latin from the
Hebrew, existed in many printed editions in Latin, whereas
in Hebrew they existed only in manuscript form.
To Spinoza these three literatures, Hebrew, Latin, and
Arabic, represented a common tradition. Whatever dif-
ferences he noticed between them, they concerned only
problems of a purely theological and dogmatic nature; the
philosophic basis of all such problems, and especially the dis-
cussion of problems of a purely philosophic nature, he could
not fail to see, were all of a common origin. They were all
based upon Greek philosophy, at the centre of which stood
Aristotle. The same Greek terminology lay behind the Arabic,
Hebrew, and Latin terminology, and the same scientific and
philosophic conceptions formed the intellectual background
of all those who philosophized in Arabic, Hebrew, or Latin.
The three philosophic literatures were in fact one philosophy
expressed in different languages, translatable almost literally
into one another. And within each of these philosophic liter-
atures numerous works existed which were encyclopaedic in
nature, covering as they did the entire range of philosophy,
containing the same roster of problems, the same analyses of
those problems, the same definitions of terms, the same meta-
physical brocards, the same clash of contrasting views, the
same arguments in support or in refutation of each view, and,
barring certain individual differences of emphasis or of inter-
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD u
pretation, arriving also at the same conclusions. A reader
who had mastered any of these books in one of these three
languages found himself treading upon familiar ground when
he came to read any book in the other languages.
We do not know exactly in what language Spinoza would
have written his books had the choice of language been de-
termined by him on the basis of the ease with which he could
express himself in it rather than on the basis of the linguistic
equipment of the readers whom he wished to reach. Had
Spinoza lived in the land of his forefathers, Spain or Portugal,
before the expulsion, or in any other European country where
Jewish philosophy was cultivated, such as Southern France
or Italy, he would have undoubtedly written in Hebrew, for
Hebrew had been the exclusive medium of expression of Jew-
ish philosophers and scientists throughout Europe ever since
the disappearance of Jewish life in Southern Spain under
Moslem rule with the coming of the Almohades in the twelfth
century. The particular attitude of an author toward the
problems of religion was no deterrent to his use of Hebrew,
for every shade of opinion, from extreme adherence to tradi-
tion to the most daring adventures into freedom of thought,
found expression in Hebrew literature. In the intellectual
autonomy which the Jews enjoyed during the Middle Ages,
with the systematic pursuit of the study of philosophy and
the sciences in Jewish schools out of Hebrew books, Jewish
thinkers were always assured of appreciative as well as criti-
cal readers among their own people of whatever views they
chose to express in Hebrew. But toward the end of the fif-
teenth century there appeared Jewish philosophers who,
though brought up on Hebrew philosophic literature and
themselves writing in Hebrew, wrote books in non-Jewish
languages for non-Jewish readers. Elijah Delmedigo, better
known as Helias Hebraeus Cretensis (1460-1497), wrote his
12 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
Quaestiones Tres and his Adnotationes in Dictis Averrois super
Libros Physicorum l in Latin, and Judah Abrabanel, better
known as Leo Hebraeus (d. 1535), wrote his Dialoghi d'Amore
in Italian. 2 In Spinoza's own time and in the community in
which he was born, Hebrew was still used extensively by his
own teachers and schoolmates in their literary works, but use
was also made by some of them of Spanish and Latin. His
teacher Manasseh ben Israel wrote on theological problems
in Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese. Under these
circumstances, what language Spinoza would have used if he
had chosen that in which self-expression was the easiest for
him can be only conjectured. That it would not have been
Latin or Dutch, in which his books happen to be written, is
quite evident by his own confession. At the time of the pub-
lication of his Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae and Cogltata
Metaphysica (1663) he still felt the deficiency of his Latin,
and before allowing his friends to publish these works he
stipulated that one of them should, in his presence, " clothe
them in more elegant style." 3 In 1665, in one of his letters to
Blyenbergh/ he intimates that he could express his thoughts
in Spanish, "the language in which I was brought up/' better
than in Dutch. Whether Hebrew was with him, as it was
with many Jewish authors of his time and place, a more
natural vehicle of literary expression is uncertain.
But it is quite certain that Hebrew literature was the
primary source of his knowledge of philosophy and the main
stock upon which all the other philosophic knowledge which
1 These two works are printed together with Joannes de Janduno's Quaestiones
in Libros Physicorum^ 1501, and other editions.
a It is quite possible, however, that the Dialoghi cC Amore was written originally
in Hebrew. Cf. I. Sonne, Lisheelat ha-T^ishon ha-Mefcorit shel Wikkuhe ha-Ahahab
li-Yehudah Abarbanel^ in Ziyyunim (Berlin, 1929), pp. 142-148. For new evidence
that it was originally written in Hebrew, see below, vol. II, p. 14.
J Epistola 13 (Opera, IV, p. 63, 11. 20-22). * Epistola 19 (p. 95, 11. 12-15).
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 13
he later acquired was grafted. He had become familiar with
Hebrew philosophic literature before he began to read phi-
losophy in Latin. His nascent philosophic doubt arose as a
reaction against the philosophy which he read in Hebrew.
With the exception of the new sciences, his readings in Latin
supplied him merely with a new vocabulary for old ideas.
Throughout his discussions of philosophical problems, espe-
cially those bordering upon theology, Hebrew sources appear
as the matrix in which the general outline of ideas was formed.
Other sources appear as insets. It is Hebrew sources, too,
upon which he draws for his casual illustrations. An out-
standing example of this is to be found in his discussion in
Chapter XV of the T*ractatus 'Theologico-Politicus of the two
contrasting attitudes shown by philosophers towards the
problem of the relation of faith to philosophy or of the-
ology to reason. The problem was an old one, and it had
been discussed in Mohammedanism, Christianity, and Juda-
ism alike. In each of these three religions, the two contrast-
ing attitudes had their exponents. In Mohammedanism, such
exponents, to mention but two, were Algazali and Averroes.
In Christianity, two typical exponents of these attitudes
could be found in Bernard of Clairvaux and Abelard. Spi-
noza, however, mentions none of these. He takes Alpakhar
and Maimonides as his examples of typical representatives
of these two contrasting views, and he does so simply because
these were the two men through whose works he first became
acquainted with the nature of the problem. He did not even
feel the need, writing as he did in Latin for non-Jewish read-
ers, to substitute two corresponding Christian authors for
these two Jewish authors, for in Spinoza's time Jewish phi-
losophy had not yet been eliminated from European phi-
losophy and relegated to the esoteric field of oriental wisdom.
From the thirteenth century down through the seventeenth
1 4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
century it was quite fashionable for theologians and phi-
losophers to quote Hebrew authorities by the side of Greek
authorities, and those who followed the habit of quoting
Greek sources in the original Greek also quoted Hebrew
sources in the original Hebrew. The only concession that
Spinoza seems to have made to his non-Jewish readers is that
he referred to his Hebrew authorities with the aloofness of an
outsider.
Following this principle, we go first to Hebrew philosophic
literature for our documents. It is not any particular author
that we go to, but the field of literature as a whole. If one
particular author, Maimonides for instance, happens to be
resorted to more often than others, it is not because he has
been especially selected for our purpose, but because Spinoza
himself would have selected him, for his work is the most ex-
cellent depository of mediaeval philosophic lore, where one
can find the most incisive analyses of philosophic problems,
the most complete summaries of philosophic opinions, the
clearest definitions of terms, and all these couched in happy and
quotable phrases. But we always try to give sufficient paral-
lels from other Hebrew authors so as not to create the errone-
ous impression that we are trying to draw parallels between
one single Hebrew author and Spinoza. In like manner, in
order not to create the erroneous impression that the material
drawn upon is unique in Hebrew philosophic literature, we
quote, or refer to, similar passages in the works of Arabic or
scholastic authors. When the occasion demands, scholastic
sources are resorted to in preference to the Hebrew. Further-
more, in order not to create the erroneous impression that
there is something peculiarly "mediaeval" about the views
we quote from the various mediaeval sources, we trace their
origin to Aristotle's works. Frequently we string together
a list of names from the various linguistic groups of philos-
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 15
ophy in order to indicate that the views under discussion are
a common philosophic heritage. Before quoting a passage
from a certain book we do not stop to ask ourselves whether
that book was known to Spinoza. In several instances we
rather suspect that the book in question was unknown to
him. But that makes no difference to us. Provided the
idea expressed in the passage under consideration is not un-
common, we assume that it was known to Spinoza, even
though for the time being we do not know exactly the im-
mediate literary source of his knowledge. In such instances,
only one who would arrogate to himself divine omniscience
could assert with certainty that the idea could not be found
in any source available to Spinoza. The burden of proof is
always upon the negative.
But very often certain passages are identified as being the
direct and immediate sources of Spinoza. As a rule Spinoza
does not quote sources literally, even when he mentions them.
In a letter to Meyer, for instance, he introduces his reproduc-
tion of Crescas' proof of the existence of God by the words
"it reads as follows " (sic sonat)* and yet the passage which
follows is not an exact quotation. But in many instances the
evidence points to certain passages as directly underlying the
utterances of Spinoza. In determining these direct sources it
is not the similarity of single terms or even of single phrases
that guides us, for in the history of philosophy terms and
phrases, no less than the ideas which they express, have a
certain persistency about them and they survive intact
throughout their winding transmigrations. It is always a
term or a phrase as imbedded in a certain context, and that
context by its internal structure and by a combination of
enveloping circumstances, that help us to determine direct
literary relationships. When we feel that we are in a position,
1 Epistola 12 (Opera, IV, p. 61, 1. 18).
1 6 THK PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
for instance, to affirm with reasonable certainty that it is
Thomas Aquinas from whom Spinoza has taken over in the
Scholium to Proposition XXIX of Ethics, I, the distinction
of natura naturans and natura naturata it is not because these
phrases happen to occur in his works, for as phrases they
happen to occur also in the works of other authors; it is only
because Spinoza's description of these two phrases seems
to be a modification of the description given by Thomas
Aquinas, and also because the reason for the modification of
the description by Spinoza can be adequately accounted for. 1
When, again, we are in a position to affirm with reasonable
certainty that it is Crescas from whom Spinoza has taken
over in the Scholium to Proposition XV of Ethics^ I, the
three "exam pies " by which his "opponents" prove the im-
possibility of an infinite extension and in refutation of them
the three " distinctions " which he mentions in Epistola XII
to Meyer, it is not because these "examples" and "distinc-
tions" are to be found in Crescas, for as individual "exam-
ples" and "distinctions" they are to be found also in other
authors; it is only because these three "distinctions" are
used by Crescas as refutations of three arguments which
correspond respectively to the three "examples" of Spinoza. 2
Finally, to take but one more example, when we are in a
position to affirm with reasonable certainty that Spinoza's
discussion of the highest good, of human society, and of the
virtues in Propositions XIX-LXXIII of Ethics^ IV, is based
upon Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics it is not because we dis-
cover in them certain similarities in individual terms or
phrases; it is only because we discover in them definite liter-
ary similarities in the construction of the arguments. 3 It is
by such methods that direct literary relationship has been
1 Cf. below, pp. 254 f. Cf. below, pp. 264 ff.
3 Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 233 ff.
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 17
established between Spinoza and many of the authors quoted
in this work.
A list of passages quoted or referred to in this work from
various authors will be found in the Index of References, and
an analysis of topics of each of these authors will be found in
the Index of Subjects and Names. The works quoted or re-
ferred to, it will be noticed, are drawn indiscriminately from
the various linguistic groups of philosophic literature -
Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic. Conspicuously absent
among them, with the exception of a few references, mostly of
ancillary importance, to Meir ibn Gabbai, Moses Cordovero,
and Abraham Herrera, 1 is the Cabalistic literature, which
from earliest time has been considered a source of Spinoza's
philosophy. This exclusion was unintentional; it merely hap-
pened that in our search for documentation we had no occa-
sion to resort to the Cabalistic literature for source material.
Not that the Cabalistic literature could not have furnished
us with apt illustrative material, but there is nothing in the
Cabalistic literature which could be used for our purpose the
like of which we did not find in philosophic literature, for, as
has been said by one of the leading Cabalists, Moses Cor-
dovero: "Know that in matters metaphysical oftentimes the
true masters of Cabala will be found to agree with the phil-
osophers." * "To follow" would perhaps have been a more
accurate term than "to agree."
The list of passages is by no means exhaustive. Had we
thought it necessary, we could have added innumerable
parallels to every passage quoted; but our purpose was not
to compile a complete catena of parallel passages. A com-
plete Index of mediaeval philosophy, Latin, Hebrew, and
1 Two of the references to Herrera, however, seem to point to a direct literary
connection and are of special significance. Cf. below, pp. 245 and 314.
2 Elimah Rabbati, I, 16.
1 8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
Arabic, is indeed one of the desiderata of scholarship, but
that will have to be done independently of any study of Spi-
noza. Nor are the passages quoted or referred to by us irre-
placeable by similar passages from other works, though we
have always tried to select passages which are most suitable
for our purpose. It would be quite possible to rewrite con-
siderable portions of this work by substituting other quota-
tions for those used by us, without necessarily changing our
present analysis and interpretation of the Ethics, for the
passages quoted are only representative of common views
which were current in the philosophic literature of the past.
Had we thought it desirable, then instead of writing one
single book on the Ethics, we could have written a series
of papers bearing such titles as "Aristotle and Spinoza,"
"Seneca and Spinoza," "Averroes and Spinoza," "Maimon-
tdes and Spinoza," "Thomas Aquinas and Spinoza," "Leo
Hebraeus and Spinoza," "Descartes and Spinoza," and many
other correlations of Spinoza with names of authors who are
quoted in this work or who could have been quoted. But our
purpose was only to draw upon these authors for material in
building up our interpretation of Spinoza and not to establish
analogies, and we were especially careful to avoid the exten-
sion of analogies beyond the limits of what the actual facts
warranted, and also to avoid the suggestion of influences when
no direct literary relationship could be established. Had we
thought it advisable we could have eliminated all the quota-
tions from our texts, either by omitting them altogether or
by giving them in paraphrase form. But the interpretation
of texts is an essential part of our work, and since texts had
to be used, no paraphrase, however felicitous, could take the
place of an exact quotation. Probably the most logical liter-
ary form for this work would have been that of a commen-
tary upon the Ethics preceded by a few general chapters of
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 19
introduction. But we chose our present method because
our purpose was not to comment upon single and isolated
passages of the Ethics, but to show the unity, continuity,
and logical order that runs throughout the work, and withal
to present the philosophy of Spinoza as a systematic whole.
Of all the authors quoted or referred to in this work, it is
only Maimonides and Descartes, and indirectly through
them, and quite as often directly through his own works,
also Aristotle, 1 that can be said to have had a dominant in-
fluence upon the philosophic training of Spinoza and to have
guided him in the formation of his own philosophy. It would
indeed have been possible, within certain limits, to depict
the philosophy of Spinoza against the simple background
of any one of these three philosophers, except for the fact
that that would not have been a true presentation of the
genesis of his thought, for it had a more complex origin. All
the other authors quoted in this work, however helpful they
may have been in our reconstruction of the Ethics, can be
said to have had a direct influence only upon single passages
in the Ethics, or upon single propositions, or at most upon
certain groups of propositions. To go beyond that and to
attempt to build up an extended analogy between the philo-
sophic systems of any of these authors and Spinoza, on the
mere basis of such isolated parallels of expressions or passages,
even when a direct literary relationship between them could
be established, would only mean the inflation of footnotes
into essays or monographs.
1 For lists of authors in relation to whom Spinoza has been studied, see Ueberweg-
Frischeisen-Kohler-Moog, Die Philosophic dcr Neuzeit bis zum Ende des XVIII.
Jahrhunderts (i2th ed., 1924), pp. 668 ff.; R. McKeon, The Philosophy of Spinoza
(1928), pp. 322 ff. Among all the studies listed, no less than five on Spinoza and
Maimonides and no less than sixteen on Spinoza and Descartes, there is only the
following one which deals with Spinoza's relation to Aristotle: Julius Guttmann,
"Spinozas Zusammenhang mit dem Aristotelismus," in Judaica, Festschrift zu Her-
mann Cohens siebzigstem Geburtstage (Berlin, 1912), pp. 515-534.
20 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
But whether direct or indirect, the sources of Spinoza are
more important for us as a means of establishing the meaning
of his text and philosophy than as a means of establishing an
analogy or priority of doctrine. The text of his Ethics is not
a mosaic of quoted or paraphrased passages. Nor has his
philosophy developed as a rash out of the infection of certain
heretical or mystical phrases. It has grown out of the very
philosophy which he discards, and this by his relentless driv-
ing of its own internal criticism of itself to its ultimate logical
conclusion. In our endeavor to reconstruct the processes of
Spinoza's reasoning, therefore, it is not phrases that we are to
deal with but the thought and the history that lie behind
them and the use that he makes of them. When he says, for
instance, that God is the immanent cause of all things, it is
not enough for us to find some one who had called God an
immanent cause. We have to study the meaning of the term
"immanent" in its complicated historical development and
the particular use made of it by Spinoza throughout his writ-
ings. We shall then discover that he means by it something
quite different from what we should ordinarily take it to
mean. 1 Not that we are to assume that Spinoza had actually
gone through all the steps of the investigation which we are to
trudge through in discovering the meaning of such terms
for that was not necessary for him. He lived in an age when
the traditions of philosophy were still alive, and what we
nowadays have to discover by the painstaking methods of
research came to him naturally as the heritage of a living
tradition.
Studied against the rich background of tradition, even the
most colorless of terms and expressions may become invested
with technical significance of the utmost importance. A case
in point is the special significance which may be discovered in
1 Cf. below, pp. 323 ff.
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 21
Spinoza's choice of the terms "attribute," "created things/'
and "actuality" in his definition of duration, 1 and of the
terms "first thing," "actual," "human mind," "idea," "in-
dividual thing," and "actually existing" in his definition of
mind. 2 Even when Spinoza is obviously merely restating
well-known sources our task is not completed by merely sup-
plying the perfunctory references. We must again study the
meaning of the sources quoted and their implications and
all the possible uses he could have made of them. We shall
often find that what at first sight appears merely as a repe-
tition of what others have said is in reality a criticism of what
they have said. For despite Spinoza's expressed aversion
toward openly criticizing his opponents, 3 and perhaps be-
cause of it, his Ethics is primarily an implied criticism of
his opponents. Thus, for instance, when he enumerates the
various meanings of cause and asserts that God is a universal,
efficient, essential, and first cause, it is not enough merely to
identify the immediate source of his statement. We must
study the implications of these terms, and we shall then find
that instead of merely repeating what his predecessors have
said, Spinoza is really challenging their right of saying what
they have said and of applying to their God the term "cause "
in all these senses. 4 And so throughout the Ethics, from his
opening definition of substance to his concluding description
of the religion of reason, we shall find that behind every posi-
tive statement there is lurking a negative criticism. With
every one of his positive assertions we seem to hear Spinoza's
challenge to his opponents: I accept your own definitions of
terms, but I use them with greater consistency than you. I
am not unwilling to use your own descriptions of God, but
1 Cf. below, pp. 347 ff. * Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 42 ff.
a Cf. below, p. 58.
4 Cf. below, pp. 304 ff.
22 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
they are logically more applicable to my God than to yours.
I see no reason why I should not use your own formulae, but
I must give them an interpretation of my own. It is quite
possible for me to adopt with some reservation one of your
views, but I must reject all the others which you consider of
equal probability.
That the Ethics in its literary form is a peculiar piece of
writing is quite apparent. But its peculiarity does not con-
sist in the obvious fact that it is divided into propositions and
demonstrations instead of chapters and sections. It consists
in the fact, which becomes obvious only after a careful study
of the work, that the manner in which it makes use of language
is rather peculiar. It uses language not as a means of expres-
sion but as a system of mnemonic symbols. Words do not stand
for simple ideas but for complicated trains of thought. Argu-
ments are not fully unfolded but are merely hinted at by sug-
gestion. Statements are not significant for what they actu-
ally affirm but for the denials which they imply. Now, the
mere use of the geometrical method cannot explain that, for
even within the geometrical method Spinoza could have been
clearer and more expatiative. To some extent it may be ex-
plained, perhaps, by the cloistered atmosphere in which the
Ethics was conceived and written. No challenging questions
of inquiring students or friends guided Spinoza in the manner
of its exposition or goaded him into a fuller expansion of its
statements. Despite the fact that he allowed himself to enter
into the discussion of problems which troubled the minds of
his correspondents, he never communicated to them the ful-
ness of his own thought or discussed with them the philo-
sophic problems which troubled his own mind. The con-
genial group of merchants, booksellers, medical students, and
holders of public office which formed the immediate circle of
Spinoza's friends had a layman's interest in the general prob-
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 23
lems of philosophy, but they could hardly serve as effective
sounding-boards for his views during the experimental stages
of his thinking. They seem to have had a more vigorous
grasp of the problems of theology, in which they were the
liberals of their day, but with all the adventuresomeness of
their spirit they were just beginning to approach the liberal-
ism of the mediaeval writings of Jewish rationalists read by
Spinoza in his early youth, which he had long outgrown.
Spinoza was welcomed by them as an exotic genius to whose
occasional expression of shocking views they could listen in-
dulgently because they could dismiss them from their minds
as a sort of outlandish heresy. In this strange environment,
to which externally he seems to have fully adjusted himself,
Spinoza never felt himself quite free to speak his mind; and
he who among his own people never hesitated to speak out
with boldness became cautious, hesitant, and reserved. It
was a caution which sprang not from fear but from an inner
sense of decorum which inevitably enforces itself on one in
the presence of strangers, especially strangers who are kind.
Quite early in his new career among his newly found friends
he showed evidence of this cautious and guarded attitude,
and when on one occasion he became conscious of it, in the
case of Casearius, he deluded himself into the belief that it
was due to the faults of the latter arising from his youth and
immaturity. 1 Little did he understand the real cause of his
own behavior, and little did he know to what extent it
stamped his general attitude towards all the others who had
not the faults of youth and immaturity. So long had the
thoughts of this book been simmering in his uncommu-
nicative mind that it was boiled down to a concentrated
essence, and it is this concentrated essence that we are
served in the form of propositions. The Ethics is not a
1 Epistola 9 (Opera, IV, p. 42, 11. 19-26).
24 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
communication to the world; it is Spinoza's communication
with himself.
In its concentrated form of exposition and in the baffling
allusiveness and ellipticalness of its style, the Ethics may be
compared to the Talmudic and rabbinic writings upon which
Spinoza was brought up, and it is in that spirit in which the
old rabbinic scholars approach the study of their standard
texts that we must approach the study of the Ethics. We
must assume that the Ethics is a carefully written book, in
which there is order and sequence and continuity, and in
which every term and expression is chosen with care and used
with precision. We must try to find out not only what is
within it, but also what is behind it. We must try to under-
stand not only what the author says, but also what he omits
to say, and why he omits it. We must constantly ask our-
selves, with regard to every statement he makes, what is the
reason? What does he intend to let us hear? What is his
authority? Does he reproduce his authority correctly or not?
If not, why does he depart from it? What are the differences
between certain statements, and can such differences be re-
duced to other differences, so as to discover in them a com-
mon underlying principle? In order to understand Spinoza
in full and to understand him well, we must familiarize our-
selves with his entire literary background. We must place
ourselves in the position of students, who, having done the
reading assigned in advance, come to sit at his feet and listen
to his comments thereon. Every nod and wink and allusion
of his will then become intelligible. Words previously quite
unimportant will become charged with meaning. Abrupt
transitions will receive an adequate explanation; repetitions
will be accounted for. We shall know more of Spinoza's
thought than what is merely expressed in his utterances. We
shall know what he wished to say and what he would have
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 25
said had we been able to question him and elicit further in-
formation.
But a question may now naturally come up. How do we
know that our interpretation is correct? After all, what we
have done is to construct an imaginary setting to fit the
Ethics. How do we know, then, that the setting is not a
mere figment of the imagination? Even if it is admitted that
the setting is constructed out of historical material and that
the Ethics seems to fit snugly in it, still it may be argued that
the plot of a historical novel may be similarly constructed
out of historical material, the individual incidents may be all
historically authenticated, and the personages of the novel
may all act in their true historical character, and yet the
work as a whole be nothing but an artificial and fictitious
production.
In answer to this question we may say, in the first place,
that the validity of our interpretation of the Ethics rests upon
its workability and universal applicability. If there is any-
thing arbitrary in our interpretation it is the initial assump-
tion that Spinoza thought out his philosophy in a logical,
orderly, and coherent manner, and that he wrote it down in a
work which is logical, orderly, and coherent, and in a language
which is self-explanatory. But having started out with this
assumption and finding that the Ethics is far from being a
book which is logical, orderly, and coherent, and that the
language in which it is written is far from being self-explana-
tory, we have a right to believe that any interpretation, his-
torically substantiated, that will help to explain the entire
Ethics as a logically, orderly, coherently, and intelligibly
written book is not fictitious like the plot of a historical novel.
It is more like the plot of a work of true historical research in
which a meagre and sketchy account of certain historical
events preserved in a single fragmentary document is pre-
26 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
sented in a new reconstructed form by the rilling in of gaps,
by the supplying of details, and by the explaining of causes
and motives, all on the basis of other authentic records. His-
torical research in philosophy, no less than in literature or
politics, is justified in claiming the same test of certainty as
the hypotheses of the natural scientists, namely, the test of
workability and of universal applicability as a description of
all the phenomena that come under observation.
The analogy of our study of the Ethics to the scientific
method of research holds true in still another respect in
the employment of a method which may be considered as a
modified form of what is called in science control-experiment.
Invariably in the writings of Spinoza several texts are to be
found in which the same problems are dealt with. In our
study of Spinoza we have always treated these parallel texts
as the scientific experimenter would treat his guinea-pigs,
performing our experimental interpretation on some of them
and using the others as a control. Thus in working on any
problem, instead of collecting at once all the parallel texts
and ancillary material in the writings of Spinoza and working
on all of them at the same time, we confined our investiga-
tions to some particular texts, and then tested our conclu-
sions by the other texts. Thus, for instance, in the problem
of the unity of substance, 1 for which Propositions II -VI of
Ethics , I, Chapter II of Short Treatise, I, and Appendix I of
the Short "Treatise are parallel texts, or in the problem of the
relation of mind and body, 2 for which Proposition X of Ethics^
II, Preface to Short Treatise ', II, and Appendix II of the
Short Treatise are parallel texts, the problem was fully
worked out first in connection with one of these sets of texts
and then tested and checked up by the others.
1 Cf. below, pp. 79 ff.
* Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 33 ff.
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 27
Then also, again in analogy to the method of research in
the sciences, our investigation was not merely a matter of
classifying data; it consisted mainly in discovering problems,
stating them, and solving them; and the solution, as a rule,
started with a conjecture which was afterwards verified by a
method which in scholarship may be said to correspond to the
method of experiment and prediction in science. One prob-
lem with which to start our investigation always presented
itself to us, and that was the problem of linking together ap-
parently disconnected propositions into a coherent argument.
To solve this problem it was required to find the missing links
which in the original form in which the Ethics was conceived
in the mind of Spinoza and before it was broken up into geo-
metric propositions supplied a logical transition between the
disconnected statements which we now have before us. Now
sometimes these missing links could be forged out of material
which we happened already to have at our disposal, but most
often they had to be invented imaginatively out of material
which we only assumed to exist and the corroborative evidence
was to be discovered afterwards. And, as a rule, it was dis-
covered. But problems of still greater difficulty presented
themselves to us on frequent occasions, such, for instance, as
apparent misuse of terms on the part of Spinoza, or apparent
contradictions in his own statements, or apparent misrepre-
sentations of the views of others. Invariably in the solution
of such problems we set up some distinction in the use of the
term which Spinoza seemed to misuse, or we discerned some
new aspect in the statement of the idea in which Spinoza
seemed to contradict himself, or we assumed the possibility
of some new interpretation of the view in which Spinoza
seemed to misrepresent others. Here, again, most often
these new distinctions, aspects, and interpretations were in-
vented ad hoc, merely for the purpose of solving a certain
28 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
difficulty, and the evidence corroborating them was discov-
ered afterwards. This is the method which we have followed
throughout our investigation, though it is not the method
which we have adopted in the presentation of the results. In
the final form which this work has assumed, for the sake of
clearness and brevity, the order of exposition has had to be
the reverse of the order of discovery, and sources, which in
the actual process of investigation were evidence by which
a priori conjectures were corroborated, have had to be pre-
sented as data from which conclusions were drawn. The ma-
terial dealt with in this work did not seem to us to possess
sufficient elements of human interest to justify our attempt-
ing to intrigue the reader by presenting each problem in the
form of a mystery story.
A typical illustration of this kind of proof by experiment
or prediction may be found in Spinoza's discussion of the
problem of infinite extension. This is one of the discussions
in which Spinoza makes reference to his opponents, restating
their views and criticizing them. He finds that one of the
reasons why his opponents denied the existence of an infinite
extension was their belief in the divisibility of extension, and
therefore concludes that inasmuch as matter is not divisible
an infinite extension does exist. From the context of his dis-
cussion it appears that by divisibility he means divisibility
into indivisible parts or atoms and that by indivisibility he
means indivisibility in the same sense as a point is said to be
indivisible. Having identified his opponents, we found that
that kind of divisibility of extension which he seems to
ascribe to them is explicitly denied by them. Furthermore,
we found that Spinoza, in maintaining the existence of an in-
finite extension which is indivisible, uses the term "infinite"
in a sense which is explicitly rejected by his opponents. Spi-
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 29
noza thus seems to misrepresent his opponents and to commit
the fallacy of equivocation. This was the difficulty which
confronted us. Now, of course, we could have dismissed this
difficulty by assuming either that Spinoza purposely mis-
represented his opponents in order to be able to refute them,
or that out of sheer ignorance he attributed to them views of
which they did not approve. But we preferred to believe that
Spinoza was both intellectually honest and accurately in-
formed. We therefore tried to find whether it would not
be possible for us to interpret his utterances in such a way
as would remove our difficulty. We made several vain at-
tempts, until we finally hit upon a possible distinction in the
use of the term "indivisible" and correspondingly in that of
the term "divisible." By assuming that Spinoza had used
these terms according to this new distinction which we in-
vented ad hoC) we were able to explain his statements about
his opponents in a fully satisfactory manner. We therefore
adopted this as a tentative hypothesis, for the truth of which
we had no evidence except the internal criterion of its worka-
bility. But then, after we had satisfied ourselves as to the
workability of our hypothesis, we began to ask ourselves
whether it would not be possible to find some external cor-
roboration of it in the form of a statement by some author,
mediaeval or ancient, where that distinction in the use of the
terms "indivisible" and "divisible" was made. After some
search, we found that this distinction in the use of the term
"indivisible" is made by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas. 1
Or, to take another illustration. In Spinoza's classification
of the stages of knowledge, we traced the history of the classi-
fication itself as well as of the terms used in it to Aristotle.
Then when Spinoza evaluates these orders of knowledge and
1 Cf. below, pp. 270, 282 ff.
30 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
says that "knowledge of the first kind alone is the cause of
falsity; knowledge of the second and third orders is neces-
sarily true" (Ethics, II, Prop. XLI), we likewise traced this
evaluation to Aristotle. But here we were faced with a diffi-
culty. Aristotle makes use of four terms, naturally in Greek.
Two of these terms correspond exactly to the two terms
which Spinoza describes elsewhere as the second and third
kinds of knowledge, but the other two terms used by Aris-
totle usually mean in Greek just the opposite of the two
Latin terms which are used by Spinoza in his first kind of
knowledge. But inasmuch as all the evidence pointed to this
Aristotelian origin of Spinoza's evaluation of knowledge, we
assumed that somewhere in the history of the transmission of
Aristotle's writings from the Greek into Latin the two terms
in question were somehow translated or interpreted in a sense
corresponding to the two terms used by Spinoza. Then, after
we had completed the chapter on the Stages of Knowledge, we
began to ask ourselves whether it would not be possible for
us to find some work accessible to Spinoza where that unusual
translation or interpretation of the two Aristotelian terms in
question actually occurred. After some search, we found that
in two Latin translations made from the Hebrew of Averroes'
Arabic Long Commentary on Aristotle's Analytica Posteriora
these two Aristotelian terms are translated exactly as they
are found in Spinoza. 1
And so in innumerable instances external corroborative
evidence was found for previously conceived conjectures.
This gave us a sense of assurance that it was not merely an
artificial structure that we were setting up for the Ethics, but
that to some extent we had succeeded in penetrating into the
mind of Spinoza and were able to see its workings, to sense its
1 Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 146, 151.
BEHIND THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 31
direction, to anticipate its movements, and to be guided to
its goal. In order to understand another we must completely
identify ourselves with that other, living through imagi-
natively his experience and thinking through rationally his
thoughts. There must be a union of minds, like the union of
our mind with the Active Intellect which the mediaevals
discuss as a possibility and of which Spinoza speaks as a
certainty.
CHAPTER II
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD
OF THE eleven works which bear the name of Spinoza as
author, two, the Ethics and the 'Tractatus ( Theologico~Politicus y
present his entire philosophy in its definitive form. The
Ethics treats of the philosophy of nature of God as the
whole of nature, and of man as a part of nature. The
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus treats of human society of
organized religion with its beliefs and traditions as embodied
in Scripture, and of organized government with its powers
and authority as embodied in established institutions. All
his other works, to the student of Spinoza's philosophy as
distinguished from the student of Spinoza's writings, are
only ancillary material, not to be studied by themselves but
in connection with his two major works. The Short 'Treatise
on God y Man, and His Well-Being (Korte Verhandeling van
God, de Mensch en des zelfs Welstand) is nothing but a tenta-
tive draft of that phase of Spinoza's philosophy which was
later completed and perfected in the Ethics. The Cogitata
Metaphysica is a summary of certain philosophic views of
scholastic origin, just as his Principia Philosophiae Car-
tesianae is, as described by Lodewijk Meyer and by Spinoza
himself, a summary of "the first and second parts of Des-
cartes' Principia Philosophiae , together with a fragment of
the third," T and if these two works are not to be altogether
disregarded by the student of the Ethics ', they may be con-
sidered only as introductory to it. The Tractatus de Intellec-
1 Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, Praef. (Opera, I, p. 131, 1. 24). Cf. Epistola
13 (Opera, IV, 11. 13-17). In his letter Spinoza does not mention the fragment of the
third part.
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 33
fus Emendatione in its present unfinished form may be con-
sidered as supplementary to the discussion of the problems
of knowledge and truth which occurs in Part II of the Ethics y
though from the outline of its plan which appears at the be-
ginning of this treatise it may be assumed that it was origi-
nally intended to deal also with the problem of the highest
good which is discussed at length in Parts IV and V of the
Ethics. The Compendium Grammatices Linguae Hebraeae
was probably intended for the use of those who would under-
take the study of the Hebrew Bible along the lines suggested
by Spinoza in his fractatus Theologico-Politicus, and the
Tractatus Politicus is nothing but an extension of the latter
part of the Tractatus 'Theologico-Politicus. His Epistolac^ of
course, do not constitute an independent work; and as for his
treatises on the Rainbow (Stelkonstige Reeckening van den
Regenboog) and the calculation of chances (Reeckening van
Kanssen), they have as much or as little to do with his main
philosophy as the woolens, linen, furniture, and silver which
were left by him at his death. 1
All these works of Spinoza, the writing of which, from the
first dated letter to the end of his life, cover a period of over
sixteen years/ are in pursuit of one purpose to bring to
its logical conclusion the reasoning of philosophers through-
out history in their effort to reduce the universe to a unified
and uniform whole governed by universal and unchangeable
laws. 3 That philosophers before him had fallen short of the
attainment of this purpose-- that they had broken up the
universe into discontinuous parts by positing a spiritual
1 For a list of these, sec "Invcntairc des bicns et des meublcs dclaisse"s par feu
le Seigneur Benedict de Spinoza," in A. J. Servaas van Rooijen, Inventaire des
Livres format) t la Bibhotheque de Benedict Spinozti (La Haye, 1889), pp. in -i 16.
3 \f t August, i 661-2 i February, 1677. His Short Treatise, however, may have
been written before that.
3 Cf. below, Vol. II, Chapter XXI.
34 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
God as distinct from a material world, and correspondingly
in man a spiritual soul as distinct from a material body,
with the resulting beliefs of design in nature and free will in
man was in his opinion due to a logical inconsistency in
their thinking. Already in his youth, when he first came out
in opposition to traditional belief, he had revealed the main
trends of his philosophic thinking. The heresies of which
he was accused are said to have been three that God is
corporeal, that angels do not exist, that the soul is identical
with life. 1 Interpreted, these heresies meant a denial of the
existence of an immaterial God as distinct from the material
world, of purely spiritual beings as distinct from material
beings, and of a soul as distinct from body, which in maturer
years gave expression to the principles that extension and
thought are attributes of God, that infinite modes which
in his philosophy were the successors of the Intelligences or
angels in mediaeval philosophy 2 are both of extension
and of thought, and that the soul is inseparable from the
body. As corollaries to these views he denied also design in
nature and freedom of will in man. These are the central
ideas which run through all his works and to establish which
he fights against his opponents with their own weapons,
using their own arguments and their own terminology and
confronting them with conclusions drawn from their own
premises. Whatever differences may be found between his
various works, they are only in the use of terminology, or
in the restatement of the views of others, or in the arguments
employed against those views. In his essential doctrines no
change or even development is to be noticed in all these
works.
1 Cf. A. Wolf, I'hf Oldest Biography of Spinoza (Lucas* La Vie dejeu Monsieur
df Spinoza), pp. 45-46 and 97-98.
2 Cf. below, pp. 2i8ff.
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 35
The titles which Spinoza gives his works are all descriptive
of their contents, and some of them are borrowed from, or
modelled after, the titles of well-known books. Such terms
as Opusculum, by which Spinoza refers to what we call the
Short Treatise,* and ^ractatus, by which he refers to two
of his other books, and such a combination as fheologico-
Politicus, were in common use. Thus, for instance, the short
treatises of Thomas Aquinas are each described as Opuscu-
lum, and the younger Buxtorf calls two of his works Tractates
de Punctorum . . . Origine . . . and Dissertationes Philo-
logico-Theologicae. His Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae 2
retains, of course, the title of Descartes' work upon which it
is based. The Cogitata Metaphysica is modelled after such
titles as the Dispi4tationes Metaphysicae of Suarez and
the Institutiones Metaphysicae of Burgersdijck. The word
"compendium" in his Compendium Grammatices Linguae
Hebraeae may have been suggested by the word "epitome"
in the elder BuxtorFs Epitome Grammaticae Hebraeae^
though in the latter case there was an obvious justification
for the use of the term "epitome," for the book was an
abridgement of his larger work entitled Thesaurus Gramma-
ticus Linguae Sanctae Hebraeae. The title of the Tractatus
de Intellectus Emendatione is evidently a paraphrase of Ibn
Gabirol's ethical work which translated into Latin would
read Tractatus de Animae Virtutum Emendatione* The title
Ethics naturally goes back to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.
Still, its use by Spinoza as the title of his chief work needs
some explanation.
According to its contents the Ethics may be divided into
three parts, corresponding to the three parts into which the
1 Epistola 6 (Opera, IV, p. 36, 1. 13).
3 Or, more accurately, Renati DCS Cartes Principiorum Philosophiae Pars /, etll.
* Sefer fikfan Middot ha-Nefesh.
36 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
Short Treatise is divided and which, according to a statement
by Meyer, must have been described by Spinoza himself
as De Deoy Anima rationali, summa hominis felicitate. 1 In
fact the original division of the Ethics into three parts, in
which the present Parts III, IV, and V are combined into
one, corresponded to this threefold division of the Short
Treatise. Now, in this original division of the Ethics, the
term "ethics" in its historical usage describes only the Third
Part, or rather the present last three parts, dealing as they
do with the emotions of the soul (Part III), virtue and vice
(Part IV), and human happiness (Part V). These are exactly
the topics which are dealt with in the Aristotelian work called
the Nicomachean Ethics. The Second Part of Spinoza's Ethics,
dealing with mind or the rational soul, is historically to be
described as psychology, and the First Part, dealing with
God, is historically to be described as theology, metaphysics,
or first philosophy. Furthermore, these three disciplines -
metaphysics, psychology, and ethics which form the sub-
ject-matter of Spinoza's Ethics fall, in the traditional classi-
fication of the sciences, under different headings. Kthics is
contrasted with both psychology and metaphysics as practi-
cal science with theoretical science. Again, psychology and
metaphysics, though belonging to the same type of science
called theoretical, are contrasted with each other in that
psychology is a subdivision of physics which differs from
metaphysics in its subject-matter/ The term "ethics,"
therefore, would seem not to be used quite accurately by
Spinoza as a description of the contents of his work called
by that name.
Spinoza, however, had ample justification for the use of
1 Cf. quotation from the Epilogus to his Philosophta S. Scripturaf hiterprcs;
Exercitatio Paradoxa t in Spinoza Opera y I, c Textgestaltung y p. 408.
3 Cf. Metaphysics, VI, i, 10263, 6-16. See below, Vol. II, p. 3.
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 37
the term "ethics" as the title of a book of which the greater
part consisted of metaphysics and psychology. The inclusion
of psychology under ethics was recommended by Aristotle
himself in his statement that the student of politics and
for that matter, we may say, also the student of ethics
must be a psychologist. 1 Furthermore, in mediaeval philoso-
phy, psychology, or at least the treatment of the higher
functions of the soul, was removed from physics and placed
under metaphysics. Thus the Ihwan al-Safa, 2 Bahya Ibn
Pakuda, 3 Judah ha-Levi, 4 Abraham Ibn Ezra, 5 and Shem-
Tob Falaquera, 6 in their enumeration of the topics of meta-
physics, include under it the science of the soul and the in-
tellect. Thus psychology, which originally was a branch of
physics, could very well be treated either under ethics or
under metaphysics.
But then metaphysics, too, during the Middle Ages, had
changed its position in the classification of the sciences. As
the first and the highest of the three branches of theoretical
science, it stood, in the original Aristotelian classification,
contrasted with ethics, which was the first of the three practi-
cal sciences, and, in accordance with the Aristotelian con-
ception of the superiority of the contemplative life to the
active life, it was superior to ethics. In the Middle Ages,
however, when the ethical writings of the pagan authors were
supplemented, and sometimes supplanted, by the revealed
Cf. Ntcomnchean Ethics^ I, 13, 1102:1, i8-iy. See below, Vol. II, pp. 181-182.
Cf. Kr. Dietcrici, Die Logik nnd Psychologic tier drabcr, p. 15; Arabic text:
Di Abhandlmigen der Ichiean Es-Saf y p. 251.
Cf. Ilobot ha-Lebabvt, Introduction.
Cf. CusariiV, 12.
Cf. Yesod Mora, I.
Cf. M. Steinschneider, Die hebraeischen Uebersetzungen des Mittelalters, 2,
quoting from De'ot ha-Pilusofim.
Cf. my "The Classification of Sciences in Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy," in
Hebrew Union College Jubilee Volume (1925), pp. 290 ff.
38 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
writings of religion, ethics sometimes becomes a part of
theology or metaphysics. Ethics is thus treated as a part of
theology by the Ihwan al-afa, 1 al-Mukammas, 2 and Bahya
Ibn Pakuda. 3 Furthermore, the relative importance of ethics
and metaphysics is sometimes also changed. Instead of
ethics being a prelude to metaphysics, metaphysics becomes
a prelude to ethics. Bahya Ibn Pakuda is especially explicit
on this point: " All the divisions of philosophy as determined
by the difference of their subject-matter are gates which
God has opened to rational beings through which they may
attain a knowledge of the Law and the world. . . . The
science which is more particularly necessary for the Law
is that which is regarded as the highest science, namely,
theology." 4 In his own ethical work, "The Duties of the
Heart" (Robot ha-Lebabof)^ Bahya gives a concrete example
of this view by placing his treatment of theological problems
at the beginning of his book as a sort of preamble to his sub-
sequent treatment of ethical problems.
It is thus not without precedent that Spinoza gives the
book in which he treats of metaphysics, psychology, and
ethics the general title of Ethics. By precedent he was quite
justified in subsuming psychology either under ethics or
under metaphysics, and to treat of metaphysics as merely a
prelude to ethics. That that was his purpose is quite evident
from the structure of the Ethics^ the last part of which, he
says, "concerns the method or way which leads to liberty" 5
"liberty" being one of the terms which Spinoza uses as
synonymous with "blessedness." 6
1 Cf. Fr. Dieterici, op. <:/'/., pp. 16-17; Arabic text, op. cit., pp. 252 253.
* Perush Sejcr Yezirah le-Rabbi Judah ben Barzilai (Berlin, 1885), p. 65.
3 Hobotha-Lebaboty Introduction.
< Ibid.
& Ethics, V, Praef. (Opera, II, p. 277, 11. 7-8).
6 Cf. below, Vol. II, p. 311.
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 39
As in the titles of his works, so also in the form in which
they are written Spinoza follows traditional patterns. With
the notable exception of the poetical form, in which such
philosophers as Parmenides, Cleanthes, Lucretius, Solomon
Ibn Gabirol, Dante, and Bruno expounded their philosophy,
Spinoza experimented with every literary form in which
philosophy throughout its history had been written. The
gnomic saying with which the philosophy of the Greeks and
the wisdom of Israel had made their beginning is represented
in many of Spinoza's propositions, especially those which
deal with human conduct, some of which read like verses
from the Book of Proverbs or like sayings from the Seven
Wise Men. The dialogue form used by Plato and the author
of the Book of Job and favored by such authors as Erigena,
Abelard, Solomon Ibn Gabirol, Judah ha-Levi, Leo Hebraeus,
Galileo, and Bruno is represented in the two Dialogues
which are inserted between the second and third chapters of
Part I of the Short "Treatise. Philosophy in the form of
exegeses of Scriptural passages which appears alike in the
Agadic Midrashim of the rabbis and in the writings of Philo,
from whom it passed on to the Christian Church Fathers,
and was used by Jews as well as by Christians throughout
the Middle Ages, and even up to the very time of Spinoza,
is the characteristic literary form of the theological part
of the Tractates Theologico-Pohticus. The autobiographical
method of philosophic writing such as we find in Descartes'
Discours de la Methode and in some of the works of other
philosophers before him is attempted by Spinoza at the be-
ginning of his Tractates de Intellectus Emendatione. The dis-
cussion of problems of philosophy in letters to correspondents
such as we find, for instance, in the writings of Cicero, Seneca,
Maimonides, and Descartes is represented in his Epistolae*
In addition to all these forms, Spinoza makes use of the geo-
4 o THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
metrical method in the Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae,
in the Appendix to the Short Treatise ', and in the Ethics. This
method, too, had its precedents.
What the external form of this literary method is may be
ascertained by a study of the form of Euclid's Elements^
which served as a model to all those who used the geometrical
method of demonstration in philosophy. The geometrical
method may be said to consist of the following parts: First,
the primary truths which form the premises in the demon-
strations are grouped together and placed apart from the
demonstrations as the first principles upon which the dem-
onstrations rest, and are divided into definitions, postulates,
and axioms or common notions. Second, that which is
sought to be demonstrated, that is, the conclusion which is
to be established by the demonstration, is summarized apart
from the demonstration in the form of a proposition. Third,
the demonstration itself reasons from the known, that is,
the first principles, to the unknown, that is, the conclusion.
Fourth, supplementary deductions, explanations, and propo-
sitions are given in theform of corollaries, scholia, and lemmas.
Now this method of demonstration, which is called geo-
metrical, because it is employed by Euclid in his work on
geometry, was also used in part or in whole in philosophy.
An example of one kind of partial application of the geo-
metrical method to philosophy is the reduction of philosophic
views to the form of propositions, which may be either fol-
lowed or not followed by demonstrations. This is to be
found in Porphyry's Sententiae ad Intelligibjlia Ducentes
('A</>opjuat wpos ret vorjra) and in Proclus' Imtitntio 'Theologica
(Sroix^oms #0X071/07). It is also to be found in almost every
mediaeval compendium of philosophy. Duns Scotus in his
fheoremata and Burgersdijck in his Institutiones Logicae even
designate these propositions by the Euclidian term "the-
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 41
orem." An imitation of this partial form of the geometrical
method is also to be discerned in Bruno, when he summarizes
the conclusions of his doctrine of the unity and simplicity of
God's being in a series of propositions. 1 In Jewish philosophy,
the twenty-six propositions at the beginning of Part II of
Maimonides' Moreh Nebukim y which summarize some of
Aristotle's physical and metaphysical principles and to
which commentators later added demonstrations, belong to
the same type of literary composition. Outside of the field
of philosophy and quite independently of Euclid's Elements^
propositions which may be described as geometrical are to
be found in various literatures. In Hebrew literature, this
form of proposition is characteristic of the Mishnah, which
contains a digest of the teachings of the Tannaim, legal as
well as ethical. So impressed was an anonymous early He-
brew author with the similarity between the Mishnaic form
and the form of geometrical propositions, with which he must
have become acquainted through Euclid, that his geometric
work written not later than the tenth century and perhaps as
early as the second century, consisting of a series of defini-
tions, constructions, and propositions without demonstra-
tions, is called by him the Mishnah of Geometry (Mishnat
ha-Middoi).
An example of another kind of partial application of the
geometrical method to philosophy may be found in the
identification of the syllogistic form of demonstration with
the Euclidian geometrical form or the transformation of one
into the other. Thus Aristotle's first argument against the
existence of a vacuum, 2 which is syllogistic in nature and is
restated by Crescas in the form of a hypothetico-disjunctive
1 DC Immenso, I, Ch. i r (Of era Latina, Vol. I, Pars I, Neapoli, 1879, pp. 242 ff.).
Cf. J. L. Mclntyre, Giordano Bruno, pp. 192 f.
2 Physics, IV, 8, 2i4b, 28-2 15a, 24.
42 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
syllogism, 1 is concluded by both Averroes and Crescas 2 with
the equivalent of the phrase quod erat demonstrandum with
which Euclid concludes his geometrical demonstrations.
The same Euclidian phrase is also used by Avicenna at the
conclusion of some of his own syllogistic arguments. 3 Con-
versely, too, Aristotle's arguments against the existence of
a circularly moving infinite body in De Caelo, I, 5-7, which
are obviously written in the form of geometrical demon-
strations and are restated by Averroes in the form of geo-
metrical demonstrations, are reduced by Crescas to the
syllogistic form. 4 The identification of the syllogistic method
of reasoning with the geometrical method is clearly indicated
by Saadia, who in his plea for the validity of logical inference
as a source of knowledge and for its application to matters
religious describes the conclusion arrived at by demonstrative
reasoning as that which is "geometrically demonstrated/' 5
Finally, in evident imitation of Euclid, we sometimes find
in philosophic demonstrations that the first principles upon
which the demonstration hinges are grouped together and
put apart from the demonstration itself in the form of a
series of propositions sometimes even called by the Euclidian
terms, definitions, postulates, and axioms or common no-
tions. Thus Maimonides introduces his restatement of the
Aristotelian proofs of the existence of God by a series of
twenty-six propositions upon which the proofs rest. Though
1 Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle ', pp. 141-143.
* Cf. tf /V/., p. 339, n. 24.
3 Cf. Avicenna's treatise on the soul published by S. Landauer under the title of
"Die Psychologic des Ibn Sina" in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen
Gescllschajt, 29 (1875), at tne enc ^ f Chs. i, 2, 3, and 9.
4 Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle , pp. 175 ff.
s Emunot we-Deot y Introduction: ^v-U^iT U ^U (p. 20), 1TT3JVP HD 'DJ
"TiytPTl rON^D!}. Cf. D. Neumark, "Saadya's Philosophy," in Essays in Jewish
Philosophy, p. 183, where the phrase used by Saadia is aptly translated by "in so
far as they are deduced more geometrico"
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 43
these twenty-six propositions, unlike Euclid's "first prin-
ciples," are themselves subject to demonstration, still they
are used in these proofs of the existence of God as the "first
principles'" are used by Euclid. Prior to Maimonides,
Bahya Ibn Pakuda, in his un-Aristotelian proof for the ex-
istence of God, similarly lays down three propositions,
which are again subject to proof but are used by him as first
principles, and then says: "And when these three proposi-
tions have been established, the conclusion will follow, to
him who knows how to use them and to join them together,
that the world has a creator/' l To "join them together" 2
may be taken here as a technical term meaning "to syl-
logize" (crv\\oyl$<yQai). A contemporary of Maimonides,
Alanus de Insulis or Nicolaus of Amiens, follows the same
method and gives still clearer indication that he is consciously
following the geometrical method. In his De Arte seu Arti-
culis Catholicae Fidei, before starting upon his main work,
which consists of a series of propositions, each followed by a
demonstration in syllogistic form, he lays down in the pro-
logue a number of definitions (descriptiones}* postulates
(petitioned) y and axioms (communes animi conceptiones)^ so
that the whole book assumes the geometrical form in its
completeness. A complete geometrical form is also used in
Liber de TrinitatCy which is falsely ascribed to Alanus. 5
Boethius in the preface to his Liber de Hebdomadibus defi-
nitely recommends the mathematical method as the method
to be followed also in other branches of learning. 6
' Hobot ha-Lebabot, I, 5. * U^" J (p- 43),
3 Cf. below, p. 1 60, n. i.
* Cf. Migne, Patrologia Latina, Vol. 210, Col. 597.
s Cf. Cl. Bacumker, "Handschriften zu den Werken des Alanus," in Philoso-
phise hes Jahrbuch, VI (1893), pp. 428-429.
6 Cf. M. Baumgartner, Die Philosophic des dlanus de Insulis (Miinster, 1896),
pp. 27-32; Ueberweg-Baumgartner, Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophic der
44 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
It was not without precedent, therefore, that one of
Descartes 1 objectors suggested to him to present his Medita-
tiones in the geometrical form, that Descartes himself made
an attempt at it, and that Spinoza attempted it in the Ap-
pendix to the Short Treatise, carried it out in full in his
Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae and Ethics, and wanted
to use it in his Hebrew Grammar. 1
Still, the geometrical method which with all his predeces-
sors was only a casual attempt, and which Descartes him-
self, who attempted it, explicitly characterized as a method
which "cannot so conveniently be applied to these meta-
physical matters/' 2 is adopted by Spinoza and used con-
sistently in his discussions of metaphysical matters through-
out his chief philosophic work. Mere imitation of his prede-
cessors cannot therefore explain his use of the geometrical
method. Some other explanation will have to be found for it.
Many students of Spinoza regard his use of the geometrical
method as a logical consequence of his mathematical way of
looking at things. One of his early biographers declares that
Spinoza had a " geometrical mind" (I* esprit geometre)* Erd-
mann says: " For no other reason than because it is a neces-
sary consequence of the mathematical way of looking at
things, the geometrical form of proof is of great significance,
even where the proofs themselves are insipid and marred by
inaccuracies.'' 4 Freudenthal maintains that "it was not
patristischen und scholastischen Zeit (loth cd., 1915), pp. 326-327. For other ex-
amples of attempts at the application of the geometrical method to philosophy,
mostly of the type described by us here as partial geometrical method, see S. Hahn,
Thomas Bradwardinus (Miinster, 1905), pp. 13-14.
1 Cf. Preface to Opera Posthuma quoted in Spinoza Opera, I, Textgestaltung^
p. 623.
2 Secundac Responsiones (Oeuvres, VII, p. 156, 11. 25-26).
* Pierre Bayle, Dictionaire Historique et Critique (ist ed., 1695-1697), under
"Spinoza (Benoit de)"; A. Wolf, The Oldest Biography of Spinoza, p. 160.
* Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophic^ II, 272.2 (English translation, II,
p. 58).
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 45
therefore a capricious notion, which might as well have been
dispensed with, that made Spinoza style his system Ethica
Ordine Geometrico Demons fraf a ^ on the contrary, the method
called for in the title follows from the inner necessity of his
thought/* 1 And Joachim concludes that "the form of
Spinoza's exposition is essential to its matter. He casts his
system in a geometrical mould, because the subject-matter,
as he conceives it, demands such treatment." 2
But let us consider all the facts in the case and see whether
there really is any ground for the assumption that the nature
of Spinoza's philosophy demanded that it should be written
in the geometrical form. The points which we shall try to
establish are as follows: (i) Both Descartes and Lodewijk
Meyer make a distinction between the geometrical method
of demonstration, which may be either synthetic or analytic,
and the geometrical form of literary exposition, which,
whether synthetic or analytic, is to be modelled after the
literary form of Euclid's Elements. (2) The geometrical
method of demonstration of the synthetic type is nothing but
valid syllogistic reasoning as practised throughout the his-
tory of philosophy. (3) The geometrical method of demon-
stration, whether synthetic or analytic, need not necessarily
be written in the geometrical literary form, and, conversely,
the use of the geometrical literary form is not determined by
the subject-matter of which it treats. (4) Spinoza's mathe-
matical way of looking at things means only the denial of
design in nature and freedom in man, and this need not
necessarily be written in the geometrical literary form.
The fullest discussion of the geometrical method is to be
found in Descartes Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii. Though
the phrase "geometrical method" in either two of its forms
1 Spinoza Leben und Lthre (ed. Gebhardt, 1927), II, pp. iio-ui.
2 A Study of 'the Ethics of Spinoza, p. 13.
46 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
ordine geometrico and more geometrico does not occur
there, Descartes openly advocates that "in our search for
the direct road towards truth we should busy ourselves with
no object about which we cannot attain a certitude equal
to that of the demonstrations of arithmetic and geometry." 1
This method, which by implication may be called the geo-
metrical method, is contrasted by him with " that method
of philosophizing which others have already discovered and
those weapons of the schoolmen, probable syllogisms, which
are so well suited for dialectical combats." 2 The contrast
between the old syllogistic method of the schoolmen and the
new geometrical method which he proposes is described as
follows: The former deals with "probable knowledge" * or
"probable opinion"; 4 its object is "dialectics" s and not the
attainment of truth; it had no utility save the solution of
empty problems. 6 The geometrical method, on the other
hand, he says, deals with "true and evident cognition," ^ its
object is the discovery of truth, and it is to be employed to
solve useful problems. This new geometrical method, he
then continues, is based on intuition and deduction. It
starts with premises which must be self-evidently true, and
it arrives at conclusions by the method of inference, pro-
ceeding logically from the known to the unknown. 8
In analyzing these statements of Descartes about the geo-
metrical method, we find that it is nothing but what Aristotle
would call a scientific demonstration. Descartes' insistence
that truth can be attained only by premises which are self-
evidently true and by deduction is nothing but a repetition
of Aristotle's theory that demonstrative reasoning as ex-
1 Regulae ad Dircctionem Ingenii, II (Oeuvres, X, p. 366, 11. 6-9).
3 Ibid., II (p. 363, 11. 21-24). 3 Md., II (p. 362, 11. 14-15).
* Ibid., II (p. 363, 11. 14-15). s IKd., II ( P . 363, 1. 23).
6 Ibid., IV (p. 373, 11. 26 ff.). i Ibid., II (p. 362, 1. 5).
8 Ibid., IX and XI.
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 47
pressed in any syllogism must start with premises which are
" true, primary, immediate, more known than, prior to, and
the cause of, the conclusion. " l Furthermore, if we study
carefully Descartes' language we shall notice that he does
not really contrast his own method with syllogisms in gen-
eral but with what he calls "probable syllogisms" or what
Aristotle would call a "dialectical (5taXe/crtAc6s) syllogism"
and a "contentious (epumfcAs) syllogism," 2 for Descartes'
"probable syllogisms" are syllogisms which consist of what
Aristotle calls probabilities (ret c^oa), and "probabilities,"
according to Aristotle, yield a "dialectical syllogism" and
a "contentious syllogism." 3 This is exactly what Descartes
means when, speaking of "probable syllogisms," he says that
they are so well suited for "contentions" (bellis) 4 or, as the
French version translates it, "dialectical combats" (combats
de la dialectique). 3 His geometrical method, as described by
him so far, is thus not contrasted by him with the syllogistic
method as such, but rather with the abuse of the syllogistic
method.
But as Descartes goes on he adds a new point to his con-
ception of the geometrical method. Ancient geometricians
were acquainted with two methods of proof, one by analysis
and the other by synthesis, though the proofs in Euclid's
Elements are of the synthetic type. Descartes refers to the
antiquity of the analytic method when he says: "Indeed I
seem to recognize certain traces of this true mathematics
in Pappus and Diophantus. . . . But my opinion is that
these writers then with a sort of low cunning, deplorable in-
1 Analytic a Posterior a, I, 2, 71 b, 21-22.
2 Topics, I, i, looa, 29-30, and loob, 23-24.
* Ibid., looa, 29-1 oob, 24.
* Regtilae ad Directionem Ingenii, II (Oeuvres, X, p. 363, 1. 23).
5 Regies pour la Direction de I* Esprit, II (Oeuvres de Descartes, ed. Cousin, XI,
p. 206).
48 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
deed, suppressed this knowledge." l These ancients, however,
performed their analyses of geometrical problems by means
of construction; Descartes performs them by means of alge-
braic calculations, the process of which is known as analyti-
cal geometry. By this change he extends the method of
analysis to everything within the realm of mathematics, or,
as he expresses himself, to any object in which "the question
of measurement arises." 2 This he calls "universal mathe-
matics." 3 But going still further, he applies the method of
analysis to the other sciences, thus making the knowledge of
all things mathematical. 4
From this analysis of Descartes* own conception of the
geometrical or mathematical method, it is quite clear that
he means by it only the method of demonstration itself and
not at all the literary form in which Euclid happens to couch
the demonstration. Whichever kind of demonstration of the
geometrical method is used, the synthetic or analytic, there
is no indication in anything Descartes says that it has to be
written in the form which Euclid employs in his Elements.
That the application of the geometrical method of demon-
stration to philosophic problems does not necessarily require
the use of the external literary form of the Euclidian geo-
metric propositions is still more evident from Descartes*
Secundae Responsiones.
In a reply to one of his objectors who counselled him to
propound the arguments of meditations in the geometrical
method (more geometrico}* he distinguishes in the "geo-
metrical mode of writing" (modo scribendi geometrico) two
things, namely, the order of proof and the method of proof
1 Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii, IV (Oeuvres, X, p. 376, 11. 21-26).
3 Ibid., IV (p. 378, II. 3-4).
3 Ibid., IV (p. 378, 11. 8-9).
4 /*/</., IV (p. 379, 11. 5 ff.).
s Secundae Objections (Oeuvres, VII, p. 128, 11. 13-17).
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 49
(ordinem scilicet, 6? rationem demonstrandi) . r As for the
"order of proof/' Descartes explains it, as he does in his
Regulae, as consisting " merely in putting forward those
things first that should be known without the aid of what
comes subsequently, and arranging all other matters so that
their proof depends solely on what precedes them." 2 This,
as we have shown, is nothing but a repetition of what is
generally considered to be true of any good syllogistic argu-
ment. The "method of proof" is described by Descartes,
again as in his Regulae, as being twofold. One is analytic;
the other is synthetic. The former reasons as it were a -priori,
from cause to effect; the latter reasons as it were a pos-
teriori, from effect to cause, 3 the latter being, however,
the only method employed by ancient geometers in their
writings. Now, in his Meditationes, says Descartes, in so
far as he tried to put forward those things first that should
be known without the aid of what comes subsequently, he
did certainly follow the geometrical order of proof. But he
admits that, unlike the ancient geometers who had employed
only the synthetic method of proof, he employed in his Medi-
tationes the analytic method, and he did so for the very good
reason that he did not believe that the synthetic method is
applicable to the discussion of metaphysical matters. For
the synthetic method of proof, he says, must start with cer-
tain presuppositions or " primary notions" (primae notiones)
which are granted by all. Now, in geometry there are cer-
tain primary notions which "harmonize with the use of our
senses, and are readily granted by all"; in metaphysics,
however, "nothing causes more trouble than the making
1 Sccundae Responsiones (Otuvres, VII, p. 155, 11. 8-10).
J Ibid. (p. 155,11. 11-14).
3 Ibid. (p. 155, 11. 23-24; p. 156, 11. 6-7). Cf. French version (Oeuvres, ed. Adam
and Tannery, IX, pp. 121-122).
50 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
the perception of its primary notions clear and distinct . . .
though in their own nature they are as intelligible as, or even
more intelligible than, those the geometricians study." l
"This is the reason," concludes Descartes, "why I used the
form of Meditations rather than that of Disputations [and
Questions], as do philosophers, or that of Theorems and
Problems, as do geometers." 2 Still, despite his explanation
of his preference for the analytic method over the synthetic
method, he appends at the end of his reply to the second ob-
jections "something in the synthetic style/' 3 as he de-
scribes it. This "something in the synthetic style" con-
sists of his "arguments demonstrating the existence of God
and the distinction between soul and body drawn up in geo-
metrical fashion/' 4 in which he begins like Euclid with a
series of Definitions, Postulates, and Axioms or Common
Notions, and then follows with Propositions each of which
is proved by a demonstration. 5
Here, then, as in his Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii y
Descartes makes it quite clear that by the geometrical
method in its primary and general sense he means nothing
but what Aristotle would call a scientific demonstration con-
sisting of premises which are self-evidently true and of a
conclusion deduced from those premises by logical inference.
Again as in his Regulae > the geometrical method is divided
by him into two types, the analytic and the synthetic. Now,
the analytic type of the geometrical method, we know, is as-
1 Ibid. (p. 156, 1. 2-p. 157, I. 10).
1 Ibid. (p. 157, 11. 17-19). Cf. French version (Oeuvres^ ed. Adam and Tannery,
IX, p. 123).
3 Ibid. (p. 159,11. 13-14).
< Ibid. (p. 160, 11. i ff.).
s It is to be noted that, unlike Descartes, Spinoza includes no Postulates among
the first principles which precede his propositions. Postulates are used by him,
however, between Props. 13 and 14 of Ethics, II (repeated in Ethics, III) and at
the beginning of Part III ofPrincipia Philosophiae Cartesianae.
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 51
sociated historically with a certain external literary form,
though Descartes makes no reference to it here. It is the
form in which the few relics of the analytic demonstrations
of the ancient geometricians and Descartes' own analytical
geometry are written. But this external literary form was
not essential, according to Descartes' own admission, to the
geometrical method of the analytic type. In Descartes' ap-
plication of this method to philosophical problems it took
the form, as he himself says, of meditations. The external
literary form of the synthetic type of the geometrical method
is likewise associated historically with certain external liter-
ary forms which are alluded to by Descartes himself. In
the past, he seems to say, it had taken two literary forms:
first, that of "Disputations [and Questions]," by which he
means the method used in the scholastic writings, and, sec-
ond, that of "Theorems and Problems," by which he means
the method used in Euclid's Elements. The inference to be
drawn from this statement, again, is that the Euclidian lit-
erary form is not essential to the synthetic geometrical
method when applied to philosophical problems, inasmuch as
the scholastic "Disputations and Questions" is another type
of literary form mentioned by Descartes as one which can
be used in the synthetic geometrical method of demonstra-
tion, though he himself, as a concession to his correspondent,
attempts to reduce a few of his philosophical arguments to
the Euclidian literary form.
The same distinction within geometrical method between
a method of demonstration and a method of literary exposi-
tion is to be found in Meyer's Preface to Spinoza's Principia
Philosophiae Carfesianae. He speaks there of the "wretched
plight of philosophy" (niiserimam Philosophiae fortem) 1
which finds itself without a proper method. The method in
1 Opera, I, p. 128, 11. 17-18.
52 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
vogue in the scholastic literature, which Descartes refers to
as "Disputations and Questions," is described by him as "a
method where the end is attained through definitions and
logical divisions which are indirectly connected with each
other and interspersed with numerous questions and ex-
planations.** I As against this he describes the new method
which was developed by those who were desirous to "leave
to posterity some studies besides mathematics established
with absolute certainty.** He refers to this method as the
"mathematical method** (methodo . . . mathematicd)? At first
it would seem that Meyer refers here to the Euclidian liter-
ary form. But as he proceeds and restates Descartes* words
in the Secundae Responsiones it becomes clear that he deals
here not with the geometrical literary form but rather with
the geometrical method of demonstration, which, following
Descartes, he divides into analytic and synthetic. Later,
speaking of the Euclidian literary form of demonstration, he
refers to it as "more Geometris" 3 But in the entire discus-
sion there is nothing to indicate that the application of the
geometrical literary form by Spinoza to Descartes* Principia
Philosophiae was the outgrowth of the mathematical method
of demonstration employed by Descartes. On the contrary,
the indications are that it was considered to be something
imposed upon it externally.
In Spinoza, beyond the mention of the fact that he has
reduced parts of Descartes' Principia Philosophiae to the
geometrical literary form 4 and references to its use in the
work which later came to be known as the Ethics * there is no
discussion of its nature as a method of demonstration. He
Ibid.) p. 127, 11. 24 ff.
Ibid., p. 128, 1. 21.
Ibid.^ p, 129, 1. 27.
Epistola 13 (Oeuvrts, IV, p. 63, 1. 13).
Epistola 2 (p. 8, 1. 15); cf. Epistola 3 (p. 10, 1. 7).
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 53
makes use, however, of certain mathematical analogies,
such indeed as are also to be found in the works of Descartes.
But in these mathematical analogies Spinoza goes much
further than Descartes. In Descartes the mathematical
analogies are used only as illustrations in his discussions of
the method of demonstration. In no way do these analogies
imply that Descartes conceived the universe as a whole to
be governed by laws of necessity like those which prevail in
mathematics. In his universe, according to his own state-
ments, there was still room for final causes, for a divine will,
and for human freedom. In Spinoza, on the other hand, the
mathematical analogies are used as illustrations of the exist-
ence of inexorable laws of necessity throughout nature.
Spinoza gives expression to this view when on several oc-
casions he declares that all things follow from the infinite
nature of God according to that same necessity by which it
follows from the essence of a triangle that its three angles are
equal to two right angles, 1 and when he declares that the
human race would have been kept in darkness to all eternity
with regard to final ends "if mathematics, which does not
deal with ends, but with the essence and properties of forms,
had not placed before us another rule of truth," 2 or, finally,
when in denying human freedom he declares, "I shall con-
sider human actions and appetites just as if I were consider-
ing lines, planes, or bodies." 3
It is these two principles the denial of final causes in
the universe and of freedom in human actions that
Spinoza wishes to illustrate by his use of mathematical
analogies. It is only this, and nothing more, that his mathe-
matical way of looking at things means. Beyond this, there
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 17, Schol.; II, Prop. 49, Schol.; IV, Prop. 57, Schol.; Cogitata
Mttaphysica, II, 9.
2 Ethics, I, Appendix (Opera, II, p. 79, 11. 32-34).
* Ibid., Ill, Praef. (end).
54 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
is nowhere any indication that he in any way connected his
use of the geometrical literary form with this his mathe-
matical way of looking at things, nor can there be any such
connection logically established on independent grounds.
On the contrary, the fact that his Short ^Treatise^ where his
mathematical way of looking at things is already fully devel-
oped, is not written in the geometrical literary form would
seem to indicate that the geometrical literary form was not
a logical consequence of his mathematical way of looking
at things. Furthermore, the fact that he had applied the
geometrical literary form to the philosophy of Descartes,
which does not look at things mathematically in Spinoza's
sense, would also seem to indicate that there is no logical
connection between the contents of a philosophy and the
particular literary form in which it is written. Finally, the
fact that Spinoza had intended to apply it to the grammar of
the Hebrew language would similarly seem to indicate that
there is no logical connection bteween the geometrical liter-
ary form and the subject-matter to which it is applied. The
thought that may occur to one that the planned application
of the geometrical form to the Hebrew grammar may some-
how be connected with a metaphysical conception of language
which students of Spinoza maintain to have detected in his
theory of the priority of nouns to adjectives and verbs in
the Hebrew language ' may be dismissed as a passing fancy.
Spinoza himself does not explicitly link his grammatical
view as to the relation of adjectives and verbs to nouns with
his metaphysical view as to the relation of modes to sub-
stance, and if he did ever link them at all in his mind,
1 Cf. Compendium Grammatices Linguae Hebraeae^ Chs. V and VIII; J. Bernays
in "Anhang" to C. Schaarschmidt, Des Cartes und Spinoza (Bonn, 1850), p. 197;
J. Freudenthal, Spinoza Leben und Lehrc (ed. Gebhardt, 1927), I, p. 291; N.
Forges, "Spinozas Compendium der hebriiischen Grammatik," in Chronicon
Spinozanum y IV (1924-1926), p. 146.
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 55
it must have been in the nature of a literary analogy. All
those who have attached a metaphysical significance to this
view of Spinoza have failed to notice the fact that an explicit
analogy between the relation of adjectives and verbs to nouns
and the relation of accidents to substance occurs also in the
philosophical grammar of Profiat Duran, 1 and yet no im-
plication of any metaphysical conception of language is to
be discerned there.
If, as we have been trying to show, there is no logical con-
nection between the substance of Spinoza's philosophy and
the form in which it is written, his choice of the Euclidian
geometrical form is to be explained on other grounds. Pri-
marily, we may say, the reason for its choice was pedagogical,
the clearness and distinctness with which the geometrical
form was believed to delineate the main features of an argu-
ment and to bring them into high relief. It was used for the
same reason that one uses outlines and diagrams. This
pedagogical reason for the application of the geometrical
form to philosophy is clearly stated by Descartes' objector,
when he suggested to Descartes the use of this form. He says:
"This is why it would be well worth the doing if, hard upon
your solution of the difficulties, you advanced as premises
certain definitions, postulates, and axioms, and thence drew
conclusions, conducting the whole proof by the geometrical
method, in the use of which you are so highly expert. Thus
would you cause each reader to have everything in his mind,
as it were, at a single glance, and to be penetrated through-
out with a sense of the Divine being." 2 Equally pedagogical
is the reason given by Meyer for the reduction of Descartes'
philosophy to the Euclidian geometrical form by Spinoza.
Conceiving the two types of geometrical method, the Euclid-
1 Maaseh EJod, Ch. 9.
1 Secundac Object! ones (Oeuvres y VII, p. 128, 11. 13-19).
56 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
ian synthetic and the Cartesian analytic, as mutually com-
plementary, the former as the method by which mathemati-
cal truths are " written down" (conscriptae) 1 and the latter
as the method by which they are " disco vered" (inventae)?
Meyer recommends the rewriting of Descartes* philosophy,
which was discovered by the analytic method, in the Euclid-
ian synthetic method, for the benefit of those who, having
read Descartes' philosophy in the non-geometrical form in
which it is written, "are not able to follow it for themselves,
nor can they teach it to others," 3 and also for the benefit of
the many who have made Descartes' opinions and dogmas
only a matter of memory and are unable to demonstrate
them and defend them against attacks. 4 It is thus always
for the benefit of the reader, and because of the clearness
with which it is supposed to state an argument, and not be-
cause the philosophic system itself demands it, that the geo-
metrical form is made use of.
But there may have been another reason which had
prompted philosophers at the time of Descartes and Spinoza
to turn to the use of the geometrical form. It may have been
as a reaction against the new literary forms which since the
Renaissance, under the influence of the works of ancient
writers, had been imported into philosophic writings, where
it had taken the place of the syllogistic style. The Renais-
sance philosophers had an aversion toward the syllogistic
method of the mediaevals, not so much on intellectual
grounds as on purely aesthetic grounds; not so much be-
cause the method itself could not be properly used in the
discovery of truth or because of the ease with which the
method could be abused and be made to lend itself to give a
semblance of proof to things which were not true as because
1 Opera, I, p. 129, 1. 16. a Ibid.
Ibid., p. 129, 1. 8. Ibid., p. 129, 11. 1 8 ff.
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 57
it was bare and bleak and skeleton-like. They were dissatis-
fied with syllogisms for the same reason that people are dis-
satisfied with food that is merely nourishment, with clothes
that are merely warm, or with a house that is merely a shelter.
The syllogistic method may have been practical and useful,
but it lacked form and was not pleasing to the eye and the
ear. They therefore began to experiment with new literary
forms, more polished, more refined, and more resonant
dialogues after the manner of Plato, poetry after the man-
ner of Lucretius, and rhetorical prose after the manner of
Cicero. But all these new literary forms proved a disappoint-
ment. Instead of merely garbing the logical nakedness of
the syllogism that logical syllogism which must inevitably
be implied in every sound argument they sometimes
served as a cloak to cover up the lack of any kind of logic
and reasoning. Philosophy became metaphorical and ef-
fusive. What was thus gained in grace was lost in accuracy
and precision. A new method in presenting philosophical
arguments was needed. To return to the old syllogistic
method openly and directly would have meant a return to
scholasticism, for which the world was not yet ready. They
therefore returned to it indirectly by adopting the geometri-
cal form. To the philosophers of the seventeenth century
the blessed word "mathematics" served as a veneer of
respectability for the discredited syllogism.
In the case of Spinoza there may have been still another
reason for his use of the geometrical form. It was in order
to avoid the need of arguing against opponents. The Ethics y
as we shall show, primarily consists of conclusions of an elabo-
rate criticism of traditional philosophy. Had Spinoza fol-
lowed the old traditional method, the method used by rabbis
and schoolmen alike, the comparatively small volume of the
Ethics would have run into many bulky tomes. That method
58 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
required that the various views held by opponents on each
problem should be stated, that the pros and cons for each
view should be reproduced, that refutations and rebuttals
should be marshalled, and that only then the author's own
view should be given and its superiority to those of others
pointed out. Spinoza, for reasons which can only be ex-
plained psychologically, did not want to go through all this
elaborate formality. In a letter to Oldenburg he says, "It
is not my custom to expose the errors of others," I and in
another place he expresses a reluctance "to seem to be de-
sirous of exposing the errors of others." 2 In still another
place he declares himself not to be bound "to discuss what
every one may dream." 3 By resorting to the use of the
geometrical form he could avoid all this, at least openly.
But Spinoza never meant to imply that by his use of the
geometrical form his philosophy, like the geometry of Euclid,
is the unfoldment of certain a priori self-evident truths. For
his axioms, properly understood, are not necessarily self-
evident truths, any more than his propositions are neces-
sarily new truths discovered by demonstration. Most often
they are merely restatements of generally accepted mediaeval
brocards. It will be noticed that the "Axioms" mentioned
in a letter from Oldenburg 4 and also in the geometric ap-
pendix to the Short treatise are called "Propositions" in
the Ethics ', for the terms "definitions," "axioms," "proposi-
tions," and their like are used by Spinoza more or less in-
discriminately as conventional labels to be pasted on here
and there in order to give to his work the external appear-
ance of a work of geometry. What the motives were that
prompted Spinoza to depart from the old form of exposition
1 Epistola 2 (Oeuvres, IV, p. 8, 11. 18-19).
2 Tractates de Intellects Emendatione, 95 (Opera, II, p. 34, 11. 31-32).
3 Ethics, II, Prop. 49, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 133, 1. 20).
* Epistola 3.
THE GEOMETRICAL METHOD 59
can be only conjectured, but among them there may have
been the desire to produce a book which externally would
be different from all other books on philosophy. He had
something new to say, and he wished to say it in a new way.
And ; >erhaps, also, he chose the geometrical form in order to
avoid the temptation of citing Scripture.
But still, the form in which the Ethics is written, we have
reason to believe, is not the form in which it formulated it-
self in the mind of Spinoza. He must at first have thought
out all its problems in their full detail after the manner of
the rabbis and scholastics, and only afterwards, when he came
to write them down, did he break them up into geometric
propositions. There is thus behind our present Ethics, dem-
onstrated in geometrical order, an Ethics demonstrated in
rabbinical and scholastic order, just as behind Descartes'
own fragmentary attempt to draw up his proofs of the ex-
istence of God and of the distinction between soul and body
in geometrical fashion are the corresponding parts of the
Meditationes, just as behind Spinoza's Principia Philoso-
ph'tae Cartesianae is Descartes* Principia Philosophiae, and
just as behind the geometric Appendix to Spinoza's own
Short Treatise is Chapter II of Part I of that book. Now,
Descartes himself admits that his geometric fragment does
not give the full content of the arguments as they are un-
folded in the Meditationes. "I should, however, like them
kindly to notice," he says, "that I have not cared to include
here so much as comes into my Meditations . . . nor shall
I explain in such accurate detail that which I do include." x
Spinoza similarly admits that the geometrical method might
not convey easily to all the readers what he had in his mind,
for in a Scholium, where he gives an outline of the topics
dealt with in a subsequent group of propositions, he says:
1 Sccundac Rf sponsions (Oeuvres, VII, p. 159, 11. 15-19).
60 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA
"Before, however, I begin to demonstrate these things by
our full geometrical method, I should like briefly to set
forth here these dictates of reason, in order that what I have
in jny mind about them may be easily comprehended by
all." l Imagine now that Descartes* Meditationes and Prin-
cipia Philosophiae and Chapter II of Spinoza's Short Treatise,
I, were lost, and only Descartes* own geometric fragrient,
and Spinoza's Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, and the
geometric Appendix to the Short Treatise were left. In that
case, to understand fully these extant geometrically wr.tten
works we should have to reconstruct the lost works upon
which they are based. Similarly, to understand our prejent
Ethics we must construct that hypothetical Ethics which
lies behind it.
But how are we to go about constructing that hypothetical
Ethics? The answer to this question has already been gr^en
in the preceding chapter where we have discussed the method
employed by us in the reconstruction of the reasoning that
lies behind the Ethics. We may now proceed to the actual
task of reconstruction.
1 Ethics, IV, Prop. 18, Schol.
CHAPTER III
DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE AND MODE
THERE are certain types of literature which are inseparably
associated in our minds with some sort of formal, conven-
tional beginning. We thus all expect a fairy tale to begin
with "Once upon a time," and a Christmas ballad with
"'Twas the night before Christmas/ 1 A Biblical narrative
always suggests to our mind the phrase "And it came to
pass/' and epic poems, from the Iliad to the latest parody,
begin with an invocation to the Muse. I suppose we should
all be sorely disappointed if we woke up some fine morning
to find that Caesar's Commentaries on (he Gallic Wars did not
begin with the familiar "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes
tres." Now, like fairy tales, and Christmas ballads, and
Caesar's Commentaries^ metaphysical treatises in the Middle
Ages as a rule set out on their philosophical investigation by
a statement which might be reduced to the following formula:
All Being is divided, etc.
The term "Being" which I have used here represents the
Arabic maujud* the Hebrew nimza, 2 and the Latin ens. All
these three terms are meant to reproduce the Greek TO o*>,
which is used by Aristotle as the main subject of his tenfold
division of categories. But at this point the mediaevals de-
part from Aristotle's method of procedure. They do not
say outright at the very beginning that Being is divided into
ten categories, and for the very good reason that they do not
seem to take the Aristotelian tenfold classification of cate-
62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
gories as does John Stuart Mill and others who have
criticized or ridiculed it to be a primary, logical, and ac-
curate classification of Being. In their opinion, it would
seem, when Aristotle wanted to be logical and accurate he
simply divided Being into substance and accident; its sub-
sequent subdivision into ten categories was meant to be
merely tentative and was by no means fixed. It is with the
logical division of Being into substance and accident, there-
fore, that the mediaevals mean to begin their metaphysical
investigation. But here, again, they do not exactly say that
outright. Instead of beginning directly with the statement
that all Being is divided into substance and accident, they
begin with a rather broader and more general statement, and
by gradual paring, whittling, and edging finally narrow it
down to the Aristotelian phraseology. Their opening state-
ment usually reads that all Being is divided into that which
dwells within a dwelling and that which does not dwell
within a dwelling. The term "dwelling" 1 is then investi-
gated, and a special kind of dwelling, named "subject," 2 is
differentiated from the others. At last the wished-for state-
ment is arrived at, namely, that all Being is divided into that
which is in itself and that which is in a subject, and the
former is given the name of substance whereas the latter is
given the name of accident. Thus the formula that everything
which exists is either in itself or in another thing occurs in the
writings of such philosophers as Joseph Ibn Zaddik, 3 Albo 4
*. Cf. my Crescas* Critique of Aristotle, p. 577.
2 K2713, fr JJPJA. viroKtlntvov. Cf. ibid.
3 'Qlam l^a\an^ I, ii (p. 8): "Every existing thing of the things which exist
inevitably falls under one of the following four classes: [a] It exists in itself, \f\ it
exists in another thing, [c] it exists neither in itself nor in another thing, or [d] it
exists both in itself and in another thing."
* 'Ibbarim, II, ii: "Things which exist are divided first into two classes, those
which exist in themselves and those which exist in other things."
PROP, i] DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE AND MODE 63
and Burgersdijck/ and the formula that everything is
either a substance or an accident occurs still more widely in
the writings of such philosophers as Alfarabi, 2 Algazali, 3 Abra-
ham Ibn Daud, 4 Jacob Anatolio, 5 and Burgersdijck. 6 A com-
bination of these two formulae occurs in Eustachius a Sancto
Paulo, who divides ens into ens per se and ens per accident, 1
though he does not use the expressions ens per se and ens per
accidens in the ordinary sense of substance and accident. 8
All these formulae may be traced to Aristotle's statement
that "some things can exist apart and some cannot, and it
is the former that are substances/' 9
This is how mediaeval thinkers begin their philosophy;
and this is how Spinoza would have begun his Ethics had he
chosen to write it more scholastico rabbinicoque. But as a
matter of fact, even in its present artificial, geometrical form
the Ethics begins with this statement, logically though not
spatially. It is contained in Axiom I, which reads: "Every-
thing which is, is either in itself or in another/'
When we come, however, to Spinoza's formal definition
of that thing which is in itself, labelled by the good old name
1 Institutioncs Metaphysicae, Lib. I, Cap. II, Thesis VIII: "Praetereadeprehen-
dimus Entia quaedam per se subsistere, alia non per se, sed in iis subsistere, quae
per se subsistunt."
2 Mehut ha-Nefesh, in Kdelmann's Hemdah Genuzah, I (p. 46): "Everything
which exists must inevitably be either a substance or an accident."
* Ma%a$id al-Falasifah, II, i (p. 79): "Existence is divided into substance and
accident."
4 Ernunah Rama/j, I, i (p. 4): "Things which exist are divided first into substance
and accident."
s Ruah Hen, Ch. 10: "All things which exist must inevitably be either sub-
stance or accident."
6 Institutiones Metaphysicae, Lib. II, Cap. I, Thesis III: "Itaque partiemur Ens
primo in substantiam et accidens."
7 Summa Philosophiae, IV: Metaphysica, Pars I, Posterior Disputatio, Quaestio
I: "Prima igitur divisio entis latissime sumti est in ens Rei, et ens Rationis: Secunda,
entis rei, in ens Per se et ens Per accidens."
8 Cf. ibid., Quaestio IV. 9 Metaphysics, XII, 5, loyob, 36-10713, i.
64 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETH!CS, i
" substance/' 1 and compare it with the mediaeval definition,
we find that while in part they read alike, Spinoza's defini-
tion contains a new additional element. The mediaeval
definition simply reads, as has been said, that substance is
that which is in itself, i.e., not in a subject. 2 But Spinoza adds
to "that which is not in itself" the statement "and is con-
ceived through itself" (Def. III). Again, the mediaeval defi-
nition of accident is that which is in another thing. 3 Here,
again, using the term "mode" (modus) which he identifies
with the affections (ajjectiones) 4 of substance, Spinoza first
defines it like the traditional accident as "that which is in
another thing," but then adds the clause "through which
also it is conceived " (Def. V) . Furthermore, why did Spinoza
reject the term "accident" (accidens) in his definitions at the
beginning of the First Part of the Ethics , and replace it by
the term "mode"? And why, too, did he not mention the
term "subject" in his definitions of substance and mode?
Shall we say that all these are matters of mere accident or
carelessness or indifference? This might pass as an explana-
tion if we considered the Ethics to be an accidentally, care-
lessly, and indifferently written book. But we are now work-
ing on the assumption that the Ethics is as careful a piece of
1 In one of his letters he speaks, however, of "substantia sive ens." Epistola 9
(Opera, IV, p. 44, 1. 17 and 1. 35).
2 Maka$id al-Falasifah y II, i (p. 82): "Substance is a term applied to every ex-
isting thing not in a subject"; Emunah Ramah, I, i (p. 4): "Substance is that
existing thing which is not in need of a subject"; Burgersdijck, Institutiones Meta-
physicae. Lib. II, Cap. I, Thesis IV: "Substantia est Ens per se subsistens. Per se
subsistens non excludit in hac defmitione dependentiam ab omnibus causis (nam
hoc sensu nullum Ens dici potest per se subsistere quam solus Deus) sed solum-
modo dependentiam a subjecto."
* Emunah Ramah> I, i (p. 4): "An accident is that which exists in [another]
thing"; Thomas Aquinas, Quaestiones Quodlibetales t Quodlibetum IX, Quaest. 3,
Art. 5, Ad Secundum: "Substantia est quod per se est; vel, accidens est quod est
in alio."
Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 193-194.
PROP, i] DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE AND MODE 65
writing even as the Elements of Euclid, where every term and
phrase and statement has been carefully thought out and
chosen, where every variation from what we may with right
consider his literary sources must be accounted for; and it
is to prove the accuracy of this assumption that is the main
burden of our present study.
The solution that would naturally suggest itself to the
reader, and one which is generally assumed by students of
the Ethics, is that Spinoza is following here not the mediaeval
authorities but rather Descartes. It is sometimes argued that
all the elements of Spinoza's conception of substance are to
be found in Descartes, for Descartes, too, considered sub-
stance not only as something existing by itself but also as
something conceived by itself. 1 However, the formal defini-
tion of substance given by Descartes in Principia Philoso-
phiae^ I, 51, to which Spinoza makes reference in his Cogltata
Metaphysica, I, i, describes substance only in terms of ex-
isting by itself, without any mention of its being also con-
ceived by itself, though Erdmann, in his exposition of Des-
cartes' definition of mode and substance, introduces from
other sources the distinction between "per aliud concipiun-
tur" and "per se concipiuntur." 2
Then also with regard to his use of the term " mode " instead
of "accident," it may again be traced to Descartes. In fact
Spinoza himself ascribes his division of Being into _u_hs-ta-
andjnade to Descartes. 3 Still, while it is true that the term
"mode" does occur in the passage of Descartes 4 referred to
by Spinoza, Descartes himself uses the term "accident" as
synonymous with <l mode" and the opposite of " substance." s
1 Cf. A. Leon, Les ftttments Cartesiens de la Doctrine Spinoziste, p. 85.
2 Cf. Grundriss der Geschichtc der Philosophic, II, 267.4.
3 Cogitata Metaphysica, II, 5. Cf. also I, i.
Principia Philosophiac, I, 48 and 49. Cf. also I, 56.
s Mcditationes, III (Ocuvres, VII, p. 40, 1. 15): "modos, sive accidentia."
66 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Why then did Spinoza restrict himself in the Ethics to the
use of the term "mode" after having used the term "acci-
dent" as the equivalent of "mode" in some of his other writ-
ings? l That his subsequent rejection of the term "accident"
is not unpremeditated may be gathered from the following
statement in the Cogitata Metaphysica, I, i: "In regard to
this, however, and I say it deliberately,(l wish it to be noted
that Being is divided into substance and modes and not into
substance and accident. 'V
The solution of these difficulties, therefore, seems to lie in
an entirely different direction. Spinoza, I think, was forced
to introduce this additional element in his definition of sub-
stance not so much because he differed from the mediaevals
in the definition of that term as because he differed from
them in the definition_of mode. As far as substance itself is
concerned, Spinoza's definition, as we shall presently see,
does not essentially differ from the mediaeval; he only re-
stricts its application by firmly insisting upon its rigid logical
meaning. It is only in his conception of modes that Spinoza
strikes out a line of his own;! his modes are entirely different
from Aristotelian jacoSents^ and it is mainly for this reason
that he discards the use of that term, and completely alters
its definition by omitting the term "subject." The thesis
which I am going to sustain, therefore, is that Spinoza's
definition of substance contains nothing new, that the addi-
tional element it contains was not unknown to the mediae-
vals, and that Spinoza introduced this additional element in
order to round up his definition of substance so as to make
1 Fpistola 4. In Short Treatise, Appendix I, Axiom i, the reading is either "toe-
vallen" (accidentia) or "wijzen" (modification es). See Opera, I, p. 114 and p. 603.
Cf. G. T. Richter, Spinozas philosophi sche Terminologie (Leipzig, 1913), p. 85, n. 507.
a Locke, too, substituted the term "mode" for "accident" (cf. Essay concern-
ing Human Understanding, II, 12, 3; 13, 19). Leibniz, in his criticism of Locke,
however, tries to reinstate the term "accident" (cf. Nouvtaux Essais, II, 13, 19).
PROP, i] DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE AND MODE 67
it read as the diametrical opposite of his entirely new defini-
tion of mode.
In mediaeval philosophy the definition of substance is im-
mediately followed by the classification of substances. As to
the method by which the different classes of substances are
deduced, something will be said in another connection. Suf-
fice it for the present that the mediaevals speak invariably
of four or five substances, including matter, form, concrete
object, soul, and the separate Intelligences r a classification
which the reader will recognize as a composite view made
up of several statements made by Aristotle. 2 All these sub-
stances belong to a class of being which is termed " the pos-
sible of existence,'* 3 with which is contrasted a single, unique
Being known as " the Necessary of Existence " 4 or God. The
relation between these two kinds of Being is that of cause
and effect. Now, generally speaking, it is the mediaeval
view that thd Necessary of Existence or God cannot be called
substancel even though He is in himself, for God cannot be
subsumed with other things under a general term. Char-
acteristic statements on this point are to be found in Alga-
zali, s Asher Crescas, 6 and Moses ha-Lavi. 7 But while this view
is generally admitted, it is still maintained by Augustine, 8
1 Cf. Makavd al-Falasijah y II, i (p. 82); Shahrastani, ed. Cureton, p. 365; cf. my
Crescas' Critique of Aristotle^ p. 575.
3 Cf. Metaphysics, VII, 10, io35a, i, and De Anima, II, i, 4123, 19.
3"inD, ->^^1 V^J- C( - Cogitata Metaphysica, I, i.
* t\talfa$id al-Falasifah, II, ii (p. 144): "Eleventh, that of Him who is necessary
of existence, just as it cannot be said that He is an accident so it cannot be said that
He is a substance."
6 Commentary on Moreh Nebukim^ I, 57 (2): "But He is neither a substance nor
an accident."
' Maamar Elohi: "It has already been demonstrated that He who is neces-
sary of existence does not come under the category of substance nor under any
of the other categories."
8 De Trinitate t VI, 5 (Migne, Patrologia Latina> Vol. 42, Col. 928).
68 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, r
Gersonides, 1 and Descartes 2 that God can be called sub-
stance provided only that He is understood to be a substance
unlike any other substance. Burgersdijck says explicitly
that substance is divided into God and created being. 3
In view of this application of the term "substance " to con-
crete objects, which must necessarily exist in some place, and
to form, which must necessarily exist in matter, and to soul,
which must reside in a body, a certain question naturally
arises in our mind. If at least three of the so-called sub-
stances in the Aristotelian classification always exist in some-
thing else, what, then, did the mediaevals mean when they
distinguished substance from accident as that which is in
itself and that which is in something else? Why should the
snub-nosedness of Socrates, for instance, be called accident,
on account of the existance of the snubness in Socrates' nose,
any more than Socrates' soul, which equally exists in his body ?
Or, why should the " redness" of a "red table" be called an
accident, on account of its existence in a table, any more than
the table itself, which must exist in some definite place, that
is to say, in some other body? For this is the implication of
space according to Aristotle's definition of the term. 1
The mediaevals were not unaware of the first-mentioned
difficulty, and they answered it as follows: An accident is
said to exist in something else as in a "subject," and to exist
in a subject means to exist in something without in any
1 Milhamot Adonai, III, 3 (p. 132]: "You must know that there are certain at-
tributes which must inevitably be attributed to God, as, for instance, the predica-
tion that God is substance, not that the term 'substance' is predicated of God and
other beings as a common genus but it is predicated of them stcundum prius tt
posterius." Ibid., V, iii, 12 (p. 280): "It can also be shown that God is more truth-
fully to be called substance than is any other being."
* Principia Philosophiac y I, 51.
* Institutiones Metaphysicae, Lib. II, Cap. I, Thesis II: " Et substantiam deindc
subdividas in Deum et creaturam," Cf. quotation above p. 64, n. 2.
< Physics, IV, 4.
PROP, i] DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE AND MODE 69
sense being the cause of the existence of that something.
Incarnate soul, therefore, unlike snub-nosedness, is called
substance because, while existing in the body, it is the cause
of the body's life, and for this very same reason is form called
substance, since it confers upon matter, in which it is, actual
existence. 1
I do not know whether the mediaevals have ever discussed
directly the second difficulty we have raised, but we can easily
answer it for them from their own point of view and out of
their own statements. To say that a concrete object exists
in something else, they would argue in the manner of Aristo-
tle, may mean two things, either as a body exists in place or
as a part exists in the whole. 2 Neither of these two kinds of
existence in something else, however, makes a thing an acci-
dent, for in both these cases the thing might also exist with-
out that something else. To exist in place, according to
Aristotle's definition of place, means to exist in another body,
from which the occupant might be removed, for one of the
essential characteristics of place is that it must be external
to the occupant. 3 Then, again, in the case of existing in the
whole as a part, the part can be removed from the whole, if
it is a discrete quantity; and the part will have to be a sub-
stance like the whole, if it is a continuous quantity. It is
only when a thing exists in something else as in a subject,
that is, when it cannot exist by itself without its subject,
that it is called accident. The mediaevals could have found
support for this distinction in the following passage of Aris-
totle: "I mean by a thing being in a subject (vTroKel^pov)
that which is in anything, not as a part, but so that it can-
not exist separately from that in which it is." 4 The red
1 Cf. my Crf seas' Critique of Aristotle, p. 573, n. 9.
1 Physics, IV, 3, 2ioa, 16 and 24; Metaphysics, V, 23, 10233, 14-17.
Physics, IV, 4, 21 1 a, i ff. < Categories, 2, la, 24-25.
yo THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
table, therefore, is a substance, because it can exist without
that particular place in which it happens to exist; the red-
ness, however, is an accident, because, as that particular
redness, it cannot exist without that particular table.
This is how, it appears to me, the mediaevals would have
justified to their own satisfaction their formal distinction
between substance and accident and their application of the
term "substance" to concrete things. But I can see how
Spinoza would have balked at such an explanation, and who-
ever has tried to approach the problems of philosophy by the
same road as Spinoza, and to traverse the ground trod by
that ex-pupil of the Teshibat l Ez llayyim of Amsterdam,
cannot help feeling that these were the problems that passed
through his mind before he broke ground for the foundation
of his new system. He would have argued against them
somewhat as follows: It is true that concrete objects may
be removed from the particular place in which they happen
to be; still they cannot be removed from space in general.
Everything in the universe must exist in space, which, as
has been said before, means in another body. This is an
Aristotelian principle which the mediaevals professed to
follow. Aristotle says something to the effect that all things
are in heaven (oupa^w), 1 by which he does not mean the theo-
logical heaven to which martyrs and saints and others with
proper introductions are admitted to enjoy a life of eternal
bliss and beatitude. What he means is that the universe,
which is finite, is all-surrounded by a sphere, which is the
outermost of a series of concentric spheres, within which all
things exist as in space. Consequently, if everything within
the universe is thus within something else, namely, within
the outermost sphere, and if a substance must be in itself,
then nothing within the universe can be a substance. Or,
1 Cf. Physics, IV, 2, 2cx)a, 33; IV, 4, 21 la, 24.
PROP, i] DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE AND MODE 71
in other words, the red table can no more be a substance
than the redness.
It is reasoning like this, if not exactly this very same
reasoning, that must have led Spinoza to reject the mediaeval
distinction between substance and accident, and the artificial
distinction of existing in something else and existing in a sub-
ject. Everything that is in something else in any sense or
manner, he seems to say, cannot be a substance. "That there
is no such thing as a finite substance" is the starting point of
his philosophy, and indeed it is the statement with which he
begins his investigation of "What God Is," in his Short Trea-
tise J which is a kind of Urethik. It is a challenge hurled at all
the mediaeval philosophers, ulemas, rabbis, and schoolmen
alike, for they were all nursed by the same mother and fed
from the same source. It denies the application of the term
"substance" to finite things within the universe. Thus in one
of his Dialogues, Reason, addressing Desire, says: "What
you say, O Desire, that there are different substances, that, I
tell you, is false; for I see clearly that there is but One, which
exists through itself, and is a support to all other attributes.
And if you will refer to the material and the mental as sub-
stances, in relation to the modes which are dependent upon
them, why then, you must also call them modes in relation to
the substance on which they depend." 2 Note that he does
not reject the generally accepted definition of substance; on
the contrary, he insists upon its rigid application. Only that
which is really and absolutely in itself can be called sub-
stance, and so only that which is called the Necessary of
Existence or God can be truly called substance. All the other
things which belong to the so-called possible of existence are
not substances; they are what the mediaevals would have
called accidents, but which Spinoza prefers to call by a new
1 I, 2. a Short Treatise, I, First Dialogue, 9.
72 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
name, modes, seeing that they are not exactly what is gen-
erally meant by accident. He confines the term "accident"
to one of its more specific usages, and distinguishes it from
mode as follows: "For accident is nothing but a mode of
thought and exists only in regard to this [whereas mode is a
real being]. For example, when I say that a triangle is moved,
the motion is a mode not of the triangle but of the body
moved. Therefore, in respect to the triangle, motion is only
an accident, but in respect to the body, it is real being or
mode; for motion cannot be conceived without a body, but
it may without a triangle." '
If our account of the processes of Spinoza's mind thus far
is right, we can readily see how at this point, with his re-
jection of finite substances and with his restricting the term
"substance" to God alone, Spinoza was confronted with a
perplexing problem. How should he define those discarded
substances which he has renamed modes? As for his real
substance, he could very well retain the old definition, being
in itself, for God indeed is in himself. But could he just
as well say of mode that it is that which is in something else?
Spinoza could have used that definition if he had retained
Aristotle's conception of a finite universe, bounded from
without by an all-surrounding sphere, for then indeed all
modes would have been within something else. But believ-
ing as Spinoza did in an infinite universe he could not natu-
rally speak of modes as existing in something else, by this
meaning Aristotle's space. Nor, again, could he say that
they existed in a "subject," for the term "subject" to him
has no meaning at all. And yet, if substance is to be defined
as that which exists in itself, mode will, of course, have to
be defined as that which exists in something else. But what
might that something else be if it is not space nor subject?
1 Cogitata Metaphysica t I, i.
PROP, i] DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE AND MODE 73
If we were justified in penetrating thus far behind the
uttered statements of Spinoza in unfolding the hidden argu-
ments that lie beneath them, we may be allowed to proceed
a little further with the same method and to go through the
slow paces of this imaginary tentative reasoning of his until
we arrive at a happy conclusion. We can clearly see how
Spinoza, in his groping for a new differentiation between
substance and mode, would at first strike upon the other
sense in which, according to Aristotle, a thing is said to be in
something else, namely, as a part in the whole. 1 Substance is
thus the whole which exists in itself, whereas mode is the
part which exists in something else. Here at last we have
arrived at a term with which we so often meet in works
on Spinoza. But to Spinoza's mind, steeped in mediaeval
philosophic lore as it undoubtedly was and trained as it also
was in its rigorous logical discipline, the term "whole'*
would need further explanation. For there are several kinds
of wholes, 2 and which of these, he would ask himself, should
he say is substance? The kind of whole that would probably
first suggest itself to him as the most applicable in the case
in question would be that of a physical quantitative whole,
for if substance is simply the whole of the modes it is nothing
but the universe, and the universe to Spinoza as to the medi-
aevals is something physical and quantitative. But such a
conception of substance as merely the aggregate sum of the
modes is contrary to all the uttered statements of Spinoza.
To Spinoza's mediaeval mode of thinking the difficulty of
such a conception of substance would appear in the following
manner. A quantitative whole must be either discrete, con-
sisting of heterogeneous parts, or continuous, consisting of
homogeneous parts. Substance, however, could be neither
1 Cf. Physics, IV, 3, 2ioa, 16. See also Short Treatise, I, First Dialogue.
1 Metaphysics, V, 25.
74 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
of these. It could not be a discrete quantitative whole, be-
cause the modes, if their nature is to be judged by the two
known modes, are each continuous. Even extension is con-
tinuous, for Spinoza was an Aristotelian, believing in the
continuity of matter. He was no atomist, and for this we
have ample evidence in his discussion of infinity. 1 As for
the second alternative, there is nothing contradictory in it-
self in saying that substance is a continuous quantitative
whole, for it is not impossible that Spinoza conceived a con-
tinuity between extension and thought. Still Spinoza would
reject this conception. For if substance were only the ag-
gregate sum of modes, how could one insist upon the unity
and simplicity of substance without thereby declaring the
differences between modes a mere illusion ? To such a view
Spinoza could by no means subscribe, for he was no mystic,
no idealist of the kind to whom everything that kicks and
knocks and resists is unreal. He was, many views to the
contrary notwithstanding, a hard-headed, clear-minded em-
piricist, like most of the mediaevals and like Aristotle.
Spinoza will thus take a final step and declare that sub-
stance is a whole which exists over and above and beyond
the sum of the modes, and saying this he will rest his case.
This may sound alarming and tantalizing, and it may also
appear as wholly inconsistent with what we have been ac-
customed to understand by Spinoza's repeated assertion
that God is an immanent cause and not a transeunt cause.
But we shall see in a subsequent chapter that the term "im-
manence" as used by Spinoza in its application to substance
is not contradictory to the term " transcendence" in its origi-
nal meaning of being more general. Quite the contrary, the
immanence of Spinoza's substance is a transcendent im-
manence. 2 Spinoza's substance is thus a whole transcending
1 See Epistola 12. Cf. below, Chapter VIII. 2 Cf. below, pp. 323 ff.
PROP, i] DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE AND MODE 75
the universe, the latter being the sum of the modes, and the
relation of substance to the universe is conceived by him
after the manner of the relation of the whole to the part, the
whole in this particular case being a universal of a special
kind, a real universal, as distinguished from the attributes
which are only nominal universals. 1 By the same token,
when Spinoza speaks of the modes as existing in another
thing (in alio) he means that the modes, individually or in
their aggregate totality, exist in substance in the same sense
as when Aristotle says that " the ringer is in the hand and
generally the part in the whole/* 2 and that "man is in
animal and generally species in genus/* 3
The term "universal," however, carries associations which
would be only confusing in its use in connection with Spinoza.
Aristotle himself would have simply spoken of genus and
species. In Arabic and Hebrew literature philosophers also
speak of genus and species rather than of universals, though
the latter term is not altogether unknown. 4 It is also signifi-
cant that the famous passage in Porphyry's Isagoge s to which
legendary history assigns the origin of the problem of uni-
versals, just as grammar-school readers assign to the falling
apple the origin of Newton's laws of motion even that
passage speaks of genera and species rather than of univer-
sals. Spinoza himself, though he makes use of the term "uni-
versal** quite frequently, says in one place: "Hence the
fixed and eternal things . . . will be like universals to us, or,
so to speak, the genera of the definitions of individual mutable
things.'* 6 We shall therefore use here the term "genus,**
and describe Spinoza's conception of the relation between
1 Cf. below, pp. 327-328.
a Physics, IV, 3, 21 oa, 15-16.
3 Ibid., 2ioa, 1 8.
Moreh Nebukim, I, 51. Ch. I.
6 fractatus de Intellectus Emendatione, 101 (Opera, I, p. 37, 11. 5-8).
76 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
mode and substance as that between the individual essence
and its genus.
We now come to the last step in our argument. In Aris-
totelian logic, universal terms like " genus " and "species"
perform certain functions in the formation of concepts. They
are the elements, or rather the causes, in the terms of which
the individual essence of a thing, the "what" of it, can be
conceived. They form its definition. Man is thus conceived
through his genus "animal" and his species "rational," and
he is thus also defined by the combination of these two terms.
And so everything that is in something else, as an individual
in its genus, may be thus said to be conceived by that some-
thing else. This is what Spinoza means by his definition of
mode as " that which is in another thing through which also
it is conceived"; that is to say, it is in another thing in the
sense that it is conceived through it, namely, as the individual
in its genus. Substance, on the contrary, "is in itself" abso-
lutely, and "is conceived through itself," inasmuch as it is a
summum genus. But to be conceived through itself is really
a negation. It does not mean anything positively. All it
means is that it cannot be conceived through anything else.
This is the significance of Axiom II, which reads: "That
which cannot be conceived through another must be con-
ceived through itself." The emphasis is that to be conceived
through itself merely means not to be conceived through
something else. The implication therefore is that Spinoza's
substance is inconceivable, and its essence undefinable and
hence unknowable. 1
Thus the mediaeval definition of the term "substance"
has not undergone any change in Spinoza, though its appli-
cation was restricted only to God. It is still defined as that
which is in itself. Even the additional fact of its being a
1 Cf. below, p. 142.
PROP, i] DEFINITION OF SUBSTANCE AND MODE 77
summum genus, undefinable and unknowable, is not new; it
is a mediaeval commonplace. That unique substance, God,
was thus conceived throughout the Middle Ages among
rational theologians. Says Maimonides, and he by no means
stands alone in the views he is about to utter, for passages
like these can be gathered at random from many a book:
"There is no possibility of obtaining a knowledge of the es-
sence of God.'* r Again he says: "The object is described
by its definition, as, for example, man is described as a being
that lives and has reason. . . . All agree that this kind of
description cannot be given of God; for there are no previous
causes to His existence, by which He could be defined: and
on that account it is a well-known principle, accepted by all
philosophers, who are precise in their statements, that no
definition can be given of God." 2
That the something else in which the modes are is sub-
stance and that mode is related to substance as the individual
essence to its genus is clearly set forth by Spinoza in Proposi-
tion I. The proposition affirms the priority of substance to its
affections, i.e. modes, 3 which is a truly Aristotelian principle,
for the genus, according to him, is prior to, and better known
than, the individual. 4 But of particular interest is the ex-
pression "prior in nature" (prior est natura) used by Spinoza.
In Aristotle, the expression "prior in nature" (irpbrepov rf;
<t>v(Ti) is used in two senses: first, in the sense of better and
more excellent, and second, in the sense of being the cause
of something. 5 In the latter sense it is very often used in
Arabic and Hebrew as well as in Latin philosophic literature.
But we find that the expression has acquired in the Middle
Ages an additional meaning, namely, as the more universal
1 Moreh Nebukim, I, 59. 2 Ibid., I, 52.
3 Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 193-194. 4 Topics, VI, 4, i4ia, 26 ff.
5 Categories, 12, 14!), 4 ff.
78 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
to the less universal, as, for example, animality is prior in
nature to humanity. 1 This seems to be nothing but a legiti-
mate extension of its use in the sense of "cause/* for the
genus is considered by Aristotle as the cause of the indi-
vidual essence. 2 Or it may also reflect Aristotle's statement
that the whole is prior in nature to the parts. 3 Spinoza thus
rightly says that "substance is prior in its nature to its af-
fections" (Prop. I).
1 Maba$id al-Falasifah, II, i (p. 119): "With regard to [prior] in nature, as when
we say, for instance, animality is prior to humanity."
Millot ha-Higgayon, Ch. 12: "Second, prior in nature, as, for instance, animal
is prior to man."
Ruah Jfen, Ch. 8: "In the same way you say that animals are prior in nature to
the human species."
Duns Scotus, Qiiaestiones in Quatuor Libros Sententiarum^ Lib. II, Dist. 1,
Quaest. 2, No. 3: "Hie dicit Doctor quod prius natura potest dupliciter accipi.
Primo positive . . . sicut est de animali et rationali in homine, quia prius natura
positive animal praecedit rationale."
a Analytica Posteriori, II, 2, 903, 31.
3 Politics, I, 2, 12533, 19-20.
CHAPTER IV
UNITY OF SUBSTANCE
I
IN HIS definition of substance we have seen how Spinoza,
reasoning from the mediaeval definition of the term, has ar-
rived at the conclusion that conditional being can in no sense
whatever be called substance. The term is to be applied only
to Necessary Being, or God. With this as a starting point,
Spinoza now proceeds, in the First Part of the Ethics ', to de-
scribe the properties of substance, beginning in Propositions
II-VI with a discussion of its unity, which in manner of
treatment, as we shall endeavor to show, runs along the line
of the mediaeval discussions of the unity of God.
It is philosophic dualism of which Spinoza's discussion of
the unity of substance is aimed to be a refutation, just as
theological dualism was the target of mediaeval discussions
of the unity of God. The philosophy against which Spinoza
took the field, starting with the Aristotelian distinction of
matter and form, passed through a hierarchy of beings until
it ultimately arrived, again like Aristotle, at a being, unique
and absolute, who is pure form. In this philosophy, it may
be said, there is to be discerned a twofold dualism. Not only
did it posit in the world itself a duality of matter and form,
or, as it was better known in the fashionable philosophy of
Spinoza's own time, of extension and thought, but it also
maintained the duality of a material, multifarious, change-
able world and an immaterial, simple, immutable God, who is
pure form, whose essence is thought, and whose activity is
thinking. Matter and form, in the traditional terminology,
8o THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
are two substances, which combined form all concrete beings,
which are also called substances; and by the extension of the
term "substance/' for which he had several precedents, 1
Spinoza speaks of the mediaeval contrast between God and
the world again as a contrast between two substances. It
is upon this latter phase of dualism, the existence of an im-
material God over against a material world, that Spinoza is
warring whenever we find him contending against the ex-
istence of two substances, in the Ethics as well as in the Short
'Treatise.
The object of Spinoza's criticism of this kind of dualism
is not to abolish the materiality of the world, but rather to
abolish the immateriality of God. He will endeavor to show
that the assumption of an absolutely immaterial God is
incompatible with the relation which the mediaevals as-
sumed to obtain between God and the world, namely that
of cause and effect. He will thus introduce into his discus-
sion of the unity of substance the problem of creation the
first serious problem, it might be said, which the mediae-
val religious thinkers encountered when they attempted to
identify the Aristotelian pure form, a mere logical concept,
with the personal God of tradition, and to use it as a working
hypothesis to explain the origin of a created world as well
as its governance. The difficulties of the theory of creation,
of which the mediaevals were not unaware, were many and
varied, all arising out of the conception of God as an imma-
terial, simple, and immutable being, combined with the Neo-
platonic principle that "a simple element can produce only
a simple thing." 2 Spinoza will hardly bring out new diffi-
culties which have not already been thought of and fully
discussed and answered by the mediaevals themselves, but
he will insist that their answers are a kind of special pleading
1 See above, pp. 67-68. a Moreh Nebukim, II, 22.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 81
which really does not solve the problem. Had the Ethics
been written more scholastico rabbinicoque^ Spinoza would
have prefaced his argument in Propositions II-VI with
words to the following effect: We shall now proceed to dem-
onstrate that there is no God distinguished from the world
after the manner of two substances, one spiritual and the
other material. For to posit such a God would involve us
in all the difficulties which you have yourselves noticed in
the problem of creation, and from which, despite all your
efforts, you have not been able to extricate yourselves com-
pletely. We shall see that, even in their present form, these
five propositions contain a clear-cut, single, consecutive
argument which in its external, logical outline is modelled
after the mediaeval reasoning against the hypothesis of two
deities and which substantially embodies the principal
mediaeval arguments against creation.
To the mind of Spinoza, it would seem, the widely scattered
mediaeval discussions of the problem of the unity of God l
presented themselves in the form of a hypothetico-disjunc-
tive syllogism. If there were two gods, either they would
have to be absolutely unrelated to each other or there would
have to be some kind of relation between them. He could
clearly see why the mediaevals would have rejected both
these alternatives as untenable. Two unrelated gods would
imply the existence of two independent worlds, for in one
world there could be no adequate division of labor between
them; and two unrelated gods would contradict the very
conception of God as something absolutely unrelated. To
1 Spinoza discusses the problem of the unity of God directly in Cogitata Meta-
physica, II, 2. He reproduces there two arguments which he characterizes as futile.
Both these arguments are taken directly from Burgerdijck's Institutiones Meta-
physicae. Lib. I, Cap. VI, but are also found in Emunot we-De'ot y II, i and 2, and in
(lo&ot ha-Lebabot, I, 7, First and Third Arguments. Cf. Freudenthal, "Spinoza und
die Scholastik," in Philosophische Aujs&tze> Eduard Zeller . . . gewidmet^ p. in.
82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
assume such a formulation of the problem in the mind of
Spinoza is nothing but to rearrange the mediaeval discus-
sions and weld them into one composite argument.
God to the mediaevals meant the God of a world. Their
conception of God, which was the hybrid product of the
joining together of the Aristotelian logical principle of prime
mover, or first cause, with the Biblical ethical teaching of
a creator and supreme ruler, has derived from both these
sources its main characteristic feature as that of cause and
creator. A cause and creator, however these terms may have
become attenuated, must of necessity be the cause and cre-
ator of something. God's thinking, which constitutes His
sole activity, must either by necessity or by design objec-
tify itself in a world at a certain stage in the process of
emanation. An idle, quiescent, passive God, a God who
has no world to operate upon, would be an impotent God
and an object of commiseration and pity, as the hero of
Chamisso's story who was without a shadow. It therefore
follows that, granting two absolutely independent deities,
there would have to be two absolutely independent worlds.
But the existence of more than one world was generally
agreed to be impossible. For this there was the overwhelming
authority of Aristotle, who with an impressive array of argu-
ments had shown in the latter part of the First Book of De
Caelo (Chs. VIII-IX) that the existence of many worlds was
impossible. It would thus be necessary first to establish the
possibility of many worlds before it could be assumed that
there was more than one God; and, in fact, Crescas, in his
attempt to expose the flimsiness of the philosophic proofs
for the unity of God, attacks the problem from that very
angle, showing that the existence of more than one world is
not impossible. 1
1 Or Adonai, I, ii, 15 and 19. Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, p. 217 and
pp. 472 ff., n. 127.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 83
Since there must be only one world, within that only
world, the argument would proceed, two absolutely inde-
pendent and absolutely unrelated deities could not be con-
ceived to exist and at the same time be active. "A duality
could only be imagined in this way, either that at one time
the one deity is active, the other at another time, or that
both act simultaneously, nothing being done except by both
together." ' But either of these arrangements would be
inconsistent with the absolute independence and omnipo-
tence and self-sufficiency of the deities. To say that the two
deities act each independently in their own spheres is likewise
impossible, for "the whole existing world is one organic
body, all parts of which are connected together. . . . Hence
it is impossible to assume that one deity is engaged in form-
ing one part, and another deity in forming another part, of
that organic body of which all parts are closely connected
together." 2 Here, again, Crescas tries to disprove the philo-
sophic proof for unity by suggesting a possibility, with what
success does not concern us here, of an adequate division of
labor between two gods within this organic world. 3
If two absolutely mutually independent deities are impossi-
ble, the mediaevals would then consider the case of two dei-
ties having something in common. Such deities, however,
could not properly be called two unless in addition to their
possessing something in common they also possessed some-
thing in which they differed. But what would that something
be in which they differed? Usually in things which are said
to have something in common and something in which they
differ the identity implied is that of a common genus and the
diversity is that of a specific difference, or the identity is
that of a common species and the diversity is that of an in-
dividual difference, such as accidental qualities. It is for
' March Nfbukim, II, i. * Ibid.
3 Or Adonai^ I, ii, 19.
84 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
this reason that bodiless spiritual beings, between which there
is no generic or specific or individual difference, cannot be
counted. " Whatsoever is not a body does not admit of the
idea of number except it be a force in a body, for then the
individual forces may be numbered together with the mat-
ters or subjects in which they exist." l If two deities there- >
fore existed, having something in common and something in
which they differed, they would have to possess the meta-
physical distinction of genus and species, or, still worse,
they would have to possess physical qualities. Both these
are contrary to the very nature of God, who must be abso-
lutely simple and indivisible. The argument is stated as
follows: "We say to him who believes that there is more
than one God that the essence of the two gods must inevi-
tably be one or more than one. If he says the essence is one,
then the thing is one, and there is not more than one Crea-
tor; and if he says that the essence of the one deity is unlike
that of the other, then it would be necessary to posit a cer-
tain difference between them/' 2
There is only one way, the mediaevals would conclude, in
which purely immaterial beings can be counted, and that is
when they are related to each other as cause and effect. Such
is the case of the Intelligences which preside over the spheres.
Though immaterial, still they are numbered, their number
corresponding to that of the spheres. 3 The basis for their
number, according to the view held by Avicenna, is that in
the process of emanation they proceed in succession from one
another, thus being the cause of one another. "It follows,
therefore, that separate beings, which are neither bodies nor
forces in bodies, do not admit of any idea of number except
1 Moreh Nebukim y II, Introduction, Prop. 16.
3 Hobot ha-Lebabot y I, 7 (4). Cf. Emunot we-De'ot, II, 2, and Moreh Ncbukim,
II, i, and I, 75 (2).
3 See Moreh Nebukim, II, 4.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 85
when they are related to each other as cause and effect." x
Number in this sense, however, could not be applied to two
deities. If two deities were postulated to exist, they could
not bear to each other the relation of cause and effect, one
being produced by the other, for that would run counter to
the very conception of God as an uncaused being. "The
hypothesis that there exist two gods is inadmissible, be-
cause absolutely incorporeal beings cannot be counted, ex-
cept as cause and effect." 2
This then is the mediaeval argument against a duality of
gods as we assume it was formulated in Spinoza's mind.
It begins with the alternative that two deities either would
have to be absolutely different from each other or would have
to have something in common. Showing the impossibility of
the first alternative, it proceeds to reason against the second
alternative by pointing out that if two gods were not abso-
lutely different from each other they would have to be ab-
solutely the same, inasmuch as their natures could not be
divided by being partly different and partly the same. Nor,
having the same nature, could they be differentiated by
their relation to each other as cause and effect. Within this
framework Spinoza's five propositions arrange themselves
in logical order, forming the following consecutive argument:
There are no two substances, that is to say, an immaterial
God and a material world, for if there were, the following
two alternatives would be inevitable:
A. God would be absolutely different from the world, and
hence have nothing in common with it, for " two substances
having different attributes have nothing in common with
one another" (Prop. II). But then,
(i) There could be no causal relation between God and
1 Ibid., II, Introduction, Prop. 16.
3 Ibid., II, i, First Proof.
86 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
the world, for " If two things have nothing in common
with one another, one cannot be the cause of the
other" (Prop. III).
B. Or, God and the world would not be absolutely dif-
ferent, but then, God and the world would have to be ab-
solutely the same, for the following reasons:
(1) Things are said to be two only when they differ in
essential or accidental qualities, for "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 their affections"
(Prop. IV).
(2) Consequently, if God and the world were of the
same nature and differed neither in accidental nor in
essential qualities, they could not be called two, for
"in nature there cannot be two or more substances of
the same nature or attribute " (Prop. V).
(3) To say that God and the world would differ in so
far as one is the cause of the other is impossible, for
"one substance cannot be produced by another sub-
stance" (Prop. VI).
The logical order of these propositions and their syllogistic
form is thus quite apparent. But we must clothe this bare,
skeleton-like outline with a body, in order to give to the
propositions meaning and weight. Spinoza does not manip-
ulate his terms according to certain rules of the game, as if
they were pawns on the chess-board, for the mere pleasure
of the play. There is always some concrete application in
his reasoning. His propositions and their proofs, whenever
they are not an interpretation of facts of nature, are to be
taken as a criticism of the philosophy upon which he was
nurtured.
Proposition II contains Spinoza's restatement of the me-
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 87
diaeval view concerning the distinction between God and
the world. The essence of God, according to this view, is so
different from the essence of the world that no attribute can
be predicated of them in the same, or in any related, sense.
All terms used in describing the divine nature are to be taken
as homonymous terms, none of them having the meaning
with which it is associated in our mind, and none of them con-
veying to our mind any direct knowledge of the divine nature,
which must always remain unknowable and ineffable. When
the mediaevals speak of a knowing God or a living God they
do not mean to attribute to God a kind of knowledge or
life which he shares in common with other beings, for knowl-
edge and life in their application to God must have an abso-
lutely different and unique meaning. "When they ascribe
to God essential attributes, these so-called essential attri-
butes should not have any similarity to the attributes of
other things, and should according to their own opinion not
be included in one and the same definition, just as there is
no similarity between the essence of God and that of other
beings/' 1 Again, "this is a decisive proof that there is, in
no way or sense, anything common to the attributes predi-
cated of God, and those used in reference to ourselves; they
have only the same names, and nothing else is common to
them." 2 Referring to this view, Spinoza says: "Two sub-
stances having different attributes have nothing in common
with one another" (Prop. II) that is to say, when the
same attributes, predicated of two substances, are homony-
mous terms, used in absolutely different and unrelated senses,
the predication of these attributes does not imply any real
relationship in the essence of the two substances. The term
attributa in this proposition should be taken simply in the
sense of predicates, which, as will be shown in another
1 March Nebukim, I, 56. Ibid.
88 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
chapter, is one of the senses in which the term is used by
Spinoza. 1
The refutation of this view is given in Proposition III.
Spinoza seems to be challenging the mediaevals in the fol-
lowing words: If you say that the divine nature is absolutely
different from the nature of the world, how then can you in-
terpret your traditional creation, as most of you do, in terms
of emanation and call your creative God an emanative cause?
The theory of emanation maintains that the entire uni-
verse with all its manifold finite beings is the unfolding of the
infinite divine nature, the product of its thinking. There is
nothing in the universe which is not involved in the nature
of God, and nothing happens in the universe which does not
emanate from Him. "Inasmuch as it has been demonstrated
that God is incorporeal and has also been established that
the universe is His work and that He is its efficient cause.
. . . We say that the universe has been created by divine
emanation and that God is the emanative cause of every-
thing that comes into being within it/' 2 It is for this reason
that God is said to know particulars by virtue of His knowl-
edge of himself; 3 it is also for this reason that it is said that
by our contemplation upon the nature of the universe we may
arrive at the knowledge of the nature of God. 4 This /kind of
relation which God is said to bear to the world is a causal
relation of a particular kind, unlike the causal relation of
corporeal agents to the objects upon which they operate. It
is called emanative causation. "Inasmuch as the actions of
the purely incorporeal Intelligence are clearly manifest in
the world, and they are especially manifest in every case of
1 Cf. below, p. 228.
2 Morch Ncbukim, II, 12.
3 See Milhamot Adona /, III, 4 (p. 138), and Or Adonai^ II, i, 4 (p. 32b). Cf. be-
low, Vol. II, p. 14.
< See Robot ha-Lebabot, II, I ff.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 89
change that does not originate in the mere combination of
elements, we cannot escape the conclusion that this agent,
not being corporeal, does not act by impact nor at a certain
definite distance. The action of the incorporeal Intelligence
is always termed emanation, on account of its similarity to a
water-spring." *
This principle of emanation, which was primarily intro-
duced to obviate the difficulty of how an incorporeal agent
could act upon a corporeal object, was found to be insufficient
even in the eyes of the mediaevals, whose strictures upon
this point will be quoted later. Even after interposing a
series of immaterial intermediaries between God and the
world, they were still harassed by the question how could
matter ultimately arise if it were not to be found originally in
the nature of God. One of the solutions offered is that God as
the emanative cause of the universe does not act by neces-
sity but by volition, and consequently all variety in nature,
due to the existence of matter, as well as matter itself, is to
be attributed to the design and determination of God. 2
The principal points in this mediaeval view, so far as we
are here concerned, are three. God is the emanative cause
of the world, with all that it implies. But God is immaterial,
and how could a material world emanate from Him ? The
answer is that God acts by volition and design.
In opposition to this, Spinoza denies the immateriality of
God as well as will and design in His action. He does not
hesitate to speak of God as the cause of the world, but he
insists that the causality must be mechanical and not inten-
tional. As against those "who think that God is a free cause,"
and that He creates "by a certain absolute will," he argues
that "I think that I have shown with sufficient clearness
1 Moreh Nebukim y II, 12.
2 Ibid., II, 22.
90 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
(Prop. XVI) that from the supreme power of God, or from
His infinite nature, infinite things in infinite ways, that is to
say all things, have necessarily flowed, or continually follow
by the same necessity, in the same way as it follows from the
nature of a triangle, from eternity and to eternity, that its
three angles are equal to two right angles." * This concep-
tion of God as a necessary cause is laid down by Spinoza
in Axioms III, IV, and V, at the beginning of Ethics, I. The
term "cause'* which occurs in these axioms is to be taken as
referring specifically to God, or substance, in its relation to
the world. In Axiom III, he affirms that God acts by neces-
sity: "From a given determinate cause an effect necessarily
follows. " Since God acts by necessity and not by volition,
there is nothing in the nature of the world that is not in
the nature of God; the two must be mutually implicative.
"The knowledge of an effect depends upon and involves
the knowledge of the cause " (Axiom IV), for "those things
which have nothing mutually in common with one another
cannot through one another be mutually understood, that
is to say, the conception of the one does not involve the con-
ception of the other " (Axiom V). Starting, therefore, with
his own premise that God acts by necessity, he argues against
the mediaevals that if God's nature be essentially different
from the nature of the world, He could not be the cause of
the world, for "if two things have nothing in common with
one another, one cannot be the cause of the other" (Prop.
III). In an earlier version of the same Proposition, the argu-
ment is stated more directly: "That which has not in itself
something of another thing, can also not be a cause of the
existence of such another thing" a - that is to say, if God
is immaterial, He cannot be the cause of a material world.
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 17, Schol.
a Short Trfatisf, Appendix I, Axiom 5.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 91
Spinoza, however, knew that by this he had not yet fully
succeeded in reducing his opponents to silence. To tell them
that God could not be the cause of the material world, if He
were assumed to be immaterial, would only evoke the reply
that it was just to meet this difficulty that emanation was
introduced to take the place of direct creation. God as the
direct cause of matter would indeed be impossible. But ema-
nation claims only that God is the cause of a single Intelli-
gence, a purely spiritual being, as devoid of matter as God
himself. It is this pure spirit of which God is the cause;
and matter proceeds not directly from God but from the
Intelligences. "In accordance with this axiom, Aristotle
holds that the direct emanation from God must be one simple
Intelligence, and nothing else/' 1 Again, "from the Neces-
sary Existent only one thing can proceed without an inter-
mediary, but many things can proceed from Him by order
of succession and through intermediaries." 2 Reduced to
Spinoza's terminology, it may be said that there are two sub-
stances, namely, God and the first Intelligence, who are re-
lated to each other as cause and effect. Why should that be
impossible?
The answer to this is to be found in Propositions IV, V,
and VI, in which Spinoza will endeavor to show that the in-
terposition of incorporeal intermediaries was merely a make-
shift and did not really solve the problem how a purely
spiritual God could produce a material world.
To begin with, Spinoza repeats the question raised with
respect to the hypothesis of two deities, namely, by virtue
of what could God and the first Intelligence be called two? In
order to be susceptive of number, things must be distin-
guished either as separate substances or as separate modes;
1 Moreh Nfbukim^ II, 22.
a Makajid al-Falasifah y II, ii, 10 (p. 143).
92 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
or, to put it in the words used by Spinoza elsewhere, the dis-
tinction between them must be either realis or modalis y l for
extramental being, that is, real being (ens reale), as dis-
tinguished from fictitious being (ens ficturri) and being of
reason (ens rationis)? must be either substance or mode.
Hence Proposition IV: "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 their
affections. "
Continuing this line of reasoning, he endeavors to prove
that the first Intelligence, in the mediaeval theory, could not
be distinguished from God and still have something in com-
mon with Him, but that the two would have to be either
absolutely different or absolutely identical.
God and the first Intelligence, he argues, could not be said
to be distinguished from each other realiter by differing only
in part of their nature, that is to say, by their having some-
thing in common and something in which they differed. For
since God is the highest genus, He could not share anything
in common with any other being, as that would constitute
His genus. If God is therefore to be distinguished from the
first Intelligence realiter^ He will have to differ from the
latter in His entire nature, having no attribute in common
with it. Spinoza thus says: "If they are distinguished only
by difference of attributes, it will be granted that there is
but one substance of the same attribute (Prop. V, Demonst.).
God and the first Intelligence would therefore have to be
absolutely different from each other.
Still less could it be said that God and the first Intelligence
differed in accidental qualities. Spinoza does not attempt to
refute this on the ground that the mediaeval immaterial God
1 Short Treatise , Appendix I, Prop. I, Demonst.
2 Cf. Cogitata Mttaphysica y I, I. Cf. below, p. 161.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 93
and pure Intelligences could not possess qualities which are
accidental to matter. He knew quite well that for the mediae-
vals that would form no obstacle. They could interpret
these qualities atrributed to God and the Intelligences in
the same way as they interpreted the divine attributes,
namely, either as external relations/ or as actions and nega-
tions. 2 He attacks it, however, from another angle. He seems
to say to his imaginary opponents: However you would take
these qualities, as relations, actions, or negations, you would
have to admit that they are something external; that they
are distinctions existing only in relation to our own mind, and
in no way affecting the nature of God and the Intelligence. In
their own nature and essence, therefore, God and the Intel-
ligence would be identical and hence one. To quote him:
"But if they are distinguished by difference of affections,
since substance is prior by nature to its affections (Prop. I),
the affections therefore being placed on one side, and the
substance being considered in itself, or, in other words (Def. 3
and Ax. 6), truly considered, it cannot be conceived as dis-
tinguished from another substance'' (Prop. V, Demonst.).
The upshot of this is that God and the first Intelligence
would have to be either absolutely different or absolutely
identical, inasmuch as "in nature there cannot be two or
more substances of the same nature or attribute" (Prop. V).
Spinoza would have been quite satisfied, on mere logical
grounds, in assuming that God and the first Intelligence are
of absolutely the same nature and are to be distinguished
only in so far as the former is related to the latter as cause
to effect. But he would insist that this identity would mean
that both God and the Intelligence must be material; that
is to say, they must have extension as one of their attributes.
1 Cf. Cuzariy II, I, and Emunah Ramah t II, iii.
2 Cf. Moreh Nebukim, I, 52 and 58. Cf. below, pp. 143-144.
94 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
His own view, as we shall see, 1 is only a modified form of such
a doctrine. But the mediaeval thinkers were far from ac-
knowledging such an identity. They were all agreed on the
absolute immateriality of God, though there was some dif-
ference of opinion as to the immateriality of the Intelligences.
Matter makes its first appearance in the Intelligences them-
selves, according to those who like Ibn Gabirol held the In-
telligences to be material, or it arises from the particular
nature of the Intelligences, according to those who believed
that while the Intelligences are immaterial they possess in
their nature a certain possibility which ultimately gives rise
to matter. In either case, they all consider God to be differ-
ent from the Intelligences; and still they all agree that God
is the cause of the Intelligences. The difficulty raised by
Spinoza in Proposition III thus occurs again, and is restated
by him in Proposition VI: "One substance cannot be pro-
duced by another."
Proposition VI, as will have been noticed, is a repetition
of Proposition III, and in fact its demonstration is based
upon the latter proposition. Likewise the second demon-
stration of the Corollary of Proposition VI is a reproduction
of the demonstration of Proposition III. Furthermore, in
a letter from Oldenburg (Epistola III), as well as in Appen-
dix I to the Short 'Treatise^ the equivalents of Proposition III
are given as axioms upon which the equivalents of Proposi-
tion VI are based as propositions. That both these should
occur in the Ethics as propositions would seem to need
some explanation. However, in the light of the logical out-
line in which we have shown these propositions to be con-
nected, there is ample justification for this seemingly useless
repetition.
Our discussion of these five propositions may be brought
1 Cf. below, pp. 2i8ff.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 95
to a conclusion by the following remark on the Corollary in
Proposition VI. The Corollary begins with the statement,
"Hence it follows that there is nothing by which substance
can be produced" ("Hinc sequitur substantiam ab alio
produci non posse "), and ends with a similar statement,
"Therefore absolutely there is nothing by which substance
can be produced" ("Ergo substantia absolute ab alio produci
non potest"). In Short Treatise^ I, 2, the proof of the third
proposition, " that one substance cannot produce another/'
which is the same as Proposition VI in Ethics ', I, is given as
follows: "Should any one again maintain the opposite, we
ask whether the cause, which is supposed to produce this
substance, has or has not the same attributes as the pro-
duced [substance]. The latter is impossible, because some-
thing cannot come from nothing/' Similarly in the proof of
the first proposition given in the foot-note in the same chap-
ter of the Short 'Treatise it is said that, if there were a finite
substance, "it would necessarily have something which it
would have from nothing." Likewise in Epistola IV to
Oldenburg Spinoza produces Proposition III, which he proves
as follows: "Nam quum nihil sit in effectu commune cum
causa, totum, quod haberet, haberet a nihilo." In the light
of all these passages, the conclusion of the Corollary here may
be interpreted to mean as follows: Therefore, if substance
could be absolutely produced, it would have to be produced
from nothing (Ergo, si substantia absolute produci posset, a
nihilo deberet produci). The main point of the Corollary
would thus be to show that if the material world were pro-
duced by an immaterial God, something would be produced
from nothing. The force of this argument as well as its
historical background will be dealt with in the second part
of this chapter, in the discussion of the Short Treatise, to
which we now turn.
96 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
II
The second chapter of the First Part of the Short Treatise,
which bears the title " What God Is," is again, like Proposi-
tions II-VI of the Ethics, I, a criticism of mediaeval dualism.
Our comments upon this chapter will therefore occasionally
have to dwell upon matters which have already been dealt
with in our discussion of the Ethics. Whenever such a repeti-
tion occurs, it is to be excused on the ground that it could not
be avoided, unless we preferred to be economical at the ex-
pense of clearness and completeness.
Mediaeval dualism considers God as something essentially
different from the world. God is pure form; the world is ma-
terial. As a corollary of this, the world is conceived to have
all the imperfections of which God as pure spirit is free. The
world is furthermore the creation of God; the world is thus
called conditional being whereas God is absolute being. Since
creation is assumed to be in time, the world is still further
contrasted with God as the created substance with the un-
created substance l or as the temporal with the eternal. The
creation of the world was not by a single act but rather by a
process of emanation. Matter did not come directly from
God; it has made its appearance at a certain stage in the
devolution of the issue of divine thought. God is pure
thought, and His only activity is thinking. But as His
thinking is a creative power, it becomes objectified in a
thought, known as Intelligence, which, while immaterial like
God himself, according to one of the prevailing views, 2 is
of a less perfect order, inasmuch as by its nature it is only
a possible being, having a cause for its existence. The
thought of this Intelligence, which is said to possess a dual
1 Cf. "de substantia increata, sive de Deo" in Cogitata Mctaphysica, I, 2.
2 Cf. above, p. 91, and below, p. 223.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 97
nature, objectifies itself in another Intelligence and a sphere.
So the process goes on until at a certain stage crass matter
appears which is the basis of the sublunar world. The
world thus possesses imperfections which are not found in
the original thinking essence of God.
In the language of Spinoza these mediaeval contrasts be-
tween God and the world are expressed in the phrases "in-
finite substance*' and "finite substance." It is Spinoza's
purpose in his discussion of "What God Is" to abolish this
dualism between the thinking essence of God and the ma-
terial, or extended, essence of the world, to identify God
with the wholeness of nature, and to conclude " that we posit
extension as an attribute of God." I He begins in the first
proposition by denying the old conception of a hierarchy of
substances falling into a general division of spiritual and ma-
terial substances, or infinite and finite, asserting "that there
is no finite substance; but that every substance must be in-
finitely perfect in its kind." 2 If the mediaevals therefore
are pleased to speak of the world as an emanation of the
divine thinking essence, that divine thinking essence must
contain the material element of which the world is made,
"that is to say, that in the infinite understanding no sub-
stance can be more perfect than that which already exists in
nature." 3
Spinoza proves this proposition by the method employed
by him elsewhere, 4 ex absurdo contradictor 10^ for "should any
one want to maintain the opposite, we would ask the follow-
ing question." Suppose, he says, God is a purely immaterial
being and beside Him there is a material created substance.
The question would then be raised: how did this material
1 Short Treatise y I, 2, 1 8 (Opera, I, p. 24, 1. n).
> Ibid., 2 (p. 19, 11. 9 ff.). 3 Ibid. (p. 20, 11. 6-7).
< Cf. below, pp. 183,378.
98 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
world come into being? You would have to resort to the
various theories of creation offered by the mediaevals. But
none of these is free from insurmountable difficulties. And
hereupon Spinoza proceeds to discuss some of the difficulties
of creation and their attempted solutions by the mediaevals.
In the classic writings of Jewish philosophers the discus-
sion of the problem of creation opens with a consideration of
the Epicurean theory of a world having a beginning in time
but without necessarily having come into existence through
a God. Says Saadia: " After it had become perfectly clear
to me that all things are created, I began to inquire whether
they could have been produced by themselves or whether they
could not have been produced except by some agent not
themselves/' x Says also Bahya: "The propositions by which
may be proved that the world has a creator by whom it has
been created from nothing are three: First, a thing cannot
produce itself. . . . For anything coming into existence
after it has been without existence must inevitably satisfy
either one of these conditions either it has come into ex-
istence through itself or it has come into existence through
a cause not itself/' 2 Similar allusions to a theory of crea-
tion through itself, or what is better known as creation by
chance, 3 abound also in the writings of Maimonides, 4 Ger-
sonides, 5 and Crescas. 6 Descartes, too, formulates the prob-
lem of creation in the form of a disjunctive proposition: "But
it seems to me to be self-evident that everything that exists
springs from a cause or from itself considered as a cause/' 7
Following his masters, Spinoza similarly begins his in-
1 Em tin of we -De' of y I, 2. * Ifobot ha-Lebabot^ I, 5.
J Cf. below, p. 318.
4 Moreh Nebukim y II, 13 and 20.
* Milhamot Adonai y VI, i, 6.
6 Or Adonai, III, i, 3 (p. 635).
7 Primae Rcsponsiones (Oeuvres, VII, p. 112, 11. 3-5).
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 99
quiry by asking "whether this substance is finite through
itself. . . or whether it is thus finite through its cause. 1 * 1
Spinoza's refutation of this first alternative is found in two
versions, one given in the text and the other in the foot-
note. The latter is not much unlike the refutation given by
Saadia. It reads as follows: "It could not have done so it-
self, because having been infinite it would have had to change
its whole essence/' 2 The following is Saadia's answer: "If
we take any of the existent things and assume it to have
made itself, we know that after its coming into existence it
must possess a still greater power and ability to create some-
thing like itself. If it could therefore produce itself when it
was weak and in a state of non-existence, it should be able
to produce something like itself after it has become powerful
and attained a state of existence. Seeing, however, that it
cannot produce something like itself when it is powerful,
certainly it could not have produced itself when it was
weak/' 3 The underlying assumption in both these refuta-
tions is that the substance, having made itself, could not so
change its nature as to become less powerful or less infinite
than before it has made itself. It is somewhat like the follow-
ing argument quoted from Suarez by those who objected
against Descartes: " If anything is self-derived and does not
issue from a cause, it is necessarily unlimited and infinite." 4
Thus disposing of creation through itself, Spinoza takes
up the second alternative suggested by the mediaevals,
namely, that "it is made finite by its cause, which is neces-
sarily God." s Against this alternative Spinoza raises three
objections, one of which is found both in the text and in the
1 Short Treatise, I, 2, 3 (Opera, I, p. 20, 11. 11-13).
2 Ibid., 2, note 2 (p. 19, 11. 20-21).
3 Emu not we-De'ot, I, 2.
< Primae Objectiones (Oeuvres, VII, p. 95, 11. 16-18).
s Short Treatise, I, 2, 4 (Opera, I, p. 20, 11. 17-18).
loo THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, ,
foot-notes; the other two are given only in the foot-notes.
It is my purpose to show that these arguments are directed
against mediaeval attempts to remove two great difficulties
with regard to the theory of creation, and furthermore to
show that Spinoza's arguments themselves are taken from
the mediaeval discussions.
One of the difficulties about creation in time which the
mediaevals grappled with is its obvious inconsistency with
the omnipotence and immutability of God, or, as Mai-
monides puts it, with the belief " that all wants, changes, and
obstacles are absent from the essence of God." x An omnipo-
tent and immutable God could not be conceived as being
active at one time and inactive at another. And then, too,
why did God choose one time rather than another for crea-
tion? To quote the argument from Maimonides: "An agent
is active at one time and inactive at another, according
as favorable or unfavorable circumstances arise. . . . As,
however, God is not subject to accidents which could bring
about a change in His will, and is not affected by obstacles
and hindrances that might appear or disappear, it is im-
possible, they argue, to imagine that God is active at one
time and inactive at another/' 2
In answer to this difficulty, Maimonides draws a distinc-
tion between the actions of God and the actions of created
beings. Human action is an exercise of power, or free will,
which is dependent upon external conditions; God's action
is an exercise of pure or absolute will and is entirely self-
sufficient. "Every being that is endowed with free will and
performs certain acts in reference to another being, neces-
sarily interrupts those acts at one time or another, in con-
1 Morth Ncbukim, II, 18.
2 Ibid.y II, 14, Sixth Method. Cf. Milhamot Adonai, VI, i, 3 (p. 299), and Or
Adonai) III, i, i.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 101
sequence of some obstacles or changes. . . . Thus changed
circumstances change his will, and the will, when it meets
with obstacles, is not carried into effect. This, however, is
only the case when the causes of the actions are external; but
when the action has no other purpose whatever but to fulfil
the will, then the will does not depend on the existence of
favorable circumstances. The being endowed with this will
need not act continually even in the absence of all obstacles,
because there does not exist anything for the sake of which
it acts, and which, the absence of all obstacles, would neces-
sitate the action: the act simply follows the will/* x
A somewhat different turn to this same argument is given
by Gersonides. Creation, he says, is an exercise not only of
the divine absolute will but of the divine disinterested good-
will. "If God created the world for His own benefit, there
would be some ground for this difficulty. But since it has
been made clear that God derives no benefit from His crea-
tion and that creation is only an act of goodness and kindness,
the time and manner of creation must be attributed to His
will." 2
The argument that any sort of finitude in the world,
whether that of creation in time or that of magnitude, im-
plies either a lack of power or a lack of good-will on the part
of God is repeated by many other philosophers. Thus Leo
Hebraeus asks: "Furthermore, the purpose of the Creator
in creating the world was nothing but His will to do good.
Since it is so, why should not the good have been made from
eternity, seeing that no obstacle could have hindered the
powerful God who is most perfect ?" 3 Bruno similarly
argues that if the world were finite God would have to be
1 Morth Nebukim, II, 18, Second Method.
a Milhamot Adonai, VI, i, 18, Ninth Doubt.
* Dialoghi d'Amore^ III, pp. 238-239 (Bari, 1929).
102 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
considered either as unable or as unwilling to make it in-
finite; in either case God would be evil, for "not to be
able is privatively evil, to be able and to be unwilling
would be positively and affirmatively evil." l Suarez, too,
is quoted by those who objected against Descartes as saying
that "all limitations proceed from a cause, and the reason
why anything is finite and limited is, either that its cause
could not, or that it would not, give it more being and per-
fection/' 2 Finally, Abraham Herrera, in his tentative argu-
ment against the finite number of emanations, says that if
their number were finite, it would have to be "either because
God was unwilling to make them infinite . . . and thus His
goodness is not perfect, or because He was unable, and thus
He is lacking in power/' 3
Drawing upon these passages, without necessarily follow-
ing them, Spinoza similarly argues that the creation of a
finite world by an infinite God would be incompatible with
divine power and with divine will or good-will. "Further,
if it is finite through its cause, this must be so either because
its cause could not give more, or because it would not give
more. That He should not have been able to give more would
contradict His omnipotence; that He should not have been
willing to give more, when He could well do so, savors of
ill-will, which is nowise in God, who is all goodness and
perfection." 4
Both Maimonides and Gersonides, however, felt the weak-
ness of their solution. To attribute creation in time to divine
will, or good-will, would indeed save divine omnipotence and
immutability, but it would still allow for change in divine
1 De Immensoct Innumerabilibus^ I, 10 (Opera latina, I, I, Neapoli, 1879, P- 2 3^)
Cf. J. L. Mclntyre, Giordano Bruno, p. 191.
2 Primae Objectiones (Oeuvres, VII, p. 95, 11. 14-16).
3 Shaar ha-Shamayim, II, 4.
Short Treatise, I, 2, 5 (Opera, I, p. 20, 11. 18 ff.).
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 103
will. "But, some might ask, even if we admit the correct-
ness of all this, is not change imputed in the fact that the
will of the being exists at one time and not at another ?" x
While in one place Maimonides attempts to answer it by
drawing a rather arbitrary line of distinction between human
will and divine will, the latter of which he declares to be a
homonymous term, 1 in another place he answers it in the
following words: "The question remains, Why has this
thing been produced now and not long before, since the cause
has always been in existence? The answer is that a certain
relation between cause and product has been absent, if the
cause be corporeal; or, that the substance has not been
sufficiently prepared, if the cause be incorporeal/' 3
In a like manner Gersonides applies the same answer to
his own theory of creation. Unlike Maimonides he does not
believe in absolute ex nihilo. The world according to him
was created from a primordial, formless matter which co-
existed with God from eternity, the act of creation being
nothing but the investiture of the formless matter with form.
The choice of a particular time for creation was determined
not by a change in the will of God but by the nature of the
matter out of which the world was created. This, according
to him, would militate neither against the immutability of
the divine will nor against divine omnipotence: "One might
say that inasmuch as God exists always in the same manner,
His will must also remain always the same; by assuming
therefore that God wills to do a thing at one time and does
not will to do it at another, there must inevitably be a change
in the divine nature. To him we answer that the nature of
the material, primordial element is such that it requires that
1 Moreh Nebukim y II, 18, Second Method, and cf. Milhamot Adonai t VI, i, 18,
Ninth Doubt. a Moreh Nebnkim, he. cit.
i Moreh Ncbukim, II, 12.
104 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS,
the existence of the good in it should have a beginning ii
time, inasmuch as that good must come to it from somethinj
without itself, as has been shown before, whence it has als(
been proved that the world must be created. This being th<
case, it is clear that the existence of the good in this material
primordial element is due to God, whereas the fact that tha
good did not exist in it from eternity is due to the imperfec
nature of that primordial element, which imperfection ha:
served us as a proof that the good in it must be created, fo]
were it not for this, we have shown, the good in it woulc
have come into being without an efficient cause, which woulc
be absurd, as has already been pointed out. This being the
case, the coming of the world into existence necessarily hac
to be at a certain time. There is no reason therefore for tru
question, why God did not create the world at an earliei
time, because whatever time God created it before this time
the same question could still be asked. And just as Goc
cannot be described as possessing the power to create in a
thing two opposites at the same time, inasmuch as He h
prevented from doing so by the nature of the object receiv-
ing the action, so also cannot God be described as having the
power of making the good exist from eternity in the material
element out of which the world was created, for the imper-
fection in the nature of that element requires that the good
in it should be created in time." l
Against both these passages Crescas argues that absolute
nothingness and formless matter cannot be said to possess
any nature which would require that its creation should take
place at a certain particular time. His argument against
Maimonides reads as follows: "The question still remains,
What has made God create at one time rather than at an-
other? For it would seem that it could not be explained by
1 Milhamot Adonai, VI, i, 18, Ninth Doubt.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 105
any other reason except that it was the will of God. For if
it were for some other reason, that reason would inevitably
have to be found either in the Agent who performed the
action, or in the object upon which the action was performed,
or in something outside both the Agent and the object, as,
e.g., the organs through which the action was performed.
It could not be in the Agent, for His relation to all times is
the same; nor could it be in the object, for it is nothing but
non-existence; nor a fortiori could it be in something exter-
nal, for there is nothing external." l Against Gersonides he
argues in this wise: "That the change would have taken
place without a cause can be easily shown by what has al-
ready been said. For if the change of God's will had a cause,
that cause would have to be found either in God or in the
eternal, formless matter, inasmuch as there is nothing else
besides these two. But the relation of God is the same to all
times, and so also is the relation of that eternal, formless
matter, and of all that arises from it, the same to all times.
Thus there could be no cause for the change of will implied
in choosing a particular time for creation." 2
This tilt of Crescas against Maimonides and Gersonides is
unquestionably the source of Spinoza's argument given in
the foot-note: "To say to this that the nature of the thing
required such [limitation] and that it could not therefore be
otherwise, that is no reply: for the nature of a thing can re-
quire nothing while it does not exist/' 3
The second great difficulty of creation which the mediae-
vals grappled with is the explanation as to how this material,
multifarious world could have arisen from the simple, im-
material divine thinking essence. "Ex nihilo nihil fit/' This
1 Or Adonai, III, i, 4 (p. 66b).
Ibid. (p. 68b).
Short frtatise, I, 2, 5, note 3 (Opera, I, p. 20, 11. 23-25).
io6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Aristotelian principle is repeated in Jewish philosophic litera-
ture from the earliest time. 1 Matter could not have origi-
nated in God, for it is excluded from His nature. Whence
did it come then? The problem is stated by Jewish philoso-
phers in the Neoplatonic formula that " a simple element can
only produce a simple thing/' 2 Crescas expresses the im-
possibility of matter arising directly from God in the follow-
ing words: "Inasmuch as this matter [in Gersonides' theory]
is extremely imperfect, it could not have come by necessity
from God who is infinitely perfect." 3
The theory of emanation which purported to be a solution
of this difficulty was found to be unsatisfactory by both
Maimonides and Gersonides. If everything must emanate
from God and if in God there is nothing material, how could
matter appear at all at any stage of emanation unless you
say it sprang up out of nothing and is in no way traceable to
God? It was this reasoning that forced Maimonides to make
emanation a volitional process and Gersonides to accept the
Platonic theory of the pre-existence of an eternal, formless
matter. Their solutions, however, do not interest us now.
We are interested only in their statement of the problem.
Says Maimonides: "I ask the following question: Aristotle
holds that the first Intelligence is the cause of the second,
the second of the third, and so on, till the thousandth, if we
assume a series of that number. Now the first Intelligence
is undoubtedly simple. How then can the compound form
of existing things come from such an Intelligence by fixed
laws of nature, as Aristotle assumes? ... By what law of
nature did the spheres emanate from the Intelligences? What
relation is there between material and immaterial beings ?" 4
Says Gersonides: "This analogy, when closely examined,
1 Cf. Emunot ve-De'ot, 1, 2, and Ifobot ha-Lebabot> I, 5
Morth Nebukim, II, 22. J Or Adonai, III, i, 4 (p. 68a).
Morch Ntbukim> II, 22.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 107
will be found to fall short of proving that matter can be
created from absolute nothing. Only forms can arise in this
manner, but not matter. In general, form can produce some-
thing of its own kind; hence it produces forms, for all forms
are things of reason; but how could it produce materiality?" '
These discussions as to the rise of matter are reflected in
the following argument of Spinoza, also given in a foot-note.
"That there can be no finite substance is clear from this,
namely, that, if so, it would necessarily have something
which it would have from nothing, which is impossible. For
whence can it derive that wherein it differs from God?
Certainly not from God, for He has nothing imperfect or
finite, etc. So, whence then but from nothing?** 2 We have
already called attention to other passages where the same
argument is advanced by Spinoza.
This first proposition of Short Treatise^ I, 2, as will have
been noticed, corresponds to Propositions II and III of
Ethics ', I. The second proposition, "that there are not two
like substances," J corresponds to Propositions IV and V of
the Ethics. The argument that "if there were two alike they
would necessarily limit one another" 4 is reminiscent of the
argument after which it is modelled, namely, that if there
were two deities they would limit each other by having a
common genus and a specific difference. 5 The third proposi-
tion of the Short Treatise, I, 2, namely, "that one substance
cannot produce another," 6 corresponds to Proposition VI of
the Ethics > and is proved by three arguments. The first 7 is
the argument based upon the impossibility of something
arising from nothing which we have already discussed. The
1 Milhamot Adonai, VI, i, 17 (p. 364). A parallel statement in Ethics, I, Prop. 15,
Schol., is cited by Joel in Lewi ben Gerson als Religionsphilosoph, p. 78, n. I.
a Short Treatise, I, 2, 2, note 2 (Opera, I, p. 19, 11. 26-30).
3 Ibid., 2 (p. 20, 1. 4). Short Treatise, I, 2, 6.
s Cf. above, p. 83.
6 Short Treatise, I, 2, 2 and 7. ' Ibid., 8.
io8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
second, 1 however, is new and somewhat puzzling. It is my
purpose to show that it can be rendered clear and intelligible
by interpreting it as a criticism of Gersonides' theory that
the world was created from an eternal formless element.
In Cogltata Metaphysica, II, 10, in a passage which is
an undoubted allusion to Gersonides* theory of creation, 2
Spinoza says as follows: "We will not pause to refute the
opinion of those who think that the world as chaos, or as
matter devoid of form, is co-eternal with God, and so far
independent of Him." Here, however, Spinoza does pause
to refute Gersonides, and with an argument raised by Ger-
sonides himself. Gersonides begins to argue against his own
theory by saying that "it is inevitable that either some part
of this formless element remained after the world had been
created from it or no part of it remained." He then proceeds
to prove that neither of these alternatives is possible, adding
that "it is also past comprehension that the size of this pri-
mordial element should exactly agree with the size of which
the world must be, for it is evident that the size of the world
can be neither more nor less than what it is." 3 This is exactly
what Spinoza means by the following argument: "Further,
that which is created is by no means produced from nothing,
but must necessarily have been produced from that which is
existent (die wezentlyk /V). 4 But that something should come
forth from that which is existent and that this latter should
not have that something less even after it had been produced
from it that we cannot grasp with our understanding." 5
If we take the last part of the passage to mean that the thing
"which is created," i.e., the world, after it was produced "from
that which is existent," i.e., the eternal formless matter,
1 Ibid., 9. a Cf. Joel, Z#r Genesis der Lehre Spinoza's, p. 48.
* Milhamot Adonai, VI, i, 18, First Doubt.
4 On the meaning of wezentlyk, cf. below, p. 141, n. 4, and p. 382, n. 7.
s Short Treatise, I, 2, 9 (Opera, I, p. 21, 11. 21-26).
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 109
could not be less than the latter had been before the world was
produced from it, the meaning of the entire passage may be
restated, in the light of Gersonides' argument, in the follow-
ing manner: Further, since creation ex nihilo has been shown
to be impossible, let us now consider creation from an eternal
pre-existent formless element. This is, however, likewise
inconceivable, for we cannot grasp with our understanding
how the created world, the size of which must be determined
by its own nature, should happen to agree exactly with the
size of the eternal pre-existent element, and not be of a lesser
size, so that no part of that element would remain unused
after the world had been created from it. This unaccounted
for agreement in size is characterized by Spinoza as some-
thing which "we cannot grasp with our understanding/'
Gersonides similarly characterizes it as something which is
"past comprehension" 1 and as something which "I cannot
comprehend " or "conceive of. " J
If our interpretation of the last passage quoted from
Spinoza is correct, then the argument contained therein as
well as the argument contained in the parallel passage
quoted from Gersonides is based upon an assumption which
is found in Plato and repeated by Philo, namely, the assump-
tion that the matter out of which the world was created was
completely used up in the creation of the world so that noth-
ing was left of it. Plato states it in the following passage:
"Now the creation took up the whole of each of the four
elements; for the Creator compounded the world out of all
the fire and all the water and all the air and all the earth,
leaving no part of any of them nor any power of them outside.
He intended, in the first place, that the whole animal should
be perfect, as far as possible, and that the parts of which he
was formed should be perfect; and that he should be one,
no THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
leaving no remnants out of which another such world might
be created/' 1 Philo restates this view in the following pas-
sage: "It is unlikely that any material body has been left
over and was moving about at random outside, seeing that
God had wrought up and placed in orderly position all
matter wherever found." 2 Eusebius quotes another passage
from Philo's lost De Providentia as follows: "With a view to
the creation of the world God estimated an exactly sufficient
quantity of matter, so that there might be neither deficiency
nor excess. ... I shall therefore confidently assert that the
world needed neither less nor more material substance for
its furnishing." 3 This passage from Eusebius is reproduced
in Hebrew by Azariah dei Rossi. 4
The third argument reads as follows: "Lastly, if we would
seek the cause of the substance which is the origin of the
things which issue from its attributes, then it behoves us to
seek also the cause of that cause, and then again the cause
of that cause, et sic in hifinitum; so that if we must neces-
sarily stop and halt somewhere, as indeed we must, it is
necessary to stop at this only substance/' 5 In this passage
Spinoza would seem to admit the impossibility of an infinite
causal regression, and he would therefore contradict himself, 6
for elsewhere he denies this impossibility. 7 It seems to me,
however, that the argument contained in this passage has
an entirely different meaning.
It must be borne in mind that Spinoza advances it as a
proof "that one substance cannot produce another," by
1 Timaeus, 32C-33A. Translation by Jowett.
* De Palantationc Noe, II, 5. Translation by G. H. Whitaker.
3 Praeparatio Evangelica, VII, 21. Translation by E. H. Gifford.
4 Mf'or 'Enayim, Imre Binah, Ch. 6 (ed. Cassel, p. 125).
s Short Treatise, I, 2, 10 (Opera, I, p. 21, 11. 26-32).
6 Cf. A. Wolf, Spinoza's Short Treatise ', p. 174.
7 Epistola 12. Cf. below, pp. 195 ff.
PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 1 1 1
which he means to refute the theory that a material world
was created by an immaterial God who in so far as He is im-
material is a transeunt cause. Like most of his other
arguments it reasons against his opponents from their own
premises. The passage therefore is to be divided into two
parts, in the first of which he reproduces the premise of his
opponents and in the latter of which he draws his own con-
clusions from the self-same premise. Spinoza seems to say
to them as follows: Why do you assume the existence of
two substances, God and the world, considering God as the
prime cause and rejecting the existence of any other cause
prior to Him? It is because you believe with Aristotle that
things in change must have a cause and that the series of
causes cannot be infinite, and so you argue that "if we would
seek the cause of the substance [i.e., God] which is the origin
of the things which issue from its attribute, then it behoves
us to seek also the cause of that cause, and then again the
cause of that cause, and so on in infinitum" Your postu-
lating of a prime cause outside the world is therefore dic-
tated by nothing but the alleged need of arbitrarily terminat-
ing the series of cause and effect. This being the case, why
not stop the series with the world as a whole and postulate
the prime cause as something immanent in the world, "so
that if we must necessarily stop and halt somewhere, as in-
deed we must, it is necessary to stop at this only substance
[i.e., the world]." The full force of this reasoning will be dis-
cussed in our comments on Proposition XVIII of Ethics^ I.
The fourth and last proposition in this chapter of the Short
Treatise ^ though containing in its proof many elements taken
from the proofs of the preceding propositions, does not
properly belong in our present discussion of the unity of
substance. It will be treated subsequently in our discussion
of the simplicity of substance.
CHAPTER V
SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE
I. SIMPLICITY AND ATTRIBUTES
IN THE Appendix at the end of the First Part of the Ethics,
Spinoza furnishes us with the unused titles for the unmarked
chapters into which the book would have undoubtedly been
divided had he chosen to write it after the manner of the
scholastics and the rabbis. Using the terms " nature'* and
" properties" advisedly in their technical sense, he says:
"In these chapters I have explained the nature of God and
His properties/' He then proceeds to enumerate these prop-
erties: (i) "That He necessarily exists; (2) that He is one;
(3) that from the necessity alone of His own nature He is
and acts; (4) that He is, and in what way He is, the free
cause of all things; (5) that all things are in Him, and so
depend upon Him that without Him they can neither be
nor be conceived; and, finally, (6) that all things have been
predetermined by Him, not indeed from freedom of will or
from absolute good pleasure, but from His absolute nature
or infinite power." The "nature of God," as we have already
seen, 1 is treated in Proposition I, which supplements the defi-
nition of substance. Of the six "properties" enumerated by
Spinoza the last four will be found to cover Propositions
XIV-XXXVI, while the first may serve as a heading for
Proposition XI. There remains therefore only the second
property, " that He is one," which is to describe the contents
of Propositions II-X and Propositions XII and XIII. We
have already shown in the preceding chapter * that Proposi-
1 Cf. above, pp. 61 ff. 3 Cf. above, pp. 79 ff.
PROPS. 7-io, 12-ij] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 113
tions II-VI deal with the traditional problem of the unity
of God. We shall now endeavor to show that in Proposi-
tions VII-X and XII-XIII Spinoza similarly deals with
another traditional aspect of the same problem.
The expression " unity of God*' was used by mediaeval phi-
losophers in two senses. In the first place, it was used in the
sense of numerical unity, as an assertion of monotheism and
a denial of the existence of more than one God. In the second
place, it was used in the sense of essential unity, or simplicity,
as a denial of any kind of inner plurality in the divine nature. 1
This distinction in the use of the term "unity" may be traced
to Aristotle's discussion of the various meanings of the term
"one,"^ which is repeatedly reproduced with the usual
modifications and elaborations in mediaeval literature. 3
Unity in the first sense is the subject of the mediaeval proofs
of the unity of God; unity in the second sense is the principle
underlying the mediaeval discussions of the nature of the
divine essence, or what is generally known as the problem of
divine attributes. 4 Spinoza follows the traditional method
of treatment. Having discussed the numerical unity of God
in Propositions II VI, he now enters upon the discussion of
the essential unity, or simplicity, of God in Propositions
VII-X and XII-XIII.
The simplicity of God upon which the mediaevals so
strongly insisted was meant to emphasize the impropriety of
the assertion, or even of the implication, of any kind of inner
plurality in the divine essence. They especially mention
three of such inner pluralities which the idea of absolute
simplicity was meant to deny. First of all, it denies the ex-
1 Or Adonaiy I, iii, 4.
3 Metaphysics, V, 6.
3 Maka$id al-Falasijah, II, i (p. 114); Hobot ha-Lebabot^ I, 8; Citzari, II, 2;
Emunah Ramah, II, ii, i; 'Ikkarim, II, 10.
< Cf. 'Ibfrrim, II, 7.
1 14 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
istence in God of accidental qualities. These had to be re-
jected on account of the belief in the absolute incorporeality
of God which tradition, if not the actual asseverations of
the Bible, had taken for granted which belief was further
intensified when the traditional God was identified with the
Aristotelian pure form. "He is not a magnitude that any
quality resulting from quantity as such could be possessed by
Him; He is not affected by external influences, and there-
fore does not possess any quality resulting from emotion;
He is not subject to physical conditions, and therefore does
not possess strength or similar qualities; He is not an animate
being, that He should have a certain disposition of the soul,
or acquire certain properties, as meekness, modesty, etc., or
be in a state to which animate beings as such are subject,
as, e.g., in that of health or of illness. Hence it follows that
no attribute coming under the category of quality can be
predicated of God." l
But the simplicity of God denies more than that. It also
denies the metaphysical or logical distinction of genus and
species in the divine nature, or what are known as essen-
tial attributes as distinguished from accidental attributes.
Arabic as well as Jewish philosophers are explicit in their
denial of the distinction of genus and species in God. 2 It is
this principle that underlies the following passage of Mai-
monides: "The object is described by its definition, as, e.g.,
man is described as a being that lives and has reason. . . .
All agree that this kind of description cannot be given of God;
for there is no previous cause to His essence, by which He
could be defined. . . . An object is described by part of its
definition, as when, e.g., man is described as a living being or
as a rational being. . . . All agree that this kind of descrip-
1 Moreh Ncbukim t I, 52.
J Ma%a$id al-Falasifah, II, ii, n (p. 145); 'Ibfyarim, II, 6 and 7.
PROPS. 7-10,12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 115
tion is inappropriate in reference to God; for if we were to
speak of a portion of His essence, we should consider His
essence to be a compound." *
There is a third possible kind of distinction in the divine
nature which is specifically rejected by the mediaevals in
their discussion of the simplicity of God, namely, the dis-
tinction of essence and existence. There are certain his-
torical reasons, to be dealt with subsequently, which induced
the mediaevals to single out the predicate of existence for
special discussion. Suffice it to say for the present that
both Arabic and Jewish philosophers deal with this problem
specifically in their general discussion of the nature of the
divine essence. We may quote here the following typical
passage from Maimonides, which occurs in the course of his
discussion of attributes: "It is known that existence is an
accident appertaining to all things, and therefore an element
superadded to their essence. This must evidently be the
case as regards everything the existence of which is due to
some cause; its existence is an element superadded to its
essence. But as regards a being whose existence is not due
to any cause God alone is that being, for His existence, as
we have said, is absolute existence and essence are per-
fectly identical. He is not a substance to which existence is
joined as an accident, as an additional element." 2
Simplicity in this sense, as a denial of any kind of internal
plurality, physical as well as metaphysical and logical, is
maintained by Spinoza with regard to substance. Of the
three kinds of internal plurality especially rejected by the
mediaevals, the plurality of subject and accidental qual-
ity* f genus and species, and of essence and existence,
Spinoza mentions the last one specifically in Proposition
VII. As for the second kind of internal plurality, he quotes
1 Moreh Nebukim, I, 52. a March Nctukim, I, 57.
n6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
the mediaevals to the effect that "God is not a species of any
genus," x which means the same as to say that in God there
is no distinction of genus and species. This, as we have al-
ready seen/ is the implication of his definition of substance
and of Proposition I, which is based upon it. It is this, too,
which is meant when he says in one of his letters to Jellis
that "of His [i.e., God's] essence we can form no general
idea (universalem . . . ideam)." 3 Finally, as for the first
kind of internal plurality, in Scholium 2 to Proposition VIII,
which really belongs to Proposition VII, he dismisses, in un-
mistakable terms, the inherence in substance of accidental
qualities, and almost in the words of Maimonides he says
that those who attribute accidental qualities to substance do
so because " they do not distinguish between the modifica-
tions of substances and substances themselves," and also
because they "confound human nature with divine" and
"readily attribute to God human affects." Substance is
thus to Spinoza, like God to the mediaevals, absolutely
simple, free from accidental as well as from essential attri-
butes, and likewise impervious to the distinction of essence
and existence.
The mediaeval insistence upon the absolute simplicity of
God did not, however, mean to divest Him of all traits of
personality. A God who has been conceived as creator and
governor of the world, as lawgiver to man, and judge of
human actions, could not possibly be conceived as impassive
as a mathematical point and as indifferent as a metaphysical
absolute. This belief in the personality of God is summed up
by the mediaevals in the statement that "God, blessed be
He, must be free of imperfections," 4 by which is meant that
1 Short Treatise, I, 7, 3. a Cf. above, p. 77.
3 Epistola 50 (Opera, IV, p. 240, II. 2-3).
, I, 15; cf. II, 7.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 117
"He must possess power and will and the other attributes
without which He could not be thought of as perfect." *
Spinoza restates this view in a letter addressed to Hudde in
the following words: "That everything, which includes nec-
essary existence, can have in itself no imperfection, but must
express pure perfection." 2 Thus while on the one hand God
must be absolutely simple and unqualifiable, on the other
hand He must possess all those qualities which make for
personality. How these two can be reconciled is the problem
of attributes, which does not concern us for the present. The
following brief statement from Albo will suffice as an indi-
cation of the mediaeval point of view: "All the attributes of
perfection that are predicated of God or are conceived to
exist in Him are predicated of Him and are conceived to
exist in Him only in the sense in which they imply perfection
but in none of the senses in which they would imply imper-
fection." 3 Of particular importance for us here is the use
made by the mediaevals of the term "infinite" with regard
to these attributes of perfection. In the first place, these
attributes of God are to be infinite in number: "It must be
understood that the perfections which exist in God are in-
finite in number." 4 In the second place, each of these attri-
butes must be infinite in two senses: infinite in time, that is,
eternal, and infinite in the degree of importance, that is, in
its essential nature. "When we ascribe to God any of the
attributes by which He may be described, whether negative
or positive, that attribute must be taken to be infinite in two
respects, infinite in time s and infinite in perfection or im-
portance." 6 The term "infinite" applied to God thus means
1 Ibid., I, 15. 2 Epistola 35.
3 'Ikkarim, II, 21. Ibid., II, 25.
s The term "time" has two meanings according to Albo, and infinite time in
this passage is the equivalent of eternity. Cf. below, pp. 339, 363.
6 'Ifckarim, II, 25.
Il8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
to designate that He possesses an infinite number of attri-
butes each of which is eternal and absolutely perfect. To
quote: "It is with reference to this that the Cabalists desig-
nated God by the term Infinite (En Sof), to indicate that the
perfections which are to be found in Him are infinite in the
three senses which we have mentioned " ' that is to say,
infinite in the number of attributes and each attribute in-
finite in time and in perfection.
Similarly to Spinoza, while God is absolutely simple and
unqualifiable, He may still be described as possessing attri-
butes, infinite in number, and each of them infinite in what
the mediaevals called time and perfection. His definition
of God at the beginning of the First Part of the Ethics is noth-
ing but a restatement of the passages we have reproduced
from Albo in the preceding paragraph. "By God, I under-
stand Being absolutely infinite, that is to say, substance con-
sisting of infinite attributes, each one of which expresses
eternal and infinite essence." 2 Note the expression "eternal
and infinite essence." By "eternal" 3 he means here what
Albo calls "infinite in time," and by "infinite" he means
again what Albo calls "infinite in perfection or importance."
In his definition of God given in a letter to Oldenburg, 4 where
incidentally the term "eternal" does not occur, Spinoza
himself explains the term "infinite," by which each of the
infinite attributes of God is described, as meaning "in the
highest degree perfect of its kind." And what he has laid
down of God in his definitions, he now tries to prove of sub-
stance in his propositions. First he shows that "every sub-
stance is necessarily infinite" (Prop. VIII), just as God is
"absolutely infinite." Then, just as God is "substance con-
1 Ibid. * Ethics, I, Def. 6.
3 For Spinoza's various uses of the term "eternal," see below, pp. 366 ff. and
375 ff-
Epistola 2 (Opera, IV, p. 7, 11. 25-26).
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 119
sisting of infinite attributes," so substance possesses infinite
attributes, for " the more reality or being a thing possesses,
the more attributes belong to it" (Prop. IX), and inasmuch
as substance has infinite reality or being, it must have infinite
attributes. Finally, each attribute of substance must "ex-
press eternal and infinite essence," just as the attributes of
God, for "each attribute of a substance must be conceived
through itself" (Prop. X), and must therefore be identical
with substance, and inasmuch as substance is infinite, each
of its attributes must be infinite. In Jewish philosophy, too,
the infinite nature of each attribute is deduced from the in-
finite nature of God. "For just as God, blessed be He, is
infinite both in time and in importance, so is each of His
attributes infinite both in time and in importance." 1
The attempt of the mediaevals to preserve God's personal-
ity by endowing Him with infinite attributes while at the
same time insisting upon His absolute simplicity has landed
them, as we have already pointed out, in a self-contradiction.
Attributes are either accidental or essential; they must be
related to the subject either as color and size and weight
and suchlike, or as genera and species, as, e.g., life and ration-
ality are related to man. In either case they must imply a
distinction of essence and attribute in the subject, though
in the latter instance the distinction is only metaphysical or
logical. Furthermore, attributes differ among themselves
from each other, and therefore the assertion of an infinite
number of attributes must imply a corresponding infinite
number of differences in the nature of the subject. If the
divine nature is to be free from any kind of plurality, how
then can it have attributes? This difficulty constitutes the
problem of divine attributes in mediaeval philosophy. The
solutions offered will be touched upon in the sequel. In a
1 'Ifckarim, II, 25.
120 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
general way, it may be said that in the attempted solutions
two facts are sought to be established: first, all the attri-
butes of God are in reality one attribute, and, whatever
differences there may appear to exist between them, they
do not affect the nature of God; second, whatever may be
the relation between essence and attribute, the assertion of
divine attributes does not contravene the simplicity of God's
essence.
Similarly Spinoza, after having stated in Propositions
VIII, IX, and X that substance has an infinite number of
attributes, proceeds to show that though assuming an infinite
number of attributes of which two "may be conceived as
really distinct, that is to say, one without the assistance
of the other, we cannot nevertheless thence conclude that
they constitute two beings or two different substances "
(Prop. X, Schol.), and that "no attribute of substance can
be truly conceived from which it follows that substance can
be divided" (Prop. XII), concluding that "substance abso-
lutely infinite is indivisible " (Prop. XIII).
This then is the logical argument underlying Propositions
VII X and XII-XIII. Had the Ethics been written more
scholastico rabbinicoque Spinoza would have prefaced these
propositions with the following words: We shall now pro-
ceed to show that just as substance is like God in its numeri-
cal unity (Props. II VI), so it is also like God in its absolute
simplicity. That it has no distinction of genus and species
has already been stated (Def. Ill and Prop. I); that it
should have accidental qualities must be dismissed as some-
thing incomprehensible to a philosopher (Prop. VIII, Schol.
2). What is therefore left us to show is that like the philo-
sophic God of the mediaevals substance has no distinction of
essence and existence (Prop. VII). Furthermore, though like
God "every substance is necessarily infinite*' (Prop. VIII),
PROPS. 7-io, 12-ij] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 121
that is to say, consisting of infinite attributes (Prop. IX),
each one of which expresses eternal and infinite essence (Prop.
X), still this infinity of attributes does not imply that sub-
stance is in any sense divisible (Prop. X, Schol.; Props.
XII-XIII).
With these general remarks we are now ready to discuss
more fully the following three topics and the propositions
in which they are treated: (i) the problem of essence and
existence (Prop. VIII; Def. I); (2) the definition of the term
"infinite" (Def. II; Def. VI; Props. VIII-X); (3) the rela-
tion of attribute to substance (Def. IV; Prop. X, Schol.;
Props. XII-XIII).
II. ESSENCE AND EXISTENCE
The problem of essence and existence which is dwelt upon
by Spinoza not only in his Ethics but also in his other writ-
ings, the terms in which the problem is couched, and the
manner in which it is treated, are all part of the great philo-
sophic heritage which had fallen to him from his predecessors.
Two distinct traditions served him as sources of supply.
One was the philosophic writings in Hebrew which have pre-
served the traditions of Arabic philosophy; the other was
Descartes, who has preserved the traditions of the Latin
scholastics. It can be shown that the two traditions had
crossed at one time, and that the scholastic tradition of a
later period was greatly indebted to the Arabico-Hebrew
influence. But in Descartes, in whom the scholastic tra-
dition reached its culminating point, owing to the influence of
Anselm's ontological proof of the existence of God, the as-
sertion of the identity of essence and existence in God as-
sumed a meaning which was entirely different from that
which it had in Jewish philosophy. In Jewish philosophy the
122 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
assertion that in God essence and existence are identical, or
however else it is phrased, 1 was merely another way of saying
that God is necessary existence out of which arises the eter-
nity, unity, simplicity, immutability, and unknowability of
God, and in fact all those negations which tend to make God
an absolute and infinite being. It does not however mean that
thereby God becomes a "real" being (ens reale) as opposed
to a being of reason and a fictitious being (ens rationis, ens
fictum). Or, in other words, the fact that in the idea of
God essence involved existence was not used to prove the
actual existence of God, for in Jewish as well as in Arabic
philosophy that mode of reasoning was not followed. 2 In
Descartes the identity of essence and existence means all
that, to be sure, but it also means something else in addition.
It means also that this very idea of the identity of essence
and existence in God proves that He is a "real" being. In
Spinoza, as we shall endeavor to show, these two trends of
thought meet, and upon the groundwork of philosophic lore
inherited from the Hebrew books of his youth he raised the
superstructure of Descartes* ontological proofs of the exist-
ence of God.
However complicated and important the problem of es-
sence and existence may have become in the course of its
development, and however great the significance it has as-
sumed in its later history, the problem seems to me to have
had a simple and humble origin. To my mind, it originated
in the question as to the meaning of propositions in which
the term "existent" forms the predicate, as, for instance, "A
is existent." In order to appreciate the significance of this
1 The other way of phrasing it is that God is existence without essence added
thereto. See my "Crescas on the Problem of Divine Attributes," Jewish Quarterly
Review, n.s., Vol. VII, p. 189, n. 85.
3 Cf. my "Notes on the proofs of the Existence of God," Hebrew Union College
Annual \ I (1924), pp. 583 f.
PROPS. 7-10, 1 2-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 123
question, we must bear in mind that Aristotle, and following
him Arabic and Jewish logicians, held that every logical
judgment must be synthetic, so that in every proposition the
predicate must be a universal term belonging to one of the
four or five predicables enumerated by Aristotle and Por-
phyry. It must be the genus of the subject, its species, a
specific difference, a property or an accident. In mediaeval
terminology the first three predicables are known as "es-
sential attributes," the last two as "accidental attributes."
The common characteristic of all these predicables is that
they are all universal terms and are not identical with the
essence of the subject. Essential attributes state the ele-
ments of which the essence of the subject is constituted or
to which it belongs, and though not different from the es-
sence of the subject they are either more extensive or less
extensive than it, as, for instance, when the combination of
animality and rationality, or either one of these, is predicated
of man. Accidental attributes are something different from,
and external to, the essence of the subject, adding some
adventitious quality to it, as, for instance, when color and
size and age are predicated of man. Nothing that is per-
fectly identical with the subject and co-extensive with it
and is a mere verbal repetition of its essence can be affirmed
in the predicate, for identity is not a logical relation. Aristo-
tle laid it down as a rule when he stated that "individuals,
and whatever is one in number, are predicated of no sub-
ject," l and the mediaevals condemned as tautological any
proposition like "A is A." In view of this the question may
be justly raised as to what kind of predicate is the term
"existent" in the proposition "A is existent." It cannot be
identical with the essence of the subject, for then the proposi-
tion would be tantamount to saying that A is A. It is there-
1 Categories, 2, ib, 6-7.
124 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS,!
fore concluded that existence is always an accident super-
added to the essence of a thing. 1
That existence is an element adventitious to the essence
of things would seem to be on the whole in accord with what
we know of Aristotle's views on the subject. According to
him the existence of things is not implied in the knowledge
of their essence which we may attain from their definition,
and thus while we may have an idea of man and knowledge
of his essence, and while we are even capable of defining him,
none of these can prove the actual existence of man. For all
definitions are answers to the question what a thing is but
not to the question whether a thing is. "But 'what man is*
and 'that man exists' are two different questions." 3 Again:
'Evidently those who define according to the present meth-
ods of definition do not demonstrate that a thing exists." 3
To form conceptions of certain essences, to define them, to
describe them in formal propositions, does not imply that
they exist, for definitions and propositions may be purely
nominal in which words rather than things are the subject of
discourse. If a thing does actually exist, it only happens to
exist, just as it only happens to be white or black, large or
small. To assert therefore of such a thing that it is existent
is simply to attribute to it an accidental quality, just as to
say of a black or white thing that it is black or white. This
interpretation of Aristotle, to be sure, might be doubted.
It might be argued that while indeed there are nominal defini-
tions in which existence is not implied, it may be still possible
that in real definitions existence is implied, and that to at-
tribute existence to things that do actually exist is not to
attribute an accidental quality but rather to affirm some-
1 This argument is reproduced by Crescas in the name of Avicenna in his Or
Adonai, I, iii, i.
2 Analytica Posteriora, II, 7, 92!^ 10-11.
3 Ibid.) 92b, 19-20.
PROPS. 7-10, 1 2-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 125
thing that is involved in their essence. This indeed would
seem to be Averroes' interpretation of Aristotle, for he main-
tains that existence is always involved in the essence of an
actually existent subject. 1 Avicenna, however, and his Jew-
ish followers, as Maimonides, for instance, by maintaining
that existence is an accident superadded to the essence would
seem to have understood Aristotle as explained above.
But even according to Avicenna and his school, God is an
exception. In Him existence cannot be assumed to be added
to His essence any more than any of the other attributes
could be considered as accidental qualities. This is impossi-
ble by reason of the simplicity of the divine nature. It is
because of this general principle that existence is accidental
to the essence of created beings that the theologians of the
Avicennian school have included in their discussion of the
divine attributes the statement that God has no essence
superadded to His existence, or that in God essence and ex-
istence are identical. 2
It would seem that it was this traditional method of in-
cluding the problem of essence and existence in the discus-
sion of attributes or the simplicity of God that led Spi-
noza to lay down his seventh proposition. All of Spinoza's
statements with regard to the nature of existence in relation
to essence reflect the Avicennian and Maimonidean point of
view. Repeating almost verbatim the words of Aristotle, he
says that "the true definition of any one thing neither in-
volves nor expresses anything except the nature of the thing
involved." 3 Again, corresponding to the Avicennian formula
that in created beings existence is an accident superadded to
their essence, Spinoza says: "The essence of things produced
1 Cf. quotation in Munk, Guide des gars, Vol. I, p. 231, n. I.
3 Cf. above, p. 122, n. i.
J Ethics y I, Prop. 8, Schol. 2; cf. Epistola 34.
126 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
by God does not involve existence." r God is however dif-
ferent, for "I define God as a being to whose essence belongs
existence." 2 And what is true of God is true also of sub-
stance: "It pertains to the nature of substance to exist." 3
The contrast between God and created beings is clearly
brought out in the following passage: "Essence in God is
not different from existence; indeed the one cannot be con-
ceived without the other. In other things essence differs from
existence, for the one may be conceived without the other." 4
In his proof of Proposition VII, no less than in the proposi-
tion itself, Spinoza follows his predecessors. In Jewish phi-
losophy, the negation of the distinction of essence and ex-
istence in God, as well as that of any other distinction, is
based upon the view that any form of composition requires
a cause to bring about that composition and that God can
have no cause. "Everything that is composed of two ele-
ments has necessarily their composition as the cause of its
existence as a composite being, and consequently in respect
to its own essence it is not necessary of existence, for its
existence depends upon the existence of its component parts
and their combination." 5 Again: "Everything which is
necessary of existence in respect to its own essence has no
cause for its existence in any manner whatsoever or under
any conditions whatsoever." 6 With this in mind Maimonides
argues for the identity of essence and existence in God as
follows: "It is known that existence is an accident apper-
taining to all things, and therefore an element superadded to
their essence. This must evidently be the case as regards
everything the existence of which is due to some cause; its
1 Jbid.,\, Prop. 24.
2 Epistola 83 (Opera, I, p. 335, 1. 5). * Ethics, I, Prop. 7.
4 Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 2. Cf. Ethics, I, Axiom 7.
* Moreh Ncbukim, II, Introduction, Prop. 21.
6 Ibid., Prop. 20.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 127
existence is an element superadded to its essence. But as
regards a being whose existence is not due to any cause
God alone is that being, for His existence, as we have said,
is absolute existence and essence are perfectly identical;
He is not a substance to which existence is joined as an acci-
dent, so as to constitute an additional element." x
The short proof of Proposition VII given by Spinoza fol-
lows the same line of reasoning. The essence of substance
must involve existence, he argues, because substance has
no cause, for " there is nothing by which substance can be
produced/' Were existence superadded to its essence, sub-
stance would require a cause to produce it. This state of
being causeless, which the mediaevals as well as Spinoza
himself usually designate by the expression "necessary ex-
istence," Spinoza also designates by the expression "cause
of itself" (causa sui\ a phrase which had already been in
current use in philosophic literature. 2 Causa sui y like the
mediaeval "necessary existence," is primarily nothing but
a negation, meaning causelessness, and to Spinoza it is only
a shorter way of saying that the essence of substance in-
volves existence. He thus says in his first part of the defini-
tion of causa sui y "By cause of itself, I understand that,
whosef*essence involves existence/' 3 though the latter part
of'the definition, as we shall presently show, introduces a
new idea into the phrase.
We thus have in Spinoza the following equation : necessary
existence = causa sui = that whose essence involves exist-
ence All of these expressions, as we have seen, mean pri-
marily nothing but causelessness. An explicit statement to
this effect is to be found in the following passage of Spinoza:
* Ibid., 1, 57.
2 Cf. J. Freudenthal, "Spinoza und die Scholastik" in Philosophised Aufsdtze.
Eduard Zeller . . . gcwidmet, p. 119; Martineau, A Study of Spinoza , p. 118, n. i.
a Ethics, I, Def. i.
128 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
"A thing must be conceived either through its essence alone
or through its proximate cause. Namely, if a thing be in
itself, or, as it is commonly termed, its own cause (causa sui) y
then it must be understood through its essence alone; but
if a thing be not in itself, but requires a cause to exist, then it
must be understood through its proximate cause." r Now,
in Arabic and Jewish philosophy the concept of necessary
existence as applied to God is the main principle out of which
arise all the negations and affirmations about the divine
nature. It is from this that it is deduced that God is imma-
terial, that He is not an accident existing in a subject or a
form existing in matter, that His essence and existence are
identical, that He is not conditioned by any other cause nor
in any other way dependent upon another being, that He is
one, that He has no accidental qualities, that He is immu-
table, that He is the emanative cause of every thing, that He
is indefinable, and that He is the source of the existence of
everything else. 2 By the same token Spinoza undertakes to
deduce from the concept of necessary existence, or its equiva-
lents, a similar list of negations and affirmations about God.
Says he in one of his letters to Hudde: "I will briefly show
. . . what properties must be possessed by a Being that in-
cludes necessary existence. To wit: I. It must be eternal.
... II. It must be simple, not made up of parts. . . . III.
It cannot be conceived as determinate, but only as infinite.
. . . IV. It must be indivisible. ... V. [It] can have in itself
no imperfection, but must express pure perfection. . . .
Lastly . . . there can only be a single Being, of which exist-
ence belongs to its nature." 3 Again: "From the fact alone,
that I define God as a Being to whose essence belongs exist-
1 Tractates de Intelltetus Emendationc, 92 (Opera, II, p. 34, 11. 9-13).
2 Mafya$id al-Falasifah, II, ii (pp. 137 if.).
3 Epistola 35.
PROPS. 7- 10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 129
ence, I infer several of His properties; namely, that He
necessarily exists, that He is one, unchangeable, infinite,
etc." *
Not only from the mediaevals but also from Descartes
has Spinoza derived the method of deducing the properties of
God from the concept of necessary existence. "Indeed upon
this truth alone, namely, that existence belongs to the nature
of God, or that the concept of God involves a necessary
existence as that of a triangle that the sum of its angles is
equal to two right angles, or again that His existence and His
essence are eternal truth, depends almost all our knowledge
of God's attributes by which we are led to a love of God (or
to the highest blessedness)." 2
But from Descartes Spinoza has borrowed also the onto-
logical proof. A being whose conception involves existence,
according to this reasoning, must necessarily exist, and this
sort of reasoning forms the basis of Spinoza's proofs of the
existence of God in Proposition XI, to be discussed in a sub-
sequent chapter. Now, according to Descartes, the term
a se, which he applies to God in the same sense as sui causa, 3
has both a negative sense and a positive sense. In its nega-
tive sense it means that God has no cause; 4 in its positive
sense it means that God stands to himself in the same way
as an efficient cause does to its effect. 5 The term causa sui
similarly in Spinoza is not a mere negation, meaning cause-
lessness; it means also something positive: it is an asser-
tion of self-sufficency and hence actual existence. He
thus says in the second part of his definition of causa sui:
"or that, whose nature cannot be conceived unless exist-
1 Kpistola 83.
3 Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, I, Prop. 5, Schol.
J Primae Responsiones (Ofuvres, VII, p. 109, 11. 16 and 21).
* Ibid. (p. no, 1. 24).
s Ibid. (p. in, 11. 6-7).
130 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
ing." * Likewise Proposition VII of the First Part of the
Ethics, while on the whole it is a reproduction of mediaeval
Jewish discussions, contains also the additional Cartesian
element, as is indicated in its phrasing. Spinoza does not
say there as he says in Cogitata A4etaphysica, I, 2, that
essence in substance is not different from existence, but he
says, "It pertains to the nature of substance to exist."
The identity of essence and existence is also the burden of
the fourth proposition in the second chapter of the First Part
of the Short 'Treatise. The wording of the proposition some-
what obscures its meaning. It reads as follows: "That in the
infinite understanding of God there is no other substance than
that which is formaliter in nature/' 2 The purpose of this
proposition, however, becomes clear when it is compared
with its restatement at the end of the Short Treatise, Appen-
dix I, Proposition IV: "To such an extent does existence
pertain by nature to the essence of every substance, that it
is impossible to posit in an infinite understanding the idea
of the essence of a substance that does not exist in nature/'
It is clear that this fourth proposition, both in the main text
and in the Appendix of the Short Treatise, is parallel to
Proposition VII in Ethics, I, namely, that existence per-
tains to the nature of substance. In the Short Treatise, how-
ever, Spinoza utilizes the principle of the identity of essence
and existence in substance as an argument for what is the
main contention of Chapter 2 of the Short Treatise, I. The
main contention of that chapter, as we have already shown,
is to refute the mediaeval view that there are two substances,
God and the world, the latter of which has no existence in-
volved in its essence, inasmuch as it must acquire existence
1 Ethics, I, Def. i.
3 Short Treatise, I, 2, 2 (Opera, I, p. 20, 11. 6-7). But in II (p. 21, 11. 33-34):
"there is no substance or attribute" instead of "there is no oth^r substance."
PROPS. 7-10, 1 2-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 131
through an act of creation or emanation. Spinoza seems to
say to his mediaeval opponents, in Proposition IV of the
Short Treatise , I, 2, as follows: You maintain that the world
[i.e., conditional substance] had existed prior to its creation
only as an "idea" in the "infinite understanding [i.e., intel-
lect] of God," and that only through an act of creation has
it acquired existence. But any form of creation, however
explained, I have already shown to you to be impossible. 1
Existence therefore must pertain to the essence of the world
just as you say it pertains to the essence of God, and there is
thus no such distinction between God and the world as that
of creator and created, or absolute substance and conditional
substance. He thus concludes, in the Corollary to Proposi-
tion IV in Appendix I at the end of the Short Treatise, that:
"Nature is known through itself, and not through any other
thing. It consists of infinite attributes, every one of them
infinite and perfect in its kind; to its essence pertains exist-
ence, so that outside it there is no other essence or existence,
and it thus coincides exactly with the essence of God, who
alone is glorious and blessed." By "nature" here Spinoza
means the universe; God is not outside of it, that is to say,
pure form as opposed to matter, but the two are essentially
the same, for, as he sums up his conclusions at the end of the
four propositions in the same chapter of the Short Treatise,
"we posit extension [i.e., matter] as an attribute of God." 2
The proofs of the fourth proposition given in Chapter 2 of
the Short Treatise, I, are not altogether new. They are only
restatements of the arguments already used by Spinoza in his
discussion of the first three propositions. We have already
pointed out the literary origins of these arguments in our
discussion of the unity of substance in the preceding chapter.
1 Cf. above, Chapter IV.
3 Short Treatise > 1, 2, 1 8 (Opera, I, p. 24, 1. H ). But see below, pp. 299, 3 19 ff.
132 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
The sources quoted there will throw light upon Spinoza's
reference here to an argument "from the infinite power of
God, since in Him there can be no cause by which He might
have been induced to create one sooner or more than an-
other" x (First Argument). They will likewise help to eluci-
date his reference to an argument that God "cannot omit to
do what is good" 2 (Third Argument), as well as his argu-
ment based upon the principle "that one substance cannot
produce another" 3 (Fourth Argument). There is only left
for us to account for his allusion to an argument "from the
simplicity of His will" 4 (Second Argument). This I believe
to reflect a passage in which Crescas attempts to refute
Maimonides* solution of the problem of creation. It will be
recalled that Maimonides endeavors to answer the question
as to why God created the world at one time rather than at
another, as well as to explain the other difficulties of creation,
by the general statement that creation was an act of divine
will. To this Crescas retorts somewhat as follows: If the
world was created by divine will, then inasmuch as the world
is composite, the will that has created it will have to be com-
posite, for the creative will must be diffused throughout the
parts of the object created. But this is impossible, since God's
will, not being distinct from His essence, must be as simple
as the essence itself. 5 Hence Spinoza's cryptic statement,
"from the simplicity of His will." 6
1 Short treatise, I, 2, 1 1 (Opera, I, p. 21, 1. 35~p. 22, 1. 3).
3 Ibid. (p. 22, 11. 3-4). 3 I^d. (p. 22, 11. 5-7).
Ibid. (p. 22, 1. 3).
5 Cf. Or Adonai) III, i, 4 (p. 66b, 11. 42-45): "Granted that the proposition leads
to the conclusion that there must be the will of an agent, this very same proposition
would also have to make that will produce one simple object, for a will producing a
composite object would itself have to be composite, inasmuch as the will must be
diffused throughout the composite object which it produces."
6 Cf. also Descartes' statement that "the will consists only of one single element,
and is so to speak indivisible" (Mcditationes^ IV, Oeuvres, VII, p. 60, II. 22-23).
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 133
III. DEFINITION OF THE TERM "INFINITE"
Coming now to Proposition VIII, that "every substance
is necessarily infinite," we shall first endeavor to explain in
what sense Spinoza uses the term "infinite." Here, too, it is
to his predecessors that we must turn for help and infor-
mation. Spinoza speaks of two kinds of infinite. There is,
first, the "absolutely infinite" (absolute infinitum) (Def. VI).
With this is contrasted, second, the "infinite in its own kind"
(in suo genere infinitum) (Def. VI, Expl.). Corresponding
to the "infinite in its own kind" there is the "finite in its
own kind" (in suo genere fin itum) (Def. II). These phrases
are, to be sure, all defined by Spinoza, but his definitions, as
will have been gathered, are in most cases brief restatements
of generally accepted and well-known mediaeval concepts.
What then is the origin and background of these phrases as
well as of the ideas behind them ?
In mediaeval discussions of infinity the term "infinite" is
said to have two meanings. It may be an accident either of
magnitude or of number, or it may be an essence, that is to
say, a self-existent substance, immaterial like soul and intel-
lect. 1 As an accident of magnitude it means an unlimited
distance or length, something that has no end or boundary.
As an accident of number, it means something that is end-
lessly addible or divisible. "Finite" as the antithesis of this
kind of infinite means just the opposite, a distance that is
bounded and a number that is limited, or, in other words,
something comparable with others of its kind and exceeded
by them.
But an essentially infinite substance means something
1 See Or Adonai, I, i, i (p. 4a-b), based upon Averroes' Middle Commentaries
on Physics , III, 4, 2043, 2-5, 2043, 32, and Metaphysics , XI, 10, io66a, 35~io66b, 21.
Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, p. 137 and notes on pp. 329-335.
134 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
entirely different. It means a substance whose essence is
unique and so incomparable that it cannot suffer any form
of limitation and hence cannot have any form of positive
description, for every description necessarily implies a limita-
tion, or as Spinoza puts it: "determination is negation." 1
To call a substance infinite in this sense is like calling voice
colorless. When voice is described as colorless it does not
mean the negation of a property which we should expect it
to have and which it may have, but rather the absolute ex-
clusion of voice from the universe of color. By the same
token, when substance is described as infinite in this sense,
it means its absolute exclusion from any form of finitude,
limitation, and description. The negation of finitude implied
in this sense of the term " infinite " is what the mediaeval
Jewish logicians would call "absolute negation" as con-
trasted with "particular negation " a contrast which is
expressed in the distinction between "A is not-B" and "A
is not B." There is a suggestion of this distinction in Aris-
totle, 2 and Spinoza himself uses for these two kinds of ne-
gation the terms "negation" (negatio) and "privation"
(privatio). "Thus privation is nothing else than denying of
a thing something which we think belongs to its nature; nega-
tion is nothing else than denying of a thing something because
it does not belong to its nature." 3 Of the parallel passages
in Jewish philosophy the following may be quoted: "You
already know from your reading in logic that negation is of
two kinds. One is particular negation, 4 as, e.g., when we
say * Balaam does not see/ which is negation in the true
sense of the term. The other is absolute negation, 5 that is
to say, the denying of the subject that which does not natu-
1 Epistola 50 (Opera,YV, p. 240, 11. 13-14): "determinatio negatio est." Cf.
Ethics, I, Prop. 8, Schol. i. a De Interpretations ', Ch. 10; Metaphysics, V, 22.
* Epistola 21 (Opera , IV, p. 129, 11. 5-7).
< rnnvon n^pn. s nrfrwon n
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 135
rally belong to it, as, e.g., "The wall does not see/ which is
negation in a general sense/' l
This mediaeval distinction between an essential and an ac-
cidental infinite is based upon the following passage in Aris-
totle: "The infinite is either that which is incapable of being
traversed because it is not its nature to be traversed this
corresponds to the sense in which the voice is ' in visible* ,
or that which admits only of incomplete traverse or scarcely
admits of traverse, or that which, though it naturally admits
of traverse, is not traversed or limited; further, a thing may
be infinite in respect of addition or of subtraction or of both." 2
The implication of the passage is this. The infinite is that
which has no limit. The term is derived from magnitude and
number, and must thus primarily apply to them or to any
other thing which may be measured either quantitatively or
qualitatively. We may therefore speak of infinite beauty as
well as of infinite length and number. All such forms of
measurement, however, imply a common standard and a com-
parison of the thing measured with other things of its kind.
But the term "infinite" may be used also in a derivative
sense as applied to things which are incapable of being meas-
ured on account of their uniqueness and incomprehensibility
in a class in which they can be compared with others of their
kind. "Infinite" in this sense is an absolute negation, the
denial of a thing of any kind of determination and descrip-
tion, as something not belonging to its nature.
In view of this discussion, we may now explain the mean-
ing of the different kinds of finite and infinite in Spinoza.
To be finite or limited means to be comparable, and since
only like things can be compared, to be finite means to be
included within a class of like things. " If between two things
1 Narboni's commentary on Moreh Nebukim, I, 58.
2 Metaphysics y XI, 10, io66a, 35-10666, i; cf. Physics , III, 4, 2O4a, 2-7.
136 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
no relation can be found, there can be no similarity [and
hence no comparison] between them, and there is no relation
between two things that have no similarity to each other;
as, e.g., we do not say that this heat is similar to that color,
or this voice is similar to that sweetness. . . . You must
know that two things of the same kind i.e., whose essential
properties are the same, distinguished from each other by
greatness and smallness, strength and weakness, etc. are
necessarily similar/' I Everything that suffers description
may therefore be called finite in its own kind, for it cannot be
described except in terms that properly belong to it and limit
it. A thing finite is thus something that is similar in some
respect to something else of its own kind with which it may
be compared and be found greater or smaller, longer or
shorter, more important or less important. Hence Spinoza's
definition: "That thing is called finite in its own kind which
can be limited by another thing of the same nature. For ex-
ample, a body is called finite, because we always conceive
another body which is greater. So a thought is limited by
another thought; but a body is not limited by a thought,
nor a thought by a body" (Def. II).
"Infinite in its own kind" means simply the superlative
degree of comparison, its surpassing of all others of the same
kind. It does not mean that the thing so described as infinite
is unique and incomparable by possessing an infinite number
of qualities, nor does it mean that any of its qualities is unique
and incomparable. What it means is that certain ones of its
qualities upon being compared with others of their kind will
be found to surpass them all. Hence Spinoza's statement:
"For of whatever is infinite only in its own kind, we can
deny infinite attributes" (Def. VI, Expl.).
But "absolutely infinite" means an absolute exclusion
1 Moreh Nebukim, I, 56.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 137
from the universe of finitude, determination, and description.
It implies uniqueness and incomparability; there is no kind
to which it may be said to belong. It is sui generis. It is an
individual essence of its own kind. The number of its attri-
butes is infinite, and so is each of its attributes, and for this
reason it suffers no description or determination. Spinoza
thus says: "But to the essence of that which is absolutely
infinite pertains whatever expresses essence and involves no
negation" (Def. VI, Expl.).
It is as an "absolutely infinite" of this kind that God is
described by the mediaevals, a description which denies the
existence of any relation between the essence of God and that
of other beings. "Since the existence of a relation between
God and man, or between Him and other beings, has been
denied, similarity must likewise be denied/' r Even those
who like Crescas contended for the existence of essential
attributes likewise denied that there is any similarity be-
tween divine and human attributes, "for they widely differ
. . . the one being finite and the other infinite," and "there
can be no relation and comparison between the infinite and
the finite." 2 In almost exactly the same words Spinoza says:
"This I know, that between the finite and the infinite there
is no comparison (proportion em) ; so that the difference be-
tween the greatest and most excellent creature and God is
the same as the difference between God and the least crea-
ture." 3 The absolute infinity of God in this sense is described
by Maimonides as follows: "Even these negative attributes
must not be formed and applied to God, except in the way
in which, as you know, sometimes an attribute is negatived
in reference to a thing, although that attribute can naturally
never be applied to it in the same sense, as, e.g., we say,
' Ibid., I, 56.
2 Or Adonai, I, iii, 3 (pp. rjb-^a). * Epistola 54.
138 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
'This wall does not see/" x Says also Judah ha-Levi: "As
regards the negative attributes, such as Living, Only, First
and Last, they are given to Him in order to negative their
contrasts, but not to establish them in the sense we under-
stand them. For we cannot understand life except accom-
panied by sensibility and movement. God, however, is
above them. . . . One cannot, for instance, speak of time
as being endowed with life, yet it does not follow that it is
dead, since its nature has nothing to do with either life or
death. In the same way one cannot call a stone ignorant,
although we may say that it is not learned. Just as a stone
is too low to be brought into connection with learning or
ignorance, thus the essence of God is too exalted to have
anything to do with life or death. " 2 Exactly the same
reasoning, though for a different purpose, is employed by
Spinoza: "I say then, first, that privation is not the act of
depriving, but simply and merely a state of want. . . . We
say, for example, that a blind man is deprived of sight, be-
cause we readily imagine him as seeing. This imagination
comes about either because we compare him with others who
see, or because we compare his present condition with his
past condition when he did see. . . . But when the decree
of God and His nature are considered, we cannot say of that
man any more than of a stone, that he is deprived of sight,
for at that time sight pertains to that man no less inconsist-
ently than to a stone/' 3
Hence the term "infinite" stands in Spinoza for such terms
as " unique," " incomparable," " homonymous," " indeter-
minate," "incomprehensible," " ineffable," " indefinable,"
"unknowable," and many other similar terms. "Unknow-
able" and "indefinable," however, will be found its most
1 March Nebukim, I, 58. 2 Cuzari, II, 2.
* Epistola 21.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 139
convenient equivalents. It is in accordance with Aristotle's
dictum that " the infinite so far as infinite is unknown," '
which Spinoza himself repeats in connection with his argu-
ment that by an infinite number of methods "we can never
arrive ... at any knowledge whatever/' 2
In the three propositions from VIII to X Spinoza is trying
to prove, as we have already indicated, that substance is
everything that God has been laid down to be in his defini-
tion. Proposition VIII begins by showing that like God, who
is " absolutely infinite," substance is also "necessarily in-
finite." Formally the proof of this proposition is based upon
the identity of essence and existence in substance, as stated
in Proposition VII, and upon the impossibility of two or more
substances having the same nature or attributes, as stated
in Proposition V. Materially, however, the proposition rests
upon the very definition of substance. For Proposition VII,
we may recall, is based upon the principle that substance has
no prior cause, and Proposition V is likewise based upon the
principle that substance can have no higher genus, both of
which principles are implied in the definition of substance.
So this proposition, too, is derived from the very nature and
definition of substance as "something which is in itself and
is conceived through itself." In fact, Propositions VII, VIII,
IX, and X are all unfoldings of the implications of the defini-
tion of substance.
The next step in the analogy between substance and God
is to show that by infinity in both cases is meant the posses-
sion of infinite attributes. This is the purpose of Proposition
IX. The proposition as it stands is incomplete. Only the
major premise is given. Its full significance, however, can be
brought out by supplying the minor premise and conclusion.
,4, 187^7.
'Tractatus de Intellectus Emcndatione^ 13 (Opera, II, p. 13, 11. 17-23).
140 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
"The more reality or being a thing possesses, the more at-
tributes belong to it." But substance possesses infinite
reality or being. Hence, to substance belong infinite attri-
butes. In one of his letters to de Vries, 1 as well as in the
Scholium to Proposition X, in both of which places Proposi-
tion IX is reproduced, Spinoza actually adds the needed
conclusion.
There is one incidental comment which I should like to
make here with regard to the source of Proposition IX. It
seems to me that this proposition reflects Aristotle's dis-
cussion with regard to the character of a true proprium predi-
cated of a subject. If it can be shown, says Aristotle, that A
is a proprium of B, it can also be shown that what is more A is
also a proprium of what is more B. To quote him in full:
"The confirmer however [must consider], whether what is
simply is the property of what is simply; for the more will be
the property of the more, the less also of the less, the least
of the least, and the most of the most; thus, since it is the
property of fire naturally to tend upwards, it would also be
the property of what is more fire naturally to tend more up-
wards, and in the same manner we must direct attention
from other things also, to all these." 2 That Aristotle speaks
of proprium ('idiov) whereas Spinoza here speaks of "attri-
butes" is a matter of indifference. In mediaeval Hebrew lit-
erature the term proprium in a similar passage of Aristotle
is translated by the word which usually means "attribute." 3
1 Epistola 9 (Opera, IV, p. 45, 11. 2-4 and 20-22).
3 Topics, V, 8, I3yb, 33~i38a, 3.
3 Cf. Emunah Ramah, II, iv, 3 (p. 65): "These are some of the propositions
which are derived from the more (iniYI) and less (ninDHl). Aristotle mentions
them in the Book on Dialectic (fTOJ = J-*-), the title of which is translated by Alfa-
rabi as the Book on Topics (JTIDIpDn = JjJ-l ^J^; cf. Steinschneider, Al-
Farabi y p. 53, n. 74). The proposition in question is as follows: If a certain thing
has a certain attribute ("JNin), and if also the more that thing is the more it has
of that attribute, then the attribute belongs to the thing truly by necessity." This
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 141
Spinoza himself occasionally uses the term "attribute" in
the sense of property. 1 Starting therefore with the definition
of attribute as "that which the intellect perceives of sub-
stance, as if constituting the essence of substance" (Dem-
onst. of Prop. IX) and assuming it to be thus a true proprium
of substance, Spinoza concludes that " the more reality (reali-
tas) or being (esse) a thing possesses the more attributes be-
long to it" (Prop. IX). Incidentally it may be remarked that
since here as well as in his correspondence 2 Spinoza uses
realitas as the equivalent of esse or of entitasj* the term wezen-
theid (or wezeendhijd), which in a corresponding passage in
Short 'Treatise^ I, 2, ly, 4 is used in place of realitas , should be
translated by esse (i.e., being, Sein) rather than essentia (i.e.,
essence, Wesenheii). Spinoza further uses realitas as the
equivalent of perfection for which use there is a parallel in
Descartes. 6
Proposition X concludes the analogy between substance
and God by showing that each attribute of substance is in-
finite in all the various senses of infinity, "Each attribute
of substance must be conceived through itself." To be con-
ceived through itself, it has already been shown, means to
be indefinable, and "indefinable" and "infinite," it has also
been shown, are interchangeable terms. 7
passage is based on Topics, V, 8, ijyb, 14 ff., where the locus of more (juaXXop) and
less (JITTOV) Is discussed. The Greek term underlying the Hebrew term for " attri-
bute " is proprium (tSiw).
1 Cf. below, p. 230.
3 Epistola 9 (Optra, IV, p. 45, 11. 2-3 and 20).
3 Ethics, IV, Praef. (Optra, II, p. 207, 1. 27).
Optra, I, p. 23, II. 22-24; p. 534. Cf. above, p. 108, n. 4, and below, p. 382,
n. 7.
* Ethics, II, Def. 6, et passim.
6 Medttationes, III (Otuvrts, VII, p. 40, 1. 28).
7 See above, p. 76.
I 4 2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
IV. RELATION OF ATTRIBUTE TO SUBSTANCE
The God or substance of Spinoza, like the God of mediaeval
rationalists, is unknowable in His essence. He may indeed, in
Spinoza's view, be immediately perceived by intuition as a
clear and distinct idea, but He is not subject to knowledge
that defines its object in terms broader and more general.
When Spinoza argues against the mediaeval conception of an
unknowable God, 1 he simply argues for the view that God
can be known, after a manner, even though He cannot be
defined in terms of genus and species. "Of His [i.e., God's]
essence," says Spinoza, "we can form no general idea." 2
Spinoza indeed will endeavor to prove the existence of God,
but in this he will be merely carrying out the mediaeval tra-
dition that while we can have no knowledge of God's essence
we can prove His existence. "There is no possibility of ob-
taining a knowledge of the essence of God . . . the only
thing that man can apprehend of Him is the fact that He
exists." 3 Or again: "If knowledge is sought concerning a
thing whose very existence is in doubt, the first question to
be asked is whether it exists or not. When the question of
its existence has been answered positively, the thing then to
be asked about it is, What is it? How is it? Wherefore is it?
Concerning God, however, man has no right to ask except
the question as to whether He exists." 4
But while the real nature of God must remain beyond
comprehension, still God as a living and dynamic force in
the world, conceived as creator, lawgiver, caretaker, guide,
and guardian, makes himself known to mankind through His
1 Short 'Treatise , I, 7, 3 ff.
3 Epistola 50 (Opera, IV, p. 240, 11. 2-3).
J Morch Nebukim> I, 59.
Hobot ha-Lfbabot, I, 4.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 143
actions and works, and assumes in their eyes a certain char-
acter and personality. This character and personality of
God was determined, in the Middle Ages, by a set of descrip-
tive terms drawn from the literature of religious tradition.
In the philosophic terminology of the time, these descrip-
tive terms were known by the name of divine attributes.
There were many kinds of attributes which, when taken in
their literal sense, would express the various relations that
may exist between attribute and subject. Some of these
divine attributes would constitute in their ordinary meaning
accidental qualities. Others would designate actions. Still
others would only express some external relations. It was,
however, generally agreed that attributes could not be taken
in a sense which would imply plurality in the divine essence
or a similarity between God and His creatures. 1 It was
therefore commonly recognized that attributes are not to be
taken in their literal sense. The Talmudic saying that "the
Torah speaks according to the language of men " 2 is quoted in
this connection by the mediaeval Jewish philosophers. 3
Spinoza repeats it in his statement that "the Scripture . . .
continually speaks after the fashion of men." 4 How these
attributes could be interpreted so as not to contravene the ab-
solute simplicity and uniqueness of God constituted the prob-
lem of divine attributes with which all the mediaeval Jewish
philosophers had to grapple. That attributes could not be
taken as accidental qualities was generally admitted.
Whether they should be interpreted as external relations
would seem to be a question upon which opinions differed, 5
1 See my "Crescas on the Problem of Divine Attributes," Jewish Quarterly Re-
view, n.s., Vol. VII, p. 9, n. u.
2 Berakot jib, and parallels. 3 Moreh Nebukim, I, 26.
Epistola 19 (Opera, IV, p. 92, 11. 12-13); Epistola 21 (p. 132, 11. 34 f.).
5 Cuzari, II, 2; Emunah Ramah, II, iii; Ilobot ha-Lcbabot y I, 10; Moreh Nebukim,
I, 52 and 58.
144 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
though, I believe, it can be shown that the difference was
merely in the use of terms. It was agreed by all, however,
that attributes may be taken in the sense of actions. There
was equally a general agreement that no attribute, in its
literal and obvious sense, expresses the real essence of God,
inasmuch as the essence of God must forever remain un-
knowable.
The mediaeval discussion about attributes is sometimes
summed up in a distinction drawn between the name Jehovah
and the other names of God. Says Judah ha-Levi: "All
names of God, save the Tetragrammaton, are predicates and
attributive descriptions, derived from the way His creatures
are affected by His decrees and measures." * Says also Mai-
monides: "It is well known that all the names of God oc-
curring in Scripture are derived from His actions, except
one, namely, the Tetragrammaton, which consists of the
letters yod^ he y waw> he. This name is the nomen proprium 2
of God and is on that account called Shew ha-Meforash y that
is to say, the name which indicates the essence of God in a
manner which excludes the implication of its having any-
thing in common with the essence of other beings. All the
other glorious names are common appellatives, 3 inasmuch as
they are derived from actions to which some of our own are
similar/' 4 In connection with these divine names Judah
ha-Levi quotes Exodus 6, 3, where God says to Moses:
"And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob,
by the name of God Almighty (El Shaddai\ but by my name
Jehovah was I not known to them." s
In Spinoza we find this view of the mediaevals restated
in almost their own words. Quoting the same verse from
1 Cuzari, II, a. * 1ITPO DP.
3 fpnBQ omo. March Nebukim, I, 61.
5 Cuzari y II, 2.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 145
Exodus 6, 3, 1 he comments upon it as follows: "We must
note that in Scripture no other name but Jehovah is
ever found which indicates the absolute essence of God,
without reference to created things. The Jews maintain,
for this reason, that this is the only nomen propriitm of God;
that the other names are mere appellatives (cippellativa); and,
in truth, the other names of God, whether they be substan-
tives or adjectives, are mere attributes, which belong to God
in so far as He is conceived of in relation to created things
or is manifested through them." He then concludes: "Now,
as God tells Moses that He was not known to the patriarchs
by the name of Jehovah, it follows that they were not cogni-
zant of any attribute of God which expresses His absolute
essence, but only of His deeds and promises that is, of His
power, as manifested in visible things." 2 Now, Spinoza
has adopted the traditional term "attribute," and makes
use of it as a description of the manner in which substance,
unknowable in itself, manifests itself to the human mind.
But how would Spinoza characterize his attributes if he were
to classify them according to the mediaeval fashion? They
are not accidents, nor relations, nor actions. They are, how-
ever, what, as we shall presently see, the mediaevals called
essential attributes, that is to say, attributes which con-
stitute the essence. He thus says: "By attribute, I under-
1 In his comment on the divine name El Shaddai which occurs in this verse,
Spinoza remarks that "El Shaddai, in Hebrew, signifies the God who suffices, in
that He gives to every man that which suffices for him " (Opera, III, p. 169, 11. 3-5).
Judah ha-Levi, in the corresponding passage quoted in the preceding paragraph,
explains El Shaddai as meaning "power and dominion." Spinoza's explanation,
however, is found in Rashi's commentary on the Bible (cf. Genesis 17, i; 28, 3;
35, 1 1). Maimonides, though he like Rashi derives El Shaddai from a word meaning
"sufficient," explains it to mean that "His existence is self-sufficient" (Moreh
Nebukim^ I, 63). These two etymologies of El Shaddai go back to still earlier
sources.
a fracfatus fhcologico-PohticuSy Ch. 13 (Opera, III, p. 169, 11. 7-24).
146 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
stand that which the intellect perceives of substance, as if
constituting its essence" (Ethics, I, Def. IV).
But here we are met with a difficulty, a natural difficulty,
too, which has divided Spinoza scholars into two camps.
The definition may have two meanings, depending upon
which of its elements is emphasized. If the expression
" which the intellect perceives" is laid stress upon, it would
seem that attributes are only in intellectu. Attributes would
thus be only a subjective mode of thinking, expressing a re-
lation to a perceiving subject and having no real existence in
the essence. On the other hand, if only the latter part of the
definition is taken notice of, namely, "constituting the es-
sence of a substance," it would seem that the attributes are
extra intellectum^ real elements out of which the essence of the
substance is composed. According to both interpretations, to
be sure, it is the mind which perceives the attributes, but
there is the following difference. According to the former
interpretation, to be perceived by the mind means to be in-
vented by the mind, for of themselves the attributes have no
independent existence at all but are identical with the essence
of the substance. According to the latter interpretation, to
be perceived by the mind means only to be discovered by the
mind, for even of themselves the attributes have independent
existence in the essence of the substance. 1
In the discussion of the subject two kinds of evidence have
been adduced by scholars in support of their respective in-
terpretations: literary and material. It is not my purpose
here, however, to assemble and assess what has been said
by either side in support of its own view and in objection to
the other. On the whole, the abundance of both literary and
material evidence is in favor of the subjective interpretation.
This interpretation is in harmony both with the variety of
1 Cf. Erdmann, Grundriss der Gcschichte der Philosophic ', II, 272.6.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 147
statements made by Spinoza about attributes and with the
place which the attributes occupy in his system. Of the
latter we shall have occasion to speak in other chapters. The
main objection to this interpretation has been summed up
in the statement that "no prae-Kantian reader would have
put such a construction on Spinoza's language/' l We shall
therefore address ourselves to this particular objection and
try to show that this very controversy between the upholders
of the subjective and the objective interpretations of Spi-
noza's attributes is the question upon which mediaeval
Jewish philosophers were divided in their theories of divine
attributes, and also to point to certain facts which indicate that
Spinoza has consciously and advisedly aligned himself with
that group of Jewish philosophers who held a subjective
theory of attributes.
The gravamen of the mediaeval discussion of divine attri-
butes is what is known as the problem of essential attributes.
By essential attributes are meant those elements which con-
stitute the essence of a subject, or which are related to the
essence of the subject as the genus and species are related to
the essence of the object defined. It appears primarily as a
problem in the exegesis of those adjectives which in the Bible
or in the other traditional literature are ascribed to God.
Admitting, as we have already pointed out, that attributes
are not to be taken literally, that they cannot be interpreted
as accidental qualities but may be interpreted as actions, the
mediaevals raised the question as to whether any of these
adjectives may be taken as being related to God in the same
sense as the elements of a definition to the object defined,
that is to say, as if constituting the divine essence. The prob-
lem, it must be remarked, was not whether the divine essence
could be conceived as consisting of a genus and species. The
1 Martineau, A Study of Spinoza , p. 184. Cf. Krdmann, he. cit.
148 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
absolute simplicity of God is a principle established beyond
any question, a simplicity which is to exclude metaphysical
and logical plurality no less than physical composition. It is
thus generally admitted that God is not a species and can
have no genus. 1 The question was merely as to whether the
assumption of essential attributes contravened that simplic-
ity of essence. To put the question more bluntly: Assuming
that the relation of God's attributes to His essence is analo-
gous to that of the parts of a definition, genus and species, to
the essence of the object defined, does that mean that the
essence is simple or not? Those who reject essential attri-
butes answer it in the negative; those who admit them an-
swer it in the positive.
The basis of the problem, it seems to me, is to be found in
the question as to the nature of the reality of genus and
species, or, in other words, of universals. If universals have
some kind of reality, then genus and species have some kind
of real existence, and a subject to which are attributed terms
related to it after the analogy of genus and species cannot be
said to be absolutely simple. On the other hand, if univer-
sals have no reality at all, then genus and species are mere
names, and definitions are purely nominal, and the essence
of the subject defined is in reality simple. The problem of
essential attributes is thus a problem of universals, the con-
troversy between realism and nominalism. It is, however,
not a conflict between Platonism and Aristotelianism. Pla-
tonic realism had no followers among the classical Jewish
philosophers. It is as Aristotelians, and as interpreters of
Aristotle's view, that Jewish philosophers latently formulated
their respective theories of universals which are hid away in
their discussions of divine attributes. For the real problem of
universals, it may be said, began with the rejection of Pla-
, II, 6 and 7. Cf. Short 'Treatise, I, 7, 3.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 149
tonic realism, when speculation became rife concerning those
universals which were now said to exist only in the mind.
As spokesman of those who reject essential attributes we
may take Maimonides. 1 While essential attributes, says
Maimonides, denote the essence of the object and do not
imply anything extraneous superadded to it, still they are to
be rejected, for they imply that the essence itself is composed,
as it were, of genus and species, which as universal terms are
considered as previous causes to the existence of the individ-
ual essence. 2 It is here that the theory of universals comes
into play. Like all Arabic and Jewish philosophers, Maimon-
ides rejects Platonic realism, affirming that "species have
no existence except in our own mind." 3 Still this assertion
makes him neither a nominalist nor a conceptualist. Nomi-
nalism must be rejected as inconsistent with the entire trend
of his argument, for if universals were mere words, defini-
tions would be purely nominal, and Maimonides could not
reject essential attributes on the ground that "there are no
previous causes to His existence, by which He could be de-
fined/* and quote with approval those who maintain that
"no definition can be given of God." 4 Conceptualism, or
the theory that universals have ideal without real exist-
ence, is explicitly rejected by Maimonides in his repudia-
tion of " the assertion of some thinkers, that ideas, i.e., the
universals, are neither existent nor non-existent." s What
Maimonides, as follower of Avicenna and in common with
all his contemporaries, conceived of universals is that they
have both ideal and real existence. Universals, to be sure,
exist in the mind, but the human mind does not invent them
1 The historical survey which follows is based upon my essay "Crescas on the
Problem of Divine Attributes/' Jewish Quarterly AV:7>:r, n.s., Vol. VII (1916), pp.
1-44, 175' 221 -
* Morfh Nfbukim, I, 51 and 52.
* Ibid., Ill, 18. " Ibid., I, 52. Ibid., I, 51.
150 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
out of nothing. What the mind does is only to discover them
in the multifarious individuals. For prior to the rise of in-
dividual beings the universals exist in the mind of God as
independent entities, and they remain as such even when
they enter upon plurality in material form, though their
presence in the individuals is not discernible except by mental
activity. Consequently essential attributes, which are re-
lated to the subject as genus and species are related to the
object defined, must necessarily imply some kind of plurality
in the essence of the subject. This plurality, to be sure,
would be only mentally discernible, but still it would be in-
consistent with the conception of absolute simplicity.
As against this view there are those who maintain that
essential attributes are admissible. They insist that uni-
versals have no reality at all; their existence in the mind
means that they are invented by the mind. Genus and
species are thus only generalizations, and definitions consist-
ing of genus and species are only nominal. Averroes, whose
view is quoted in Hebrew literature, is clearly outspoken on
this point. "It is of the nature of essential attributes that
they do not introduce any plurality into the subject which
supports them actually. If they do import into them some
kind of plurality, it is only in the same sense that the parts
of a definition may be said to import some kind of plurality
into the object defined, and that is what is called by philoso-
phers an intellectual plurality in contradistinction to an actual
plurality/' l No less outspoken is Moses ha-Lavi in his ad-
mission of essential attributes. "Some attributes," he says,
"are identical with the essence of the object described, as,
for instance, when we describe man by the attribute 'animal.'
. . . With reference to such attributes as are identical with
1 Averroes, ^ahajut a/-Tahafut, V (ed. M. Bouyges, p. 300, 11. 12-15); para-
phrased also by Narboni on Moreh Nebukim> I, 58.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 151
the essence of the object described, it is evident that God
can be described by them, inasmuch as they do not imply
any addition to the essence at all." z The implication here
again is that essential attributes, related to God after the
analogy of the genus animal to man, are purely subjective
terms, in reality being absolutely identical with the essence of
God. Likewise Gersonides, in his argument against Maimon-
ides' negative interpretation of attributes, justifies his own
positive interpretation by pointing to their subjective char-
acter. He draws a distinction between two kinds of proposi-
tions, one in which the relation of subject and predicate is
that of discourse, the other in which it is that of existence *
a distinction reminiscent of that made by Aristotle between
nominal and real definitions. 3 Divine attributes are thus to
him purely subjective and nominal predications of God, re-
lated to Him only in discourse, and implying no plurality in
His essence, and may therefore be taken as positive terms.
It can also be shown that Crescas* insistence upon the ad-
missibility of positive essential attributes is based upon the
view that attributes are purely subjective terms. The eclectic
Albo, vacillating between the positive and negative interpre-
tations of attributes, endeavors to justify the positive form
of attributes by calling them " intellectual conceptions" 4 of
divine perfection. " When I awaken from my reflections upon
the plurality of attributes I begin to realize that all the attri-
butes are nothing but intellectual conceptions of those per-
fections which must needs exist in Thy essence but which in
reality are nothing but Thy essence." 5
In view of this controversy over essential attributes in the
Md'amar Elohi.
Milhamot Adonai, III, 3: DIN'SDH . . .
Analytica Postfriora y II, 10, pjb, 29 ff.
nv^iw mrna.
'Jkkarim, II, 25.
152 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
philosophic literature with which Spinoza had an intimate
acquaintance, and in view of this insistence upon the sub-
jective nature of essential attributes on the part of many of
his Jewish predecessors, it is not unreasonable to assume that
it is not as a mere turn of speech that Spinoza always refers
to attribute in subjective terms, as when he describes
it, for instance, as that which the intellect perceives (per-
cipif) l concerning the substance, or as that which expresses
(exprimii) 2 or explains (explicat) 3 the essence of substance,
or as that under which God is considered (consideratur) 4 or
every entity is conceived (concipi)^ or as that which is the
same as substance but is called attribute with respect to the
intellect (respectu intellect us}? There is, furthermore, evi-
dence that Spinoza was acquainted with the moderately
realistic Avicennian and Maimonidean theory of universals
and that he disagreed with it and criticized it. "They have
set up general ideas," he says, . . . " These ideas, they state,
are in the understanding of God, as many of Plato's followers
have said, namely, that these general ideas (such as rational,
animal, and the like) have been created by God; and al-
though those who follow Aristotle say, indeed, that these
things are not real things, only things of reason, they never-
theless regard them frequently as [real] things/' 7 The
reference in this passage to the objective interpretation of
Aristotle's universals is clear. He finds it to differ only little
from Platonic realism. It would seem that Spinoza himself
considered universals, with the exception of only one uni-
1 Ethics, I, Def. 4.
2 Ibid.) I, Prop. 10, Schol.; Prop. 32, Demonst.
3 Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Ch. 13 (Opera, III, p. 169, 1. 23).
4 Ethics, II, Prop. 6; Prop. 7, Schol.; Epistola 64 (Opera, IV, p. 277, 11. 23-24
and 28-29).
5 Ethics, I, Prop. 10, Schol.; cf. Epistola 9 (Opera, IV, p. 45, 1. 2).
6 Epistola 9 (Optra, IV, p. 46, 1. 4).
7 Short Treatise, I, 6, 7.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 153
versal, namely, substance, 1 as purely subjective concepts; and
what is true of universals is also true of attributes. It is thus
not in vain that in his formal definition of attribute Spinoza
says that he understands by it "that which the intellect 2
perceives of substance, as if constituting its esssence," in-
stead of merely saying, as does Descartes, that attributes
constitute the essence of substance. 3 Elsewhere, too, in
the Ethics as well as in his other writings attributes are
always spoken of in terms which suggest their subjective
character. 4 In one place he says explicitly that attributes
are distinguished only by reason. 5
This subjective interpretation of attributes disposes of
the difficulty which is raised by those who follow the objec-
tive interpretation. "How that essence can be one and
self-identical, while its constituents are many, heterogeneous
and unrelated, is a question which is hopeless of solution/' 6
1 Cf. below, pp. 327-328.
2 By the term "intellect" in this definition Spinoza means the finite human in-
tellect. When he says in Ethics , II, Prop. VII, Schol., that "we have already
demonstrated, that everything which can be perceived by the infinite intellect as
constituting the essence of substance pertains entirely to one substance, and conse-
quently that substance thinking and substance extended are one and the same sub-
stance, which is now comprehended under this attribute and now under that," it
is not to be inferred that an attribute of substance is that which can be conceived
only by the "infinite intellect." What the passage means to say is that "everything
which can be conceived of by the infinite intellect as constituting the essence of sub-
stance" and the infinite intellect can conceive of an infinite number of things as
constituting the essence of substance is only an attribute of substance and not a
substance itself, and consequently extension and thought, which alone can be con-
ceived by the finite human intellect as constituting the essence of substance, are
only attributes of substance and not substances themselves.
J Principia Philosophiae, I, 53: "Substantiae praecipua proprietas [= attri-
butum], quac ipsius naturam cssetiamque constituit"; Notae in Programma
((EitvreSy VIII, 2, p. 349, 11. 1-2): " Attributum, quod ejus [substantiae] essentiam
naturamque constituit." See Erdmann, Grundriss dcr Geschichte der Philosophic^
II, 272,6.
4 See references above, p. 152. Cf. Busolt, Die Gi undzuge der Erkenntnisztheorie
und Metaphysik Spinozns, pp. 107-111. s Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 3.
6 Martineau, A Study of Spinoza, p. 185.
154 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
The question had already been raised by Simon de Vries in
a letter to Spinoza: "If I may say that each substance has
only one attribute and if I had the idea of two attributes,
then I could rightly conclude that where there are two dif-
ferent attributes there are also two different substances/' l
Spinoza's answer is like that given in Jewish literature by
those who admitted essential attributes, namely, that at-
tributes are merely different words expressing the same es-
sence. "You desire, though there is no need, that I should
illustrate by an example, how one and the same thing can be
stamped with two names. In order not to seem miserly, I
will give you two/' 2 That essential attributes, as suggested
in this quotation, are only names by which the essence is
denoted is the view held by both those who admit the use of
positive attributes and those who reject it. Even Maimon-
ides speaks of essential attributes as being merely "the
explanation of a name/' 3 If he does reject their positive use,
it is only because he endows essential attributes with some
kind of objective reality. Were they all names only and
nothing else, Maimonides would permit their positive use.
Albo well restates Maimonides' view in the following pas-
sage: "You must know that God cannot be described by
two things which would constitute His essence after the
analogy of animality and rationality in Man. . . . He can,
however, be described by any attribute which is only the
explanation of the name by which He is called." 4
In the mediaeval enH^avor to reconcile the apparent con-
tradiction between the plurality of attributes and the sim-
plicity of essence an attempt is often made to reduce all the
different attributes to one. It is shown that the variety of
1 Epistola 8 (Opera, IV, p. 41, 11. 10-13).
a Epistola 9 (Opera, IV, p. 46, 11. 7-9).
* Moreh Nebukim, I, 51 and 52. Cf. below, pp. 229-230. '
'Ibfcarim, II, 9.
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 155
attributes, however different they may appear to us, are in
reality one, for they are all involved in our conception of God,
they are conceived by us simultaneously, and they are always
together in God. "These three attributes [life, power, wis-
dom] are conceived by our mind immediately and simultane-
ously without the aid of intermediate reasoning, for conceiv-
ing God as we do in the nature of a creator we at once think
of Him as living, powerful, and wise. . . . But though these
three attributes occur to our mind at once, it is impossible
for our tongue to utter them at once, for we do not find in
human speech a single word comprehending all the three
attributes and we are compelled to resort to the use of three
words/' 1 Again: "We therefore say that the attributes
ascribed to God, though different from each other when
used with reference to us, are all one in Him. For with ref-
erence to ourselves, inasmuch as we conceive them or acquire
them one after the other, we consider them as being different
from each other; similarly, inasmuch as we acquire them
after we have been without them, we naturally consider
them as superadded to the essence. With reference to God,
however, we must consider them as unified and unacquired
in such a manner as not to imply any plurality in His es-
sence."' 2 It is the same reasoning that underlies the follow-
ing passage of Spinoza: "From this it is apparent that al-
though two attributes may be conceived as really distinct
that is to say, one without the assistance of the other we
cannot nevertheless thence conclude that they constitute
two things or two different substances; for this is the nature
of substance, that each of its attributes is conceived through
itself, since all the attributes which substance possesses were
always in it together, nor could one be produced by another;
1 Emunot we-De'ot, II, 4.
, II, 21.
156 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
but each expresses the reality or being of substance" (Prop.
X, Schol.). The implications of this passage are these:
The two attributes appear to the mind as being distinct
from each other. In reality, however, they are one. For by
Proposition X, attributes, like substance, are summa genera
("conceived through itself"). The two attributes must
therefore be one and identical with substance. Furthermore,
the two attributes have not been acquired by substance
after it had been without them, nor are they conceived by
the mind one after the other or deduced one from the other.
They have always been in substance together, and are con-
ceived by our mind simultaneously. Hence, the attributes
are only different words expressing the same reality and
being of substance.
Proposition XII is complementary to the definitions of
substance and attribute. While the definition of attribute
states affirmatively the subjective nature of attributes by
declaring that they are only perceived by the mind, the pro-
position denies any independent reality to attributes by
which the simplicity of the substance would be endangered.
"No attribute of substance can be truly conceived from
which it follows that substance can be divided." The con-
clusion is then reached in Proposition XIII, namely, that
"substance absolutely infinite is indivisible."
Spinoza's demonstrations for both these propositions are
practically the same. In both cases he begins with the same
hypothetico-disjunctive proposition and proceeds to show
in an identical manner that substance, because it is abso-
lutely infinite, cannot be divided. It will be recalled that
Spinoza's "absolutely infinite" has been shown to corre-
spond to what the mediaevals called "essentially infinite."
It is singularly worthy of notice that Spinoza's argument here
against the divisibility of an absolutely infinite substance is
PROPS. 7-10, 12-13] SIMPLICITY OF SUBSTANCE 157
the same as the mediaeval argument against the divisibility
of an essentially infinite substance.
Spinoza's argument runs as follows:
I. If an absolutely infinite substance were divisible, the
parts would either retain the nature of the whole or not.
II. If the parts retained the nature of the whole, there
would then be many infinite substances, which is absurd.
III. If they did not retain the nature of the whole, then
the whole would lose the nature of substance and cease to be.
The mediaeval argument against the divisibility of an es-
sentially infinite substance, as given by Averroes, runs in a
similar vein:
I. If an essentially infinite substance were divisible, the
parts would either have the same nature as the whole or not.
II. If the parts had the same nature as the whole, then the
parts of an infinite would be infinite, which is absurd.
III. If they did not have the same nature as the whole,
then the whole would consist of heterogeneous parts and
would thus lose its homogeneous and simple character. 1
The discussion of attributes in this chapter has been con-
fined to those phases of the problem which the exigencies
of the interpretation of Propositions VII -X and XII -XIII
required. Other phases of the problem will be discussed in
the chapter on Extension and Thought.
r See Averroes' Middle Commentaries on Physics, III, 5, 2O4a, 20-32, and Meta-
physics, XI, 10, io66b, 1 1-21. Cf. my Crescas* Critique of Aristotle, p. 137, and note
(dj on pp. 331-332.
CHAPTER VI
PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
I. THE ONTOLOGICAL PROOF
THE first ten propositions of the Ethics^ which precede Spi-
noza's proofs of the existence of God, are a challenge to
mediaeval philosophers. The starting point is the definition
of God, placed by Spinoza near the beginning of his work,
which, as we have already shown, is an exact reproduction
of a definition found in a standard work of a popular mediae-
val Jewish philosopher. 1 Spinoza seems to address his imagi-
nary opponents as follows:
All you mediaevals, to whatever school of thought you
may belong, have builded your philosophies on the concep-
tion of a God epitomized by you in a formal definition which
contains four characteristic expressions. You say that God
is (i) an ens in the highest sense of the term, by which you
mean that He is a being who exists necessarily. You also say
that He is (2) "absolutely infinite," by which you mean that
He is (3) "a substance consisting of infinite attributes,"
(4) "each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence"
(Def. VI). God so defined you call absolute substance^ you
differentiate Him from the world which you call conditionaj^
substance, and then you declare that the relation between
the ^ absolute and the conditional substance is like that of
creator to createdTjIn opposition to you, I deny at the very
outset the existence of a God outside the world and of His
relation to the world as creator. Still, unaccustomed as I am
1 'Iklfarim, II, 25. Cf. above, p. 118.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 159
to dispute about mere names, 1 I shall retain your own term
substance as a philosophic surrogate to the pious name God,
and in your own terms I am going to unfold a new conception
of the nature of God and of His relation to the world.
To begin with, I shall abandon your distinction between
absolute substance and conditional substance, but shall use
the term WEstance in that restrictive sense in which you use
the expression absolute substance. Then, what you call
conditional substance, or the world, I shall call mode. Fur-
thermore, unlike you, I shall not describe the relation of
substance to mode as that of creator to created, but rather as
that of whole to part, or, to be more exact, as that of universal
to particular (Defs. II and V; Axioms I and II; Prop. I). 2
The reason for my disagreeing with you on the question of the
causal relation between God and the world is that I find your
doctrine of creation, however you may try to explain it, an
untenable hypothesis (Props. II-VI). 3 Barring this difference
between us, a difference which, I must confess, is funda-
mental and far-reaching in its effect, I am going to describe
my substance in all those terms which you make use of in
describing your God. Like your God, my substance is (i)
the highest kind of ens, for existence appertains to its nature
(Prop. VII). (2) It is also absolutely infinite (Prop. VIII).
(3) Furthermore, it consists of infinite attributes (Prop. IX).
(4) Finally, each of its attributes expresses eternal and in-
finite essence (Prop. X). 4 I have thus described my substance
in all those terms which you use in your formal definition of
God. Consequently, as I am now to reproduce your proofs of
the existence of God to prove the existence of my substance,
I shall bracket together the terms God and substance and
1 Cf. Cogitata Mctaphysica, I, 3, quoted below. Cf. below, p. 190, n. 3.
* Cf. above, Chapter III. Cf. above, Chapter IV.
< Cf. above, Chapter V.
160 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
say: "God, or substance consisting of infinite attributes, each
of which expresses eternal and infinite essence, necessarily
exists" (Prop. XI). Having made it clear by this time what
I mean by the term God, I am no longer afraid of being mis-
understood. Hereafter I shall drop the term substance and
use in its stead the term God. And so he does.
The expression necessario existit y which Spinoza uses in
the eleventh proposition, is to be understood to have two
meanings. In the first place, it means that it can be shown
apodictically, by necessary, logical reasoning, that God must
exist. In the second place, it means that the existence which
is proved of God belongs to that class known as necessary
existence as opposed to possible existence. In a passage in
the Cogitata Metaphysica^ I, i, Spinoza points out the distinc-
tion between these two classes of existence: "From the defi-
nition of Being, or, if you prefer, from its description, 1 it is
now easily seen that Being should be divided into Being
which because of its own nature necessarily exists, or Being
whose essence involves existence, and Being whose essence
involves only possible existence." In the course of our
subsequent discussion of the proofs, especially of the second
proof, it will become clear that the purpose of this proposi-
tion is to state not only that God exists but also that His
existence is of the kind known as necessary existence. This
double purpose of the proofs of the existence of God is clearly
brought out by Spinoza in his Principia Philosophiae Car-
tesianae^ I, Proposition V, Demonstration: "The concept of
God includes necessary existence. Therefore it is true to say
' Definition (6pio>i6s, -*>-, TT3) is to be distinguished from description (viroypa^y
^ j, QCn). Cf. Maimonides, Millot ha-Higgayon, Ch. 10. Spinoza's hesitancy as to
whether Being (ens) has a definition or only a description reflects the question raised
by Hillel of Verona in his Commentary on Maimonides' Twenty-five Propositions
(Prop. 25) as to whether substance has a definition in view of the fact that it is a
summum genus. Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle , p. 575.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 161
that He has a necessary existence in himself, or that He exists."
Similarly Crescas in conclusion of his summary of Maimon-
ides' proofs of the existence of God seems to emphasize that
the proofs demonstrate not only that God exists but that He
exists with an existence which is necessary per se. 1
It will be well for us to state in Spinoza's own terms what
he is driving at in his proofs of the existence of God and what
he is trying to establish thereby. Spinoza himself would
have said that he was trying to determine by these proofs
what kind of being (ens) God is. For being or rather the
ideas we have of being is, according to Spinoza, of fourjdnds
^classification which seems to be derived from a Hebrew
source. Some ideas are reaJ, and these are ideas which have
an extra-mental object as their source; others are unreal^
and of these some are fictitious, mere figments of the imagi-
nation, composite pictures of things perceived and experi-
enced; others are rational, mere modes of thought, such as
the universals known as genera and species; and still others
are merely verjxil, because they exist neither in the intellect
nor in the imagination, such as chimeras and ideas conveyed
by expressions like " a square circle." 2 None of these unreal
ideas are ideas of things, for they have no real object as their
1 Or Adonai) I, i, 32.
2 Cogitata Metaphysica, I, I.
The source of this classification is to be found in the Hebrew philosophic manual
Rutih Hen, Ch. 5. According to the Ruah lien, there is the following classification
of being:
1. Real beings, D"fiDN D'TJl, which exist outside the mind and of which we
can form an idea either in the mind or in the imagination.
2. Unreal beings, D"J"1DN QrNlP D'TUT, which exist neither in the mind nor out-
side the mind. They are fictitious beings, having existence only in the imagination,
1'DNDH ]VD"O niN'XD WHH py 1 ? GHP N^N. Previous to this in the same chapter
they are also called "verbal beings," "Q^ "1131 p") DP ]'WP. This class is subdi-
vided into two parts:
a. Factitious beings which have no existence in reality, 02'KIP D'TDH "V'2T1
^3 D'NXDJ.
b. Factitious beings which not only have no existence in reality but whose nature
1 62 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
source, nor have they a counterpart outside the mind. Extra-
mental existences only are real, and ideas in the mind are
real only in so far as they represent those extra-mental ex-
istences. What Spinoza, therefore, is trying to establish by
his proofs of the existence of God is that God is not a fictitious
being, nor a verbal being, nor a being of reason, but a real
being, who has existence outside our mind and who is the
source and counterpart of the idea we have of Him. Sub-
stance, says Spinoza, is outside the intellect, 1 that is to say,
it is not fabricated by the intellect. Only that conception of
God, says he again, is a fiction which uses the name of God
not in harmony with His real nature; 2 the true conception of
God is that of " a body in nature whose idea is necessary in
order to represent God immediately/' 3
In order to determine whether an idea is real or not one
has to ascertain by means of the various approved sources
of knowledge whether or not it has an extra-mental object
involves a contradiction, as the words "a square circle" QHain Jlion "V2T IN
ynnD hbn HD-PP IDD ,anron "j>na D'tccon.
3. Beings of reason, which exist only in the mind but have no existence outside
the mind, as genera and species, niN'XD OH 1 ? | W ^DBQ D'NSD3P p D3 onm BH
Dvran D^DH "iwzn DTDH am }yyth pin psyn ^D.
The resemblance between this classification and that of Spinoza is striking. The
only differences to be noted are as follows:
(1) The classification in Ruah Hen applies the expression "verbal being" to
both 2a and 2b. Spinoza applies it only to what in his classification corresponds
to 2b.
(2) This classification considers the expression "a square circle" as something
which is in the imagination. Spinoza says of a chimera, which to him is the equiva-
lent of a "square circle," that it is neither in the intellect nor in the imagination
(sec Cog. Ato.,1,3).
Freudenthal is thus not quite right in saying that the distinction ofensjictum,
ens chimerae, ens rationis and ens reale does not occur in Jewish philosophy. Cf.
"Spinoza und die Scholastik" in Philosophische Aufsatze, Eduard Zeller . . .
gewidmet, p. 103.
1 Cf. EthifSy I, Prop. 4, Demonst.
2 Tractates de Intellect us Emendatione, 54 (Opera , III, p. 20, note t).
3 Short Treatise , Second Dialogue, 12 (Opera, I, p. 34, 11. 15-17).
PROP, u] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 163
to correspond to it. Again and again Spinoza classifies the
sources of knowledge. Not all of his classifications are of
the same type; they are, however, all made up of various
mediaeval classifications with some slight modifications of
his own, as we hope to show in another chapter. 1 Roughly
speaking, Spinoza maintains, clearly so in the Short freafise,
II, i, that we may know things either directly or indirectly.
Direct knowledge may be either sense perception in its many
forms and derivations, or intuition, the latter of which is
designated by Spinoza as " clear jmd distinct comprehen-
sion/^ 2 "clear cognition/'. 3 "intuitive science/' 4 or a per-
ception \wherein a thing is perceived through its essence
alone/' 5 that is to say, "intuitively, without any process of
working.'^ 6 Indirect knowledge consists of the inference of
the unknown from the known, which is described by Spinoza
as "true belief/' 7 "art of reasoning," 8 or that mode of per-
ception-" wherein the essence of one thing is concluded from
the essence of another." 9
Now, according to Spinoza, any one of these sources of
knowledge is sufficiently valid to establish the reality of any
idea we happen to have. Intuition and logical inference are
as valid proofs for the reality of ideas as direct sense percep-
tion; to Spinoza, in fact, they are more valid, for sense per-
ception and imagination alone may lead to falsity. 10 Still, in
' Cf. below, Vol. II, Chapter XVI.
3 klaarc en onderscheide bevatting. Short Treatise, II, I, 2.
3 klaare Kennisse. Op. cit., II, 2, i.
< scientia intuitiva. Ethics, II, Prop. 40, Schol. 2.
5 ubi res percipitur per so/am suam essentiam. Tractatus de Intellectus Emen-
datione, 19 (Opera, II, p. 10, 1. 20).
6 sed intuitive, nullam operationemfacientes. Ibid., ^(Opera, II, p. 12, 11. 13-
4).
1 waar gelooj. Short Treatise, II, I, 2.
8 ratio. Ethics, II, Prop. 40, Schol. 2.
9 ubi essentia rei ex alia re concluditur. Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione,
19 (Opera, II, p. 10, 1. 16). 10 Ethics, II, Prop. 41.
164 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
the proof of the existence of God in the history of philosophy,
not all of these sources of knowledge were of use. Direct
sense perception had to be eliminated, for, in the words of
Scripture, if a proof-text is necessary, "Man shall not see
me and live" (Exodus 33, 20). In fact, Spinoza explicitly
states that this verse should be taken in its literal sense as
an answer to Moses' request that God should show himself
to him in some perceptible form, 1 which, it may be remarked
incidentally, is an oblique criticism of Maimonides' interpre-
tation of the verse as meaning that God's essence cannot be
comprehended by the human intellect in denial of Moses'
request that God should become known to him in His true
essence. 2 Historically, therefore, the proofs of the existence
of God had to fall back upon the kind of knowledge which
is either direct like Spinoza's intuition, or indirect, that is,
by way of logical reasoning.
In the history of religious philosophy both these methods
of proving the existence of God, the direct and the indirect,
were made use of. When theologians, for instance, appeal
to revelation as a proof of the existence of God, either to an
act of historical revelation in the past or to the constantly
repeated revelations in the religious experience of chosen or
gifted individuals, they make the knowledge of God some-
thing direct and immediately perceived. Similarly when
Cicero 3 and, following him, others maintain that the idea
of God isjnnate in mam, they also make it an object of
immediate apprehension. Likewise the argument from con-
sensus gentium rests, in its ultimate analysis, on the assump-
tion that God is an object of immediate knowledge. 4 But,
1 Tractatus Theologico-Politicus^ Ch. 2 (Opera, III, p. 40, 11. 12 ff.).
a Moreh Nebukim, I, 64, and I, 4.
3 De Natura Deorum, I, 17, 44~45; H, 4, 11.
* Ibid.
PROP. TI] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 165
on the other hand, the cosmological argument and the ar-
gument from design proceed on the assumption that God
cannot be immediately known; He can become known only
indirectly by the art of reasoning. ^To Spinoza, however, be
it noted, Qod is an object of direct knowledge, for God, ac-
cording to him, is known to us as an in tuition, "as a clear and
distinct idea, which is adequate and true. "That existence
belongs to the essence of God," says Spinoza, "we can
clearly and distinctly understand" (Short Treatise, I, I, i);
"The knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God
which each idea involves is adequate and perfect "\(Ethics,
II, Prop. XLVI); and "By adequate idea, I understand an
idea which, in so far as it is considered in itself, without refer-
ence to the object, has all the properties or internal signs of a
true idea" (Ethics , II, Def. IV). To Spinoza, therefore, the
reality of the idea of God, that is to say, the existence of
God, is self-evident as an immediate fact of knowledge^ for
we can have a knowledge of God which is " as~cTear as that
with which we also know our body." J
But here a difficulty arises. To say that God's existence
is immediately perceived as an intuition and to declare in-
tuition as a valid source of knowledge, which establishes the
reality of the intuited idea, is to start out with a major
premise which would seem to require no further demonstra-
tion, and to which no further demonstration could add any-
thing, least of all a demonstration in the Aristotelian sense.
For a demonstration, according to Aristotle, is " a syllogism
which produces science" 2 and the science it produces in
the conclusion must be something not known directly from
the major premise. It has indeed been asked whether even
in the deductive syllogism of Aristotle the conclusion ever
1 Short Treatise, II, 19, 14 (Opera, I, p. 93, 11. 20-22).
2 Analytic a Posteriora, I, 2, 71 b, 17-18.
1 66 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS,!
really adds anything to the major premise. 1 Still, while
there may be some justification for Aristotle in reasoning
from the universal to the particular and in trying to prove
syllogistically that Socrates is mortal from the immediately
known and undemonstrable premise that all men are mor-
tal, for, after all, there may be a real inference in the syl-
logism in so far as there may be a real difference between
the particular and the universal, there does not seem to be
even this saving grace in Spinoza's proof where the subject
and the predicate in both the major premise and the con-
clusion are practically the same. For what Spinoza is prac-
tically trying to do is to prove syllogistically that God is
existent from the immediately known and undemonstrable
premise that God is existent. Logically it is analogous to an
attempt to prove the mortality of Socrates by the syllogism:
The husband of Xanthippe is mortal,
Socrates is the husband of Xanthippe,
Therefore, Socrates is mortal,
i> **
in which there is no inference unless by Socrates' mortality
here is meant that special kind of mortality which came
to him as a result of the fact that he was the husband of
Xanthippe. And yet Spinoza goes through all the motions of
proving the existence of God. What need is there for prov-
ing that which at the very outset is assumed to be immedi-
ately known?
The answer that would naturally suggest itself is that we
did not reproduce Spinoza's argument quite accurately, that
the major premise in his syllogism does not in itself establish
the existence of God; it only states the fact that we have an
idea of God as an existent being, and the purpose of the
syllogism therefore is to prove that our idea is real. We
' J. S. Mill, System of Logic, Bk. II, Chs. I and III.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 167
should probably be referred to what is known as the ontologi-
cal proof, to which class of reasoning most of Spinoza's proofs
belong, and we should be reminded that in the ontological
proof the major premise is always a statement of what our
idea of God is and an assertion that our idea of God, what-
ever it be, whether of a greatest being, or of a most perfect
being, or of a self-caused being, always involves existence,
and that the purpose of the proof is to establish the reality
of the idea. In refutation of this answer we may say that if
the major premise is assumed not to establish the existence
of God, then the conclusion does not establish it. Further-
more, we shall endeavor to show that in its classical formu-
lation by the three authors with whom we shall chiefly con-
cern ourselves here, Anselm, Descartes, and Spinoza, the
reality of the idea of God was never sought to be proved by
the syllogism, but it was already conceived to be established
in the major premise by some other principle.
It is needless for us to repeat here in detail the stock ob-
jection to the ontological argument in its conventional for-
mulation. The objection has become historically as famous
as the proof itself. Generally speaking, it tries to point out
that what the ontological proof establishes is that if God is
conceived of as the greatest being, or the most perfect being,
or a self-caused being, He must also be conceived of as exist-
ing outside the mind and cannot be conceived of as non-
existent. There is nothing in the proof, the objection con-
tinues, to show that the idea of God conceived of in any of
those forms is not a fictitious and arbitrary idea fabricated by
our mind. Now all these three protagonists of the ontologi-
cal proof were aware of this objection, and they all tried to
meet it squarely and directly. St. Anselm was challenged to
answer it by Gaunilon, and he answered it. Descartes quotes
the same objection from Thomas Aquinas and tries to rebut
168 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
it. 1 Spinoza, too, was confronted with the stock objection
by Oldenburg, 2 and he answered it. 3 Furthermore, he also
quotes Thomas Aquinas as stating that "God cannot be
proved a priori" and refutes that statement. 4 What is the
force of all these answers, rebuttals, and refutations?
If we examine closely the answers given by St. Anselm,
Descartes, and Spinoza to this most obvious objection, we
shall find that they all try to show that the idea we have
of God as an existing being does not depend for its proof
upon the syllogism, but that its reality is immediately known,
just as the reality of anything that is immediately perceived
and experienced. God, they all seem to say, is an immediate
object of knowledge, and the knowledge by which He becomes
known to us is a valid source of knowledge. This is their
proof for the existence of God. Nothing else is necessary
to corroborate it. The kind of knowledge we have of God
they hold to be as valid a proof for His existence as a mi-
raculous revelation or a natural personal experience of His
presence. There is no need to go further into this kind of
immediate knowledge. As far as Spinoza is concerned, we
shall discuss it fully in another chapter. 5
That this is the meaning of the answer to the stock ob-
jection is clearly brought out in Descartes, and in his case the
answer is generally so understood. The main point of his
answer is that "whatever we clearly and distinctly perceive
is true " 6 true in the sense of its having objective reality, 7
of its not being an arbitrary and fictitious idea. The force
of the ontological proof in Descartes, therefore, is its clear-
ness and distinctness, its intuitive character, its immediacy
1 Primae Responsiones (Oeuvres, VII, p. 115).
a Epistola 3. 3 Epistok 4.
Short treatise, I, i, 10. * Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 155 ff.
6 Primae Responsiones (Oeuvres, VII, p. 116).
7 Mcditationes, III (Oeuvres, VII, p. 46, 11. 8 f.).
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 169
after the manner of self-consciousness. It is this self-evident
nature of the truth of the idea of God that distinguishes
Descartes' ontological proof from his first proof in Medita-
tion III, though both are alike in that they reason from the
idea of God to His existence. In the first proof of Meditation
III, the fact that we possess an idea of God is not in itself
taken by Descartes to be a proof for His existence, for the
idea might be arbitrary and fictitious. It is therefore neces-
sary to establish the truth of the idea demonstratively, by
reasoning from effect to cause, by showing that the idea we
have of God could not have been produced except by a real
object corresponding to it. In the ontological proof, on the
other hand, the very nature of our idea of God is evidence
of His existence, just as our thinking is evidence of our own
existence and as our sense perception is evidence of the ex-
istence of the things perceived. It is not at all necessary to
assume, as it is done, that Descartes' ontological proof is de-
pendent upon his first and second proofs in Meditation III. 1
It is rather an independent proof, its basis being Descartes'
theory of knowledge, according to which a clear and distinct
idea like God is self-evidently true and contains objective
reality.
Similarly Spinoza makes it unmistakably clear that his
proof is primarily grounded upon the premise that God's
existence is an immediate fact of our knowledge. In antici-
pation of the objection of Thomas Aquinas that "God can-
not be proved a priori^ because, indeed, He has no cause/'
he maintains that "God, however, the first cause of all
things and even the cause of himself, manifests himself
through himself." 2 The manifestation of God to us through
1 Kuno Fischer, Geschichte der neuern Philosophic -, I, i (jrd ed., Heidelberg, 1889),
pp. 309 ff. Norman Smith, Studies in the Cartesian Philosophy, p. 58.
2 Short Treatise, I, i, 10.
I yo THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
himself as evidenced by the clearness and distinctness and
adequacy of the idea we have of Him directly and without
any further reasoning proves His existence. Similar passages
to the same effect are abundant in Spinoza's writings. 1
If thus in both Descartes and Spinoza the ontological argu-
ment is really psychological, resting as it does upon the view
that God is a direct object of our knowledge, can the same
be asserted with equal certainty of St. Anselm's proof? On
this point there exists a difference of opinion. On the one
hand, attempts have been made to show that St. Anselm's
argument is ultimately psychological like that of Descartes/
But, on the other hand, these attempts have been refuted on
the ground that there is nothing in St. Anselm to warrant
such a construction upon his argument. 3 In this entire con-
troversy, however, one important passage in St. Anselm
seems to have been lost sight of, namely, his answer to
Gaunilon.
If we study the true meaning of Anselm's answer to
Gaunilon's objection, we shall find that like Descartes and
Spinoza he stresses the point that his ontological proof is
based upon the premise that the existence of God is an im-
mediate fact of consciousness. Gaunilon, as may be recalled,
objected to the ontological proof by arguing that the idea of
a being than whom a greater cannot be conceived no more
proves the existence of God than the idea of an island than
which a more excellent cannot be conceived proves the exist-
ence of that island. Anselm vehemently denies that there is
1 See W. Apel, Spinozas Verhdltnis zum ontologischen Beweise (Leipzig, 1911).
* Beda Adlhoch, " Der Gottesbeweis des hi. Anselm " in Philosophisches Jahrbuch,
VIII-X (1895-1897), XV-XVI (1902-1903): "Verwegenheit also ist es nicht, wenn
im Nachfolgenden zu beweisen versucht wird, das Argument sei ein psychologisches
und geschichtsphilosophisches, kein ontologisches " (Vol. VIII, 1895, p. 56). See
also G. Grunwald, Gtschichte der Gottcsbewcisc im Mitte/a/ter, pp. 31-33.
* Cf. C. Baeumker, Vitelo, p. 305.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 171
any analogy between the idea of a being greater than all
other beings and the idea of an island more excellent than
all other islands, and exclaims: "But I call on your faith
and conscience to attest that this is most false/* x We read
this answer and wonder. We say to ourselves: Simple Saint!
if the authority of faith and the dictates of a religious con-
science are the ultimate arbiters in the controversy, why go
into all this trouble of proving the existence of God? Why
not quote Scripture and the church doctrine and be done
with it? There must therefore be some deeper meaning in
these simple words of Anselm. Is it not possible that in ap-
pealing to faith and to conscience Anselm is really invoking
the argument from revelation as attested by tradition by
which the existence of God is established as a fact of immedi-
ate personal experience? Such an argument from revelation
is common in Jewish philosophy, 2 and it may be considered
as partly psychological, in so far as the proof from revelation
derives its validity from the fact that it is an immediate ex-
perience, and partly historical and social, in so far as the
truth of the fact of revelation is attested by an unbroken
chain of tradition universally accredited within a certain
group. 3 It may thus be considered as the equivalent of the
argument from consensus gentium, which is also social and is
likewise ultimately based upon the immediacy of our knowl-
edge of God, namely, the innateness of the idea of God.
Just as the general agreement of mankind is used by Cicero
as evidence that the idea of God is innate, so is the generally
1 ApologeticuS) Ch. 1.
2 Cf. Moreh Ncbukim, II, 23.
3 Such a historical proof based upon revelation is referred to by Spinoza in
fractalus Theologico-Politicus, Ch. 4 (Opera, III, p. 61, 11. 28-31): "The truth of
a historical narrative, however assured, cannot give us the knowledge nor conse-
quently the love of God, for love of God springs from knowledge of Him, and knowl-
edge of Him should be derived from common notions (comminubus notionibus)^ in
themselves certain and known."
172 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
accredited religious tradition within the group taken by the
Jewish philosophers to prove the veracity of the fact of reve-
lation. 1 Anselm thus says to Gaunilon that the idea we have
of God is unlike the idea we have of a most excellent island.
The latter may be arbitrary and imaginary; the former is a
true and necessary idea, being based upon the immediate
experience of God's existence in the act of revelation as
attested by religious tradition universally accepted.
That the ontological proof must ultimately rest upon a
psychological basis may also be gathered from one kind of
opposition to that argument among the scholastics. There
were those who attacked the validity of the proof on the
ground of their denial of the major premise, maintaining
that the idea of God as a being whose essence involves ex-
istence was not immediately perceived by everybody. It was
only well-trained philosophers, they argued, who perceived
it as an immediate truth. But admitting that philosophers
did perceive it as an immediate truth, these opponents of the
ontological proof admitted the validity of the ontological
proof for philosophers. 2 The particular theory of knowledge
involved in this sort of reasoning is that indirect knowledge
may in the course of time become direct knowledge which is
immediately accepted without the need of demonstration.
Spinoza himself intimates this particular view when he says
that the desire to know things by the third kind of knowl-
edge may arise from the second kind of knowledge. 3 The
same view seems to be reflected also in Descartes' state-
ment that " those propositions indeed which are immediately
deduced from first principles are known now by intuition,
now by deduction, i.e., in a way that differs according to our
1 Cf. my "Notes on Proofs of the Existence of God in Jewish Philosophy" in The
Hebrew Union College Annual, \ (1924), p. 577.
3 C. Baeumker, Vilelo^ p. 301. * Ethics , V, Prop. 28.
PROP, u] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 173
point of view/* l And so, when the knowledge of God's ex-
istence becomes immediate and direct, whatever its origin,
the existence of God is said to be proved ontologically instead
of demonstratively, for to prove the existence of God ontologi-
cally means to perceive it directly as a given fact. The im-
mediacy of the knowledge of God's existence is fully ex-
plained by Spinoza toward the end of the Second Dialogue
in the Short Treatise p , and there, too, he seems to intimate that
it is not all men that do have at first such an immediate
knowledge of God. "However, I tell you this, that so long
as we have not such a clear idea of God ... we cannot truly
say that we are united with God."
We have thus shown, I believe, that Spinoza as well as
Descartes and Anselm starts his ontological argument with a
major premise that God's existence is a fact of immediate
knowledge. It is not necessary, as is generally done, to
set up a straw-man in the form of an untenable ontological
argument as it is conventionally stated, to riddle it through
and through, and then to take up the defence of one par-
ticular favorite, either Anselm, or Descartes, or Spinoza, and
claim that his particular argument is immune from such
criticism on the ground that it is not " ontological " but rather
" psychological/' 2 The point we have been trying to make is
that all these three protagonists of the so-called ontological
argument are alike in this respect. They are all making use of
a "psychological" argument, and their syllogism is tanta-
mount to saying that we know directly, as we can know any-
thing at all, that God exists. There is nothing in the con-
clusion of the syllogism that is not contained in the major
premise. But if this is so, the question may be raised, not
1 Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii, III (Oeuvres, X, p. 370, 11. 10-13).
2 Adlhoch does this with reference to Anselm; Apel with reference to Spinoza;
Descartes is singled out by everybody as an exception.
174 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
only against Spinoza, but against Anselm and Descartes as
well, What is the significance of the syllogism in the onto-
logical proof?
The answer is that the syllogism adds nothing to the major
premise. But still it is not altogether redundant. It may be
said that the function of the ontological proof is like that of
the proposition of an analytical judgment, in which the predi-
cate adds nothing to the subject, and still its use is not alto-
gether unjustifiable. Perhaps the comparison can be put in
the following manner. Just as propositions are either ana-
lytic or synthetic, so are syllogisms also either analytic or
synthetic, and the relation of the analytical syllogism to
the major premise is like that of the analytical proposition
to the subject. To be more specific: The ontological proof
for the existence of God is an analytical syllogism just as
the proposition "God is existent' 1 is an analytical judgment,
and the relation of the syllogism in the ontological proof to
the major premise is like the relation of the proposition "God
is existent " to the subject "God/* Neither of them adds
anything to the contents of its respective subject or major
premise with which it starts, but both of them analyze the
contents of their respective subject and major premise.
It was not Kant who was the first to draw the distinction
between analytical and synthetical judgments. It has been
shown that the scholastics before him had recognized it and
expressed it by the distinction between per se nota and per
aliud nota or by similar other distinctions, such as per se
and per accidens or in materia necessaria and in materia
contigenti* It can also be shown that it was not unknown
to Arabic and Jewish philosophers, and having known that
distinction, they asked themselves what kind of relation was
expressed in an analytical proposition. That the relation
1 Cf. P. Coffey, 'The Science of Logic , I, p. 70.
PROP. 11] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 175
could not be real and hence the judgment could not be real
they all seem to agree. They only seem to question whether
there could be a justifiable logical relation which was not
real. Thus in the proposition "God is existent/' argues
Avicenna, followed by a chorus of Jewish philosophers, since
essence and existence are identical, the proposition is tauto-
logical, and is tantamount to saying "God is God." z And
similarly Maimonides argues that in a proposition where the
predicate is identical with the subject there is no real logical
relation but only the explanation of a name.^ Likewise Ger-
sonides maintains that in the proposition "God is existent"
the term "God" is a subject only "in discourse," not "in
existence." 3
All this may be considered as a sort of anticipation of John
Stuart Mill's conclusion that an analytical judgment is only
verbal, or that it is explicative, as others call it. And so may
we also say of the analytical or ontological proof that it is
only verbal and explicative. It is indeed true to say of an
ontological proof what John Stuart Mill says of every form
of Aristotle's deductive syllogism. It contains no real infer-
ence. It adds nothing to what is already known from the
major premise. But still its use is justifiable. For it trans-
lates a conviction into an argument. It elicits a truth which
is only implicitly contained in the major premise. It puts
an immediate fact of consciousness in the form of a syl-
logistic reasoning. It resolves an idea into its component
parts. Thus when Spinoza proves the existence of God
ontologically, he does not pretend to arrive at a newly dis-
covered fact, but rather to restate in formal language a fact
already known.
1 Or Adonat) I, iii, I. Cf. above, p. 123.
8 March Nebukim, I, 51; cf. 52. Cf. above, p. 154.
* Milhamot Adonai y III, 3. Cf. above, p. 151.
176 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Truly speaking, if the ontological proof were to be put
into a syllogistic formula in such a way as to bring out its
entire force, it would have to be as follows:
Everything which is immediately perceived to exist
exists.
God is immediately perceived to exist.
Therefore, God exists.
Now, none of the ontological proofs in their various forms
as given by its three main exponents, Anselm, Decartes, and
Spinoza, prove directly that God exists. What they prove
is that the existence of God is known to us by a certain kind
of immediate knowledge. Their various proofs can be re-
duced to the following syllogism:
If we have an idea of God as the greatest, or as the
most perfect, or as a self-caused being, then God
is immediately perceived by us to exist.
But we have an idea of God as the greatest, or as the
most perfect, or as a self-caused being.
Therefore, God is immediately perceived by us to
exist.
Their direct proof of the existence of God is their respective
views that our immediate knowledge of God's existence
which is implied in the idea we have of God as the greatest,
or as the most perfect, or as a self-caused being is valid
knowledge.
II. SPINOZA'S FOUR PROOFS
The foregoing discussion of the nature of the ontological
proof may serve as a general approach to the understanding
of all of Spinoza's proofs of the existence of God. Whatever
may be said in criticism of this mode of ontological reason-
ing hardly concerns those of us who are now mainly inter-
PROP. 11] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 177
ested in the objective understanding of Spinoza's thought,
rather than in passing criticism on it. It may perhaps be
that the alleged immediacy of the idea of God is nothing
but an after- thought of a departed traditional belief, just
as the catless grin which Alice saw in Wonderland was
nothing but an after-image of a departed grinning cat; or it
may be that Spinoza is claiming "an arbitrary right to accept
anything he pleases as self-evident "; l and it may perhaps
also be, as we have been trying to show, that the reasoning
by which it is sought to dissolve this idea into a syllogism,
despite the cogency of its logical form, is nothing but the
breaking up of a complex term into its component parts.
But however slight this proof may appear to us, it certainly
carried conviction to the mind of Spinoza and of others like
him to whom an immediately and intuitively conceived idea
by its very clearness and distinctness connoted as much
reality as, aye even greater reality than, the undimmed per-
ceptions of unimpaired senses. And perhaps we should be in-
clined to give more weight to this reasoning if we could only
bear in mind that Spinoza's God is not the God of traditional
theology, that his "God" is merely an appeasive term for the
most comprehensive principle of the universe, which he sup-
posed to be conceived apriorily as the ideal triangle, but un-
like the ideal triangle, being the working principle of the uni-
verse and not its mere ideal pattern, its a priori conception in-
volved an extra-mental reality which the a priori conception
of a triangle did not. With these considerations looming
before our mind, there remains for us only to deal with the
external structure of the proofs, their origin, their individual
history, their growth, and the final form in which they appear
before us.
It may be recalled that Descartes has three proofs of the
1 F. Pollock, Spinoza^ p. 129.
178 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
existence of God, two of them in Meditation III 1 and a third
in Meditation V, corresponding respectively to the three
proofs in the Discours de la Methode, IV, 2 in the Principia
Philosophiae, I, 18-19, 20-21, and 14, and in the geometrical
formulation of the arguments demonstrating the existence of
God at the end of Secundae Responsiones, Propositions II,
III, and I. The first two of these three proofs we shall desig-
nate respectively as the first and second proof of Medita-
tion III, and the third as the ontological proof. All the proofs
for the existence of God adduced by Spinoza in his various
works may be traced to these three Cartesian proofs, and
may be divided accordingly into three groups:
First, Descartes' first proof of Meditation III to be found
in Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, I, Proposition VI, and
in the proof designated as a posteriori in Short treatise ', I, i,
and referred to also in a letter to Jelles (Epistola XL) and
in a note to the Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione, 76
(Opera, II, p. 29, note a).
Second, Descartes' second proof of Meditation III to be
found in Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, I, Proposition
VII, and in the third proof of Ethics, I, Proposition XL
Third, Descartes' ontological proof to be found in Prin-
cipia Philosophiae Cartesianae, I, Proposition V; in the
a priori proof of Short Treatise, I, I; in the first proof of
Ethics , I, Proposition XI; and in letters to Blyenbergh
(Epistola XXI) and Hudde (Epistola XXXIV).
The fourth proof in the Ethics is a modification of Des-
cartes' second proof of Meditation III, and the second proof
in the Ethics, we shall try to show, has been suggested by
Descartes' ontological proof, but it contains many elements
borrowed from mediaeval Jewish and Arabic philosophy.
1 (i) Ocuvres, VII, p. 45, 11. 9 ff., (2) ibid., p. 47, 11. 24 flF.
' (i) Oeuvres, VI, p. 33, 11. 25 ff., (2) ibid., p. 34, 11. 24 ff., (3) ibid., p. 36, 11. 4 ff.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 179
We shall here deal with the four proofs of the Ethics, cor-
relating with them the parallel proofs found in the other
writings of Spinoza.
FIRST PROOF
What is mainly of interest to us in Spinoza's first proof
in the Ethics and its parallels elsewhere is the various forms
in which he reproduces Descartes' ontological argument.
Spinoza does not summarize Descartes, he does not epitomize
him, nor does he merely paraphrase him. He rather selects
what he considers to be the salient features of Descartes' argu-
ment and moulds them into a form of his own. If we com-
pare the various versions of Descartes* ontological proof as
given by Spinoza, we shall find that the Demonstration of
Proposition V in Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, I, and
the first part of the a priori proof in Short 'Treatise , I, i,
represent one type; that the proofs in Epistolae XXI and
XXXIV and the second part of the a priori proof in Short
Treatise , I, I, introduced by the remark "otherwise also
thus," represent another type; and that the first proof of
Proposition XI in Ethics, I, represents a third type. How
these three types of Descartes' ontological proof were chiselled
out from the unhewn and rugged block of Descartes' rather
discursive and informal discussion of the ontological proof
can be best shown by trying to outline the salient features
of Descartes' argument as they must have formulated them-
selves in Spinoza's mind.
The starting point of Descartes' argument is the presence
of the idea of God in our mind. This idea of God, he con-
tends, could not have reached our mind through the medium
of our senses, nor is it a factitious idea, depending solely on
our thought. We rather derive this idea of God, so to speak,
l8o THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
from " the storehouse of our mind." l It is the first and fore-
most of the clear and distinct and true ideas born within us.
But how do we know that the idea of God is not factitious?
To this Descartes answers that we know it by the fact that
the idea is unique and absolutely unlike any other idea, "for
really I discern in many ways that this idea is not something
factitious, and depending solely on my thought, but that
it is the image of a true and immutable nature . . . because
I cannot conceive anything but God himself to whose essence
existence [necessarily] pertains/' 2
That existence pertains to the essence of God is known
by us, according to Descartes, in two ways. In Meditation
V, in Principia Philosophiae, I, 14, and in the geometrical
formulation of the arguments demonstrating the existence
of God at the end of Secundae Responsiones, Proposition I,
he says that it is implied in our immediate idea of God as
"a Being supremely perfect/* 3 for since existence is perfec-
tion it must be included in that idea as something pertain-
ing to the essence of God. In his Primae Responsiones, how-
ever, he declares that the pertinence of existence to essence in
God is also implied in our idea of God as a self-caused being,
or, as he expresses himself, in a being who possesses necessary
existence, 4 for necessary existence is the equivalent of ex-
istence per se, 5 which, according to Descartes, means self-
caused as well as causeless. 6 It is therefore natural for
Descartes sometimes to leave out this intermediary step of
1 Meditations , V (Oeuvres, VII, p. 67, 11. 22 f.). Cf. Meditationes, III (Oeuvres,
VII, p. 51,11. i8ff.).
a Meditationes, V (Oeuvres, VII, p. 68, 11. 10 ff.).
3 Meditationes, V (Oeuvres y VII, p. 67, 1. 9).
* Primae Responsiones (Oeuvres, VII, p. 117, 11. 5 ff.).
5 See Gerhardt, Die Philosophischen Schrijten von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, IV,
p. 406: "Car 1'Estre necessaire et 1'estre par son Essence ne sont qu'une meme
chose."
6 Primae Responsiones (Ocuores, VII, pp. 109 ff.).
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 181
perfection or self-causation, by which we know that God's
essence involves existence, and to speak of our immediate
conception of God as that of a being whose essence involves
existence.
Upon this assumption of the pertinence of existence to the
essence of God Descartes builds his ontological proof. We
find it in two forms.
In the first form, the major premise states that "all which
I know clearly and distinctly as pertaining to this subject
[i.e., of the innate idea] does really belong to it," x or as he
puts it in Primae Responsiones > "That which we clearly
and distinctly understand to belong to the true and immu-
table nature of anything, its essence, or form, can be affirmed
of that thing." 2 The minor premise states that we clearly
and distinctly understand that to exist belongs to the nature
of God, and hence the conclusion that we can affirm of God
that He exists. This is also the form used in the geometrical
formulation of the arguments demonstrating the existence of
God at the end of Secundae Responsiones^ Proposition I. It
is this form of the argument that is reproduced by Spinoza
in Proposition V of Principia Philosophise Cartesianae^ I,
and in the first part of the a priori proof of Short Treatise^
I, i, the phraseology of the Primae Responsiones being espe-
cially noticeable in the latter.
In the second form, Descartes draws a comparison between
the idea of God and that of a triangle. Both have "a deter-
minate nature, form, or essence, which is immutable and
eternal." 3 That determinate nature, form, or essence in the
case of the triangle is implied in its definition; but in the
case of God it is implied in our idea of Him as all-perfection
1 Meditationes, V (Oeuvres y VII, p. 65, 11. 17 ff.).
a Primae Responsiones (Oeuvres, VII, p. 118, 11. 22 flf.).
Meditationesy V (Oeuvres, VII, p. 64, 11. 15 ff.).
1 82 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
or as self-causality. Thus from the definition of a triangle
diverse properties follow, viz., "that its three angles are
equal to two right angles, that the greatest side is sub-
tended by the greatest angle, and the like/* J Similarly
from our idea of God as an all-perfect or self-caused being it
follows "that an [actual] and eternal existence pertains to
His nature/* 2 The nerve of the argument, or, as Spinoza
would say, the force of the argument (vis argument?)? is the
conclusion "that existence can no more be separated from
the essence of God than can its having its three angles equal
to two right angles be separated from the essence of a [recti-
linear] triangle." 4 It is this form of the argument that is
briefly restated by Spinoza in Epistola XXI, when he says:
"If the nature of God is known to us, then the assertion that
God exists follows as necessarily from our own nature as it
follows necessarily from the nature of a triangle that its
three angles are equal to two right angles." s In the second
part of the a priori proof of Short 'Treatise ', I, i, it is repro-
duced rather incompletely: "The essences of things are from
all eternity, and unto all eternity shall remain immutable.
The existence of God is essence. Therefore, etc." The con-
clusion, in the light of our quotations from Descartes, should
read as follows: Therefore, the essence and existence of God
are together from all eternity, and unto all eternity shall re-
main unchanged, that is to say, existence can never be sep-
arated from the essence of God.
In the Ethics^ Spinoza uses the first form of Descartes'
1 Meditationes, V (Oeuvres, VII, p. 64, 11. 18 ff.).
The use of the triangle having its three angles equal to two right angles as an
illustration for the idea of necessity is to be found in Aristotle, Physics, II, 9, 2ooa,
17 ff.
2 Meditationes, V (Oeuvres, VII, p. 65, 1. 24).
3 Epistola 12 (Opera , IV, p. 62, 1. 5).
< Meditationes, V (Oeuvres, VII, p. 66, 11. 8 ff.). Cf. French version (Opera, IX,
p. 52). s Epistola 21 (Opera, IV, p. 130, 11. 4-7).
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 183
ontological proof with some modification. Reduced to a
syllogism, the major premise therein is the statement that
everything whose essence involves existence exists. The
minor premise is the statement that God's essence involves
existence. But the conclusion, that God exists, is arrived at
indirectly by proving the contrary to be absurd. This is like
the reasoning employed in St. Anselm's proof. In a letter to
Schuller, Spinoza expresses a preference for this kind of
proof, namely, the reductio ad absurdum^ when the proposi-
tion is negative. 1 It is also to be noted that in this proof
Spinoza finds that existence must pertain to the essence of
God not in the idea of perfection, as does Descartes in Medi-
tation V, but rather in the idea of self-causality, for Spinoza
refers here to Proposition VII, the demonstration of which
is based upon the premise that subtance, or, as he now calls
it, God, cannot be produced by an external cause and must
therefore be self-caused. But we have already seen that
Descartes himself, in Primae Responsiones, makes self-
causality the basis of the identification of essence and ex-
istence in God. There is therefore no foundation for the oft-
repeated statement that Descartes bases his ontological
proof on the idea of God as a most perfect being, whereas
Spinoza bases his ontological proof on the idea of God as a
self-caused being. 2 The two, as we have seen, are identified
by Descartes himself.
In the light, however, of what we have said, namely, that
the basis of the ontological proof is the assertion that we
1 Epistola 64 (Opera, IV, p. 278, 11. 8 ff.): "deducendo rem ad absurdum." Cf.
Epistola 63 from Schuller. See above, p. 97, and below, p. 378.
2 It may be said that Leibniz advocated the substitution of "existence/)^ se"
for "perfection" as a criticism of Descartes, whereas Spinoza evidently did so as
an interpretation of Descartes. Cf. A. Hannequin, "La preuve ontologique carte -
sienne deYendue centre Leibnitz" in Revue de Mftaphysique et de Morale , IV (1896),
PP- 435 436.
184 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
have a valid immediate perception of God's existence and
that the so-called ontological proofs merely show how our
valid immediate perception of God's existence is implied in
our idea of God as the greatest or the most perfect being,
or, in this particular proof, as a being whose essence involves
existence, Spinoza's first proof in the Ethics is really to be
reduced to the following syllogism:
If we have a clear and distinct idea of God as a being
whose essence involves existence, then God is im-
mediately perceived by us to exist.
But we have a clear and distinct idea of God as a
being whose essence involves existence.
Therefore, God is immediately perceived by us to
exist.
SECOND PROOF
Against his own ontological proof based upon the insepara-
bleness of existence from the essence of God Descartes him-
self raises a difficulty which he considers of no little mo-
ment. " We are so much accustomed to distinguish existence
from essence in the case of other things/' he says, "that we
do not with sufficient readiness notice how existence belongs
to the essence of God in a greater degree than in the case of
other things/' ' In order to remove this difficulty, Descartes
draws a distinction, or rather recalls an old distinction, be-
tween possible and necessary existence, declaring that "in
the concept or idea of everything that is clearly and distinctly
conceived, possible existence is contained, but necessary ex-
istence never, except in the idea of God alone/* 2 It may be
here remarked that by necessary existence, as already pointed
out, is meant existence/)^ se, which, according to Descartes
1 Primac Rfsponsioncs (Oeuvrfs, VII, p. 116, 11. 9 f.).
Ibid. (11. 20 ff.).
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 185
himself, has a negative aspect in the sense of uncaused as
well as a positive aspect in the sense of self-caused. 1 With
this distinction drawn, Descartes substitutes the expression
"necessary existence " for the mere word " existence " in his
ontological proof, arriving at his conclusion that God exists
not from the premise that existence is involved in the essence
of God, but rather from the premise that necessary existence
is involved in it. It will have been noticed that in his restate-
ment of Descartes in Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, I,
Proposition V, Spinoza has already made use of this substi-
tution, declaring that " the concept of God includes necessary
existence/' that is to say, necessary existence and not merely
existence. In the Short Treatise, I, i, however, and in the
first proof in Ethics, I, Proposition XI, the term "existence"
without the adjective "necessary" is used.
Now in the second proof in the Ethics Spinoza takes up
again this new phrase "necessary existence" and builds
around it a new proof. But why did Spinoza make a new
proof out of it? Why did he not embody it in his first proof
as did Descartes and as he himself did in his restatement of
Descartes in his Principia* The answer would seem to be
found in the fact that the phrase "necessary existence" had
brought to Spinoza's mind the recollection of the mediaeval
discussions about possible and necessary existence and of
a mediaeval cosmological proof based upon that distinction,
and all this appeared to him to warrant the framing of an
entirely new and distinct proof. Thus Spinoza's second
proof is of a composite nature. It is ontological and Car-
tesian in form, but its substance is enriched by borrowings
from mediaeval sources. We shall attempt to disentangle
this complicated and involved proof and reduce it to its
simple constituent elements.
1 See above, p. 180, n. 6.
1 86 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
In mediaeval Jewish philosophy, under the influence of
Aristotle, a distinction is made between an internal cause,
which resides in the nature of the thing itself, and an external
cause, which resides outside of the thing. If the cause resides
in the thing itself, an effect must follow from that cause un-
less there is an external impediment to prevent it. That
external impediment may also be considered as a sort of
cause, and thus we have a further distinction between a cause
which produces existence and a cause which prevents or
negates existence. Similar distinctions are familiar also to
students of scholastic philosophy. 1 In Maimonides these
distinctions are implied in the following statement: "Every-
thing that passes from potentiality to actuality has some-
thing different from itself as the cause of its transition, and
that cause is necessarily outside itself, for if the cause of
the transition existed in the thing itself and there was no
obstacle to prevent the transition, the thing would never
have been in a state of potentiality but would have always
been in a state of actuality/' 2 In the commentaries upon
this passage, distinct technical terms for the contrast be-
tween effective causes and impedimental causes are in-
troduced. 3
Then, again, in mediaeval Jewish philosophy, in the at-
tempt to prove that God is everlasting and can never be
1 For the distinction between external and internal cause (causa extrinseca^
causa intrinseca), see Metaphysics^ XII, 4, loyob, 22-23; Summa Theologica^ Prima
Secundae, Quaest. i, Art. 3, Obj. i. See also Principia Philosophiae Cartesianac, I,
Axiom ii. Cf. below, pp. 319 ff.
For the impedimental cause, see Summa ( Theohgica y Pars I, Quaest. 115, Art. 6,
Obj. 3: Si ejffectus coelestis corporis non ex necessitate proveniat> hoc est propter ali-
quam causam impedientem.
2 Moreh Nebukim, II, Introduction, Prop. 18.
* See commentary of Shem-fob on Moreh Ncbukim, ad. /or.: N'21D, effective
cause; VTID ,p'VD (Arabic: ^ U. Cf. Cuzari, V, 20, p. 338, 1. 19: p'NJ7 = y31B)>
impedimental cause. The impedimental cause is also mentioned by Avicenna in
his Al-Shifa*. Cf. M. Horten, Die Metaphysik Avicennas^ p. 267.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 187
deprived of His existence, it is argued that God's existence
could not be negated or taken away except by some cause,
but that cause would have to be either like God himself or
unlike himself; and as neither of these is possible, it is con-
cluded that God's existence can never be negated. To quote:
"God is everlasting, and will never cease to exist. For a
being proved to have no beginning cannot pass away. Just
as the coming of the non-existent into existence must have a
cause, so also the disappearance of a thing from existence
requires a cause. Nothing vanishes from existence on its own
account, but on account of its opposite. God, however, has
nothing opposite Him, nor, for that matter, anything like
Him. For if anything were like Him in every respect, it
would be identical with God himself and they could not
therefore be described as two. As for assuming something
opposite God to be the cause of His ceasing to exist, it is
likewise impossible for the following reason. That opposite
thing could not be without beginning, for it has already been
proved that God's existence alone is without beginning, nor
could it have been created, for everything created must be
an effect produced by the eternal God; but, if so, how can
the effect make its cause disappear?" x
Then, also, in mediaeval Jewish philosophy, in conse-
quence of an Avicennian view, the origin of which I have
discussed in another place, 2 a distinction is made between
" necessary existence per se" and "possible existence />^r se."
Necessary existence per se is that which Spinoza would call
causa jui y something whose existence is independent of any
cause. 3 "Everything that is necessary of existence in respect
to its own essence has no cause for its existence in any man-
1 Cuzari, V, 1 8, 5.
a Cf. my Cre seas' Critique of Aristotle , pp. 109-112, 680 ff.
3 Cf. above, p. 127; below, p, 252.
1 88 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
ner whatsoever." x Possible existence per se is that which
owes its existence to some cause. "Everything that has a
cause for its existence is in respect to its own essence only
possible of existence, for if its causes exist, the thing like-
wise will exist/' 2 Furthermore, the possible per se is said
to become impossible in the absence of the cause upon
which its existence depends, for "if its causes have never
existed, or if they have ceased to exist, or if their causal re-
lation to the thing has changed, then the thing itself will not
exist/' 3 But, still, when the cause from which it follows by
necessity does exist, then the thing, though only possible by
its own nature, is said to be necessary with reference to its
cause. It may thus be said that within everything possible
there is the distinction of being possible in itself but necessary
with reference to its cause. According to this view, therefore,
there is a fourfold classification of being, divided first into
two main groups, into that which is causeless and hence
necessary by itself and that which requires a cause for its
existence, the latter of which being then subdivided into
its three aspects, namely, possible in itself, necessary by its
cause, and impossible in the absence of any cause. 4
This fourfold classification of being is reproduced by
Spinoza in Cogitata Metaphysica^ I, 3, when he divides all
things into necessary, impossible, possible, and contingent.
Necessary existence, in Spinoza as in mediaeval philosophy,
is exemplified by God. As an illustration for the impossible
Spinoza mentions the "chimera," s which like the words "a
1 Moreh Nebukim^ II, Introduction, Prop. 20.
3 Ibid., Prop. 19. J Ibid.
4 See commentary of Shem-Tob on Moreh Nebukim, II, Introduction, Prop. 19.
5 So also in Descartes, as, for instance, in the French version of Meditation III
(Oeuvres y IX, p. 34). Aristotle's illustration of a non-existent being is a goat-stag
(rpa7e\a</>os) and sphinx. Cf. De Interpretatione y I, i6a, 16-17; Physics, IV, I,
208 a, 30.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 189
square circle " exists neither in the intellect nor in the imagi-
nation and is rightly called a verbal being. The term "possi-
ble" is used by Spinoza in the general sense of being brought
about or being made necessary by a cause, and the term "con-
tingent" is used by him to designate that aspect of the possible
wherein it was said by the mediaevals to be possible in con-
sideration of its own essence. "A thing is said to be possible
when we understand its efficient cause, but do not know
whether it is determined. Therefore, we may consider that
to be possible which is neither necessary [i.e., by itself] nor
impossible [i.e., by itself]. If now we attend merely to the
essence of a thing and not to its cause, we say it is contingent;
that is, when we consider anything between the extremes
God and chimeras." That these two terms "possible" and
"contingent" were meant by Spinoza for the two aspects of
the possible as used by the mediaevals may be gathered from
the context of the passage quoted and from parallel passages
in the other works of Spinoza. 1 He then makes the follow-
ing statement: "If any one wishes to call that contingent
which I call possible and possible what I call contingent I
shall not contradict him. For I am not accustomed to dis-
pute about mere names. It will be sufficient if it is only ad-
mitted that these arise not because of something real, but
only because of a deficiency in our perception (defect us
nostrae perception is}.' 1 2 The last statement is a repetition of
what is said earlier in the same chapter: "For some, these
two terms are considered defects of things, although, in truth,
they are nothing more than a deficiency in our intellect
(defect us nostri intcllectus)." 3 The reference is no doubt to
1 Cf. Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, I, Prop. 7, Lemma I, Nota i; 'Tractatus
tie Intellectus Emendatiorie, 53 (Opera, II, p. 19, 11. 30 ff.); Ethics, I, Prop. 33,
Schol. i; IV, Defs. 3 and 4. Cf. below, pp. 310, 399, 410.
2 Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 3. Cf. Metaphysics, V, 30, io25a, 24; below, p. 399,
and Vol. II, pp. 13, 109, 160. a Cf. Ethics, I, Prop. 33, Schol. i.
190 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
the controversy between Avicenna and Averroes as to
whether possibility is merely a conceptual aspect or a real
property of being. 1 It is also to be noted that Spinoza's
lofty declaration here in Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 3, that "I
am not accustomed to dispute about mere names/' as well
as Blyenbergh's statement in one of his letters to Spinoza
that "you have taught me that one must not quarrel over
words/' 2 is reminiscent of a similar expression used in
Hebrew, Arabic, Latin, and Greek philosophic writings. 3
Coming now to Spinoza's second proof in the Ethics, we
find that it is replete with all those distinctions and lines of
reasoning which we have abstracted from mediaeval sources.
Spinoza refers to the distinction between an internal and an
external cause when he speaks of a reason or cause which
"must either be contained in the nature of the thing or lie
outside it." 4 He also distinguishes between a positive cause
and an impedimental cause when he says that if a thing
1 See commentary of Shem-Tob on Moreh Nebukim^ II, Introduction, Prop. 19.
3 Epistola 20 (Opera, IV, p. 101, 11. 4-5 and 24).
Cf. Abraham Ibn Daud, Emunah Ramah, I, 6 (p. 20): ... PD3 UPON imjfcnpl
Bp PR *D ,n2nnp 00 nr i 1 ? onwi ,DPH nr -prya *w *b DN nnNi
. "We call soul nefesh. . . . If this name does not please you, call it by what-
ever other name you like, for we are not sticklers for names." Similarly Algazali in
his Tahafot aI-Fa/asifat y III (ed. Maurice Bouyges, p. 109, 1. 9), says: \j+~*f J o^*
O^-~Jl ^ 4it_VjiA Xi >Ui 1-L*, which in the published Latin translation from
the Hebrew version of Averroes' Tahajot al-Tahajot (Happalat ha-Happalah, Des-
tructio Destructionis] is rendered as follows: "si autem non appellabilis hoc actionem
non est disputatio de nominibus." OYIDBO JT^ ]' H3H ,hy& Hf 1N"lpn *? DW.)
This translation was accessible to Spinoza. Descartes makes use of the same ex-
pression in a letter to Henry More. Cf. Correspondance, DXXXVII (Oeuvres, V,
p. 269, 11. 25-26): "Ego vero non soleo quidem de nominibus disputare."
Similar expressions occurring in Greek and in other Arabic sources are quoted
by S. Horovitz in his Die Psychologic bei den jtfdischen Religions-Philosophen des
Mittelalters, p. 216, n. 13. As Greek examples he quotes from Alexander Aphro-
disiensis, Scripta Minora (ed. Bruns), II, p. 183, 1. 17: dvonaruv pb ovv ouSeis <0&'os,
and from Galen, Opera (ed. Kiihn), I, p. 155: jutts 5i obSkv diafapdp&a Trpds ro>s,
rd 6v6^ara ^aXXdrroi'ras.
4 "Haec vera ratio seu causa vel in natura rei contineri debet, vel extra ipsam."
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 191
exists, "there must be a reason or cause why it exists; and
if it does not exist, there must be a reason or cause which
hinders its existence or which negates it." I Furthermore,
he follows the main outline of the mediaeval argument for
the everlastingness of God when he argues that if a reason
or cause be granted "which hinders God from existing, or
which negates His existence ... it must be either in the
nature itself of God or must lie outside it, that is to say, in
another substance of another nature. . . . But substance
possessing another nature could have nothing in common
with God, and therefore could not give Him existence nor
negate it." 2 Finally, he reproduces the mediaeval and his
own classification of being into necessary, possible, and im-
possible when he states that "the nature of the thing itself
shows the reason why a square circle does not exist . . . and
the reason, on the other hand, why substance exists follows
from its nature alone," 3 and when he further says that it is
not from its own nature "but from the order of corporeal
nature generally," i.e., its cause, that "it must follow, either
that a triangle necessarily exists, or that it is impossible for
it to exist/' 4
But more than this. There is a mediaeval proof for the
existence of God based upon the distinction between neces-
sary existence and possible existence which, as we shall now
1 "Ratio, seu causa dari debet, cur existit; si autem non existit, ratio etiam, seu
causa dari debet, quae impedit, quominus existat, sive quae ejus existentiam tollat."
2 "Si ... ratio . . . causa dari possit . . . quae impedit, quominus Deus existat,
vel quae ejus existentiam tollat . . . ea, vel in ipsa Dei natura, vel extra ipsam dari
deberet, hoc est, in alia substantia alterius naturae. ... At substantia, quae alterius
esset naturae, nihil cum Deo commune habere, adeoque, neque ejus existentiam
ponere, neque tollere posset."
* " Ex. gr. rationem, cur circulus quadratus non existat, ipsa ejus natura indicat;
. . . Cur autem contra substantia existat, ex sola etiam ejus natura sequitur."
4 "At ratio, cur circulus vel triangulus existit, vel cur non existit, ex eorum
natura non sequitur, sed ex ordine universae naturae corporeae; ex eo enim sequi
debet, vel jam triangulum necessario existere, vel impossibile esse, ut jam existat."
192 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
proceed to show, served Spinoza as a pattern for his second
proof. This mediaeval proof is one of the several forms of
what is known as the cosmological proof. Spinoza, as we
shall see, has changed it into an ontological proof.
In order to recreate the complete setting of this second
proof of Spinoza, it is necessary for us to trace the develop-
ment of the cosmological proof out of which it has arisen. 1
The cosmological proof is based upon the principle of causal-
ity, reasoning from effect to cause, which, when expressed in
its most general terms, asserts that every form of coming
into being or change requires a cause. The principle of
causality alone, however, was not considered sufficient to be
used as a proof for the existence of God. It had to be sup-
plemented by some other principle. In Plato 2 that sup-
plementary principle was the creation of the world. The
cosmological proof as used by him may therefore be reduced
to the following syllogism:
Everything that comes into existence must have a
cause.
The world came into existence.
Therefore, the world must have a cause.
This form of the cosmological proof was also used by the
Moslem Mutakallimun and their Jewish followers, among
whom it was known as the proof from creation, though its
identity with the Platonic proof from efficient causation was
not always recognized. 3 With the denial of a created uni-
verse by Aristotle the cosmological proof assumed a new
form. The principle of causality was still retained, but the
theory of creation was replaced by the theory of the impos-
1 Cf. my "Notes on Proofs of the Existence of God in Jewish Philosophy" in 'The
Hebrew Union College Annual, I (1924), pp. 584 ff.
3 Timaeus 28 A.
3 See my "Notes on the Proofs of the Existence of God in Jewish Philosophy,"
op. cit. t p. 584, n. 44.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 193
sibility of an infinite regress. In Aristotle two versions of this
type of the cosmological proof occur, one couched in terms
of motion and the other in terms of potentiality and actuality.
Assuming the world to be a process of motion or a process of
the actualization of the potential, and assuming also that
both these processes require a cause and that there can be
no infinite series of causes of any kind, the two forms of the
proof run as follows:
A
Every series of things moved and moving must have
an unmoved mover.
The world is a series of things moved and moving.
Therefore, the world must have an unmoved mover.
B
Every series of transitions from potentiality into actu-
ality must have a cause which is pure actuality.
The world is a series of transitions from potentiality
into actuality.
Therefore, the world must have a cause which is pure
actuality.
The first of these versions is given by Aristotle in the
Eighth Book of the Physics, the second in the Metaphysics. 1
To these two Aristotelian versions of the cosmological proof
Avicenna, and before him Alfarabi, added a third version
couched in terms of possibility and necessity. This new ver-
sion was introduced by them because they considered it to
be more general and more universally applicable than the
others. It will be noticed that this new version does not
essentially diflfer from the other two, for motion, potentiality,
and possibility are only different ways in which the principle
of causality is expressed and are in a sense interchangeable
1 Metaphysics, IX, 8, 10498, 24 f., and XII, 7, loysb, 3 f.
194 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
terms. In Greek the same term, Siwa/us, means both poten-
tiality and possibility, and Aristotle defines motion as the
actuality of that which is potential so far as it is potential J
and also as the actuality of that which is movable so far as
it is movable. 2 Maimonides, who besides the two Aristotelian
versions of the proof uses also the Avicennian version, intro-
duces the latter by the following remark: "This is taken
from the words of Aristotle, though he gives it in a different
form." 3 From Maimonides it was taken over by Thomas
Aquinas, who makes use of it as the third of his five proofs
of the existence of God. 4 From him it was passed on into
modern philosophy, so that Kant uses the Avicennian ver-
sion as his model cosmological proof. We shall endeavor to
show that this is also the basis of Spinoza's second proof.
The Avicennian version as reproduced by Maimonides
for it was Maimonides from whom Spinoza most likely drew
his knowledge of it is divided into two parts. In the first
part, it tries to establish the fact that in the universe among
all the things that actually exist there must be one which has
eternal existence, inasmuch as it is impossible either that all
things should be eternal or that all things should be transient.
In the second part, drawing upon the distinction between
necessary and possible (and also impossible) existence, it
tries to prove that the eternal being must have necessary
existence, that is to say, it must be independent of any cause,
or, as Spinoza would say, it must be causa sui. The proof
for this is based, again, as in Aristotle's versions, upon the
impossibility of an infinite regress. Reduced to its syllogistic
form, Avicenna's version of the proof runs as follows:
1 Physics, III, I, 20ia, IO-H.
2 Physics, III, 2, 202a, 7-8.
3 Moreh Nebukim, II, i.
* Summa Vheologica, Pars I, Quaest. 2, Art. 3. Cf. Contra Gentiles, Lib. I, Cap. 13.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 195
Every series of transitions from possible existence
into necessary existence must have a cause which
has necessary existence.
The world is a series of transitions from possible exist-
ence into necessary existence.
Therefore, the world must have a cause which has
necessary existence.
A modification of the Avicennian proof was introduced
by Crescas. 1 Crescas denies the impossibility of an infinite
series of causes and effects and thereby removes one of the
premises of the Aristotelian proofs of the existence of God
in all of its forms. But still he retains the principle of
causality, maintaining that everything possible, i.e., every-
thing which by its own nature may or may not exist, must
have a cause to give preference to existence over non-exist-
ence. That cause must itself be uncaused, that is, it must
have necessary existence. Once such a cause is given, argues
Crescas, it may have an infinite number of effects arranged
in a causal series, for infinity is not impossible. 2 How Crescas
conceived of this possibility does not concern us here. 3 Suffice
it to say that on the mere principle of causation, namely,
that any series of causes and effects, whether infinite or
finite, must have a first uncaused cause, Crescas establishes
a new cosmological proof for the existence of God. The
characteristic feature of this proof, in contradistinction to
the Aristotelian and the Avicennian, as will have been
noticed, is the elimination of the principle of the impossi-
bility of an infinite series of causes and effects. But still like
the older Aristotelian proofs it retains the principle of causal-
ity, which principle is couched, as in Avicenna's proof, in
terms of possibility and necessity. Truly considered, Crescas'
1 Or Adonai, I, iii, 2. a Or Adonai, I, ii, 3.
3 Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, pp. 67-69, 490-497.
196 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, t
new proof is simply a restoration of the Platonic proof from
efficient causation or of the proof from creation as used by
Moslem and Jewish theologians, the only difference between
them being that whereas the older proof starts with the con-
ception of a universe created in time Crescas' proof starts
with the conception of a universe which is only possible by
its own nature. Reduced to its syllogistic formula, Crescas'
proof runs as follows:
Every series of possible beings must have a cause
which is necessary being.
The world is a series of possible beings.
Therefore, the world must have a cause which is
necessary being.
It is this proof of Crescas that Spinoza quotes, or rather
paraphrases, in a letter to Meyer (Epistola XII) at the end of
his lengthy refutation of the ancient arguments against
infinity: "But here I should like it to be noted in passing
that the more recent Peripatetics, as I at least think, mis-
understood the argument of the Ancients by which they
strove to prove the existence of God. For, as I find it in the
works of a certain Jew, named Rab Ghasdai, 1 it reads as fol-
lows. If there is an infinite regression of causes, then all
things which exist will be things that have been caused.
But it cannot pertain to anything that has been caused that
it should necessarily exist in virtue of its own nature. There-
fore there is in nature nothing to whose essence it pertains
that it should exist necessarily. But this is absurd: and there
therefore also that. 2 Therefore the force of the argument lies
not in the idea that it is impossible for the infinite actually to
1 On this form of transliteration of Crescas' first name, see below, p. 295, n. i.
* The original passage in the Or Adonai^ I, iii, 2, reads as follows: "Whether
causes and effects are finite or infinite, there is no escape from the conclusion that
there must be something which is the cause of all of them as a whole, for if there
were nothing but effects, those effects would have only possible existence per sc and
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 197
exist, or that a regression of causes to infinity is impossible,
but only in the impossibility of supposing that things which
do not exist necessarily in virtue of their own nature, are not
determined to existence by something which does exist
necessarily in virtue of its own nature, and which is a cause,
not an effect/*
It is evident that Spinoza understood well the portent and
significance of Crescas' proof. He only seems to be mis-
taken in its historical background when he describes it as a
restoration of the original argument of the "ancients" (pre-
sumably Aristotle and his followers) which was corrupted by
the misunderstanding of the "more recent Peripatetics"
(presumably the scholastics). Quite the contrary, Crescas'
argument is in direct opposition to the argument of those
"ancients," though it may be considered, as we have pointed
out, as a restoration of an argument still more ancient,
namely, that of Plato.
We are now going to show how this cosmological proof of
Avicenna couched in terms of possibility and necessity and
as modified by Crescas by the elimination of the principle of
the impossibility of an infinite series of causes and effects
was taken up by Spinoza and remodelled into an ontological
proof.
Just as Avicenna begins his proof with a classification of
being, so Spinoza begins his proof with a classification of our
ideas of being. Real beings, says Avicenna, fall, in the main,
into two classes. There is one being, and one only, whose
existence is necessary by his very nature; all others owe their
existence to some external cause; in themselves they are only
possible; but if the cause of their existence is present they
would thus need something to cause the preponderance of their existence over their
non-existence. But that which would bring about this preponderance of their ex-
istence would be the cause of those effects, and that is what is meant by God."
198 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
are called necessary with reference to their cause, and if that
cause is removed they become thereby impossible. Similarly
Spinoza classifies our ideas of being with reference to their
reality or existence as that which is necessary by its own
nature and those which by their own nature are only possible,
but become necessary by virtue of some cause from which
they follow by necessity, or become impossible when that
cause is absent. To this class belong our ideas of all beings
which require a cause. Only one new class is introduced
here by Spinoza, that which is impossible by its own nature,
which is contrasted both with that which is necessary by
its own nature and with that which is possible by its own
nature. But this class, too, was not unknown to mediaeval
Jewish philosophers, though Spinoza's immediate source may
have been Descartes. 1 As an illustration of an idea whose
existence is necessary by its own nature Spinoza cites sub-
stance or God. A square circle is his example of an idea
whose existence is impossible by its own nature * it is
only a "verbal being/' as he says elsewhere. The existence
of a circle or a triangle is taken by him as a typical illustra-
tion of an idea which in itself has only possible existence and
becomes either necessary or impossible according as the cause
is present or absent.
Thus far Spinoza has been closely following Avicenna.
But when on the basis of this classification of our ideas of
1 Anything whose nature involves a self-contradiction is called impossible by
its own nature and according to Jewish philosophers cannot be made possible even
by God in the ordinary course of nature. Cf. Maimonides, Morch Nebukim, I, 75,
First and Fifth Arguments, and Descartes, Meditationcs, VI (Oeuvrfs, VII, p. 71,
11. 18-20).
3 Spinoza does not mention here the illustration of a chimera. Were it not for
his note in Cogitata Metaphysica, I, I, that "by chimera is understood a being which
by nature involves a contradiction," one would be tempted to say that its impossi-
bility is due only to the lack of proper causation and not to a self-contradiction in
its nature.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 199
being he attempts to construct a proof for the existence of
God he leaves Avicenna behind. To begin with, like Crescas,
he eliminates the impossibility of an infinite series of causes.
But then he leaves Crescas, too. For Crescas still reasons
cosmologically and a posteriori, from effect to cause, from
the existence of things possible to the existence of a thing
necessary. But Spinoza starts with an immediately perceived
idea of a being whose existence is necessary by its own nature,
the clearness and distinctness of which idea is in itself proof
for its reality, and tries to resolve this immediately perceived
truth into an analytical syllogism, which, as we have seen, is
the main function of the ontological proof. The passage
from the major premise to the conclusion is achieved, as in
his first proof and as in Anselm's proof, by showing the ab-
surdity of the contrary. Thus the Avicennian cosmological
proof as modified by Crescas is transformed by Spinoza into
an ontological proof after the manner of Descartes. Reduced
to its syllogistic formula, Spinoza's second proof runs as
follows:
If we have a clear and distinct idea of God as a being
whose existence is necessary by His own nature,
then God is immediately perceived by us to exist.
But we have a clear and distinct idea of God as a being
whose existence is necessary by His own nature.
Therefore, God is immediately perceived by us to
exist.
The basis of the ontological proof, as we have seen, is our
valid immediate perception of God's existence. This form
of the proof merely shows how our valid immediate percep-
tion of God's existence is implied in our clear and distinct
idea of God as a being whose existence is necessary by His
own nature.
200 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
THIRD AND FOURTH PROOFS
It is almost an anti-climax to pass from that involved and
complicated second proof of Spinoza to his third and fourth
proofs which are based upon a single source, namely, Des-
cartes' second proof in Meditation III. There is one phase,
however, which is of interest, namely, Spinoza's endeavor to
convert Descartes' proof from a cosmological argument, as
it is reproduced by him in his third proof, to an ontological
argument, as he gives it in his fourth proof. We have already
seen how Spinoza has done it with another cosmological argu-
ment in his second proof. Generally speaking, it may be said
that whatever any one may attempt to prove of God demon-
stratively, a posteriori, can also be proved of him ontologi-
cally, a priori, if it is assumed that the thing to be proved
forms our immediate and self-evidently true idea of God.
Now, in his second proof in Meditation III, Descartes takes
the attributes of creation, conservation, or power, just as
in his ontological proof he takes the attribute of perfection
and self-causality, and argues that creation, conservation, or
power must imply existence no less than perfection and self-
causality. But there is the following difference, as it is at
first assumed by Descartes, between creation, conservation,
or power, on the one hand, and perfection and self-causality,
on the other. The latter two are immediately perceived as
our very idea of God and hence they yield an ontological
proof, but the former are not immediately perceived as our
very idea of God; they are derived demonstratively, a pos-
teriori, from His actions, and hence they yield a cosmological
proof. But here Spinoza seems to argue that power, too, is
immediately perceived as our idea of God, just as perfection
and self-causality in the view of Descartes, and as greatness
in the view of Anselm. Why not then construct an ontologi-
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 201
cal proof on the attribute of power? This reasoning marks
the relation between the third and the fourth proofs of
Spinoza. In his third proof Spinoza reproduces Descartes'
second proof of Meditation III in its original cosmological
form. In his fourth proof he converts it into an ontological
proof. The relation between the third and fourth proofs is
clearly brought out in Spinoza's own introductory words to
the fourth proof: "In this last demonstration I wished to
prove the existence of God a posteriori, in order that the dem-
onstration might be the more easily understood, and not
because the existence of God does not follow a priori from
the same grounds/'
But to come to the proofs themselves. Perhaps by way
of general introduction I may say what I intend to do in
the next few paragraphs. I intend to show, in the first place,
that Descartes' second proof in Meditation III is only a
modification of the traditional proof from creation. In the
second place, I intend to explain why Descartes describes
this proof either (a) as a proof from man's existence or (b) as
a proof from man's conservation. In the third place, I in-
tend to explain how it happens that this proof is restated by
Spinoza in his third proof as a proof from power.
Descartes' second proof in Meditation III is described
by himself as a proof from the individual's consciousness of
his own existence to the existence of God. 1 It is thus a cos-
mological proof, reasoning from effect to cause, and, truly
speaking, it is only verbally different from the proof of
creation which, as has already been mentioned, was made use
of by Plato and by Moslem and Jewish theologians as well
as by Christian theologians. 2 The only difference between
the old proof from creation and Descartes' second proof is
1 Meditationcs, III (Oeuvres, VII, p. 48, 11. i f.).
2 John of Damascus, De Fide Orthodoxa, I, 3, First Proof.
201 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
that the older proof argues from the existence of the world
whereas Descartes argues from man's own existence or life. 1
But this change in the vocabulary of the proof, or rather this
new additional vocabulary, is already to be found in the
writings of early authors. St. Augustine, for instance, in re-
producing the argument from creation, says: "And there-
fore, whether we consider the whole body of the world . . .
or whether we consider all life ... all can only be through
Him who absolutely is." 2 Similarly, Maimonides, in argu-
ing for the existence of an eternal being in the universe, says:
"Consequently nothing whatever would exist [if all things
were transient]; but as we see things existing and find our-
selves in existence, we conclude . . . there must be an eter-
nal being that is not subject to destruction. 1 ' 3 An analogy
between St. Augustine's contention that we have a con-
sciousness of our own existence and a similar contention by
Descartes in his discussion of the nature of the human mind
has been pointed out by one of his objectors. 4
These quotations are sufficient to show that the vocabu-
lary used by Descartes in his second proof in Meditation III
has grown out of the older proof from creation. But it can
be further shown that there is a structural similarity between
the old argument from creation and Descartes' argument
from man's consciousness of his own existence. We have
already shown in a previous chapter 5 how the argument for
the creation of the world started with the tentative question
1 Kuno Fischer designates Descartes' second proof as "anthropological."
Geschichtc der neuern Philosophic^ I, i (3rd ed., Heidelberg, 1889), p. 308.
3 De Civitate Dei, VIII, 6: "Ac per hoc sive universi mundi corpus . . . sive
omnem vitam . . . nisi ab illo esse non posse, qui simpliciter est." This change in
the vocabulary of the argument is sometimes described as a change from a cosmo-
logical form to a psychological. See C. Baeumker, Vilelo^ pp. 320 ff.
* Moreh Nebukim^ II, i, Third Argument.
4 Objcctiones Quartac (Ofuvres, VII, p. 197, 11. 24 ff.).
* Cf. above, pp. 98 ff.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 203
whether the world came into being by itself or by some ex-
ternal cause. Similarly, Descartes' proof from man's con-
sciousness of his own existence begins with the question,
"From whom do I then derive my existence? Perhaps from
myself or from my parents, or from some other source less
perfect than God?" r He concludes naturally that it must
be derived from God.
Allied with the argument from creation is the argument
from the divine government or conservation of the world/
This argument, instead of reasoning from the single and com-
pleted act of creation, reasons from divine providence, that
is to say, from God's guidance and governance and conser-
vation of the world. "Conservation" is a mediaeval term
for the continuation of existence after the world was created, 3
and it is considered as direct an effect of God's causality as
the act of creation itself. 4 This argument from divine gov-
ernment or conservation of the world is another form of
cosmological reasoning, and it was considered as somewhat
superior to the argument from creation, for it can be used
even if the world is supposed to be eternal, inasmuch as
God can be conceived as the governor of the world and the
cause of its conservation without the world necessarily hav-
1 Meditationes, III (Oeuvres, VII, p. 167, 11. 3 ff.).
2 John of Damascus, De Fide Orthodoxa, I, 3, Second Proof: "Secunda ex earum
conservatione et gubernatione. Porro ipsa quoque rerum creatarum compages,
conservatio, atque gubernatio, nos decent Deum esse, qui universum hoc coagmen-
tarit, sustentet, et conservet, eique provideat." In John of Damascus this proof
from conservation and government is distinguished from the proof of design as well
as from the proof of creation. Cf. Contra Gentiles, Lib. I, Cap. 13, end.
3 Contra Gentiles, Lib. Ill, Cap. 65: "Conservatio rei non est nisi continuatio
esse ipsius."
4 See Moreh Nebukim, 1, 69: "Here I wish to show that God is the cause of every
event that takes place in the world, just as He is the creator of the whole universe as
it now exists." Again: "God, however, is himself the form of the universe, as we
have already shown, and it is He who causes its continuance and permanency." Cf.
Ethics, I, Prop. 24, Corol.; Epistola 18 (Opera, IV, p. 82, 11. 24 ff. and 4 ff.); Epistola
20 (p. 98, 11. 15 ff. and 33 ff.); Meditationes, III (Oeuvres, VII, p. 49, 11. 5 f.).
204 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
ing come into existence in time. 1 Thus we find that Descartes
proposes a change in the form of his proof from man's ex-
istence or creation by transforming it into a proof from con-
servation, declaring that, even if we assume that we have
always existed and need no author of our existence, we still
need an author of our conservation. 2 It might therefore be
said that Descartes' argument from man's existence cor-
responds to the argument from creation and his argument
from man's conservation corresponds to the argument from
divine government. Spinoza, in his Principia Philosophiae
Cartesianae^ I, Proposition VII, explicitly rejects the argu-
ment from existence and retains only the argument from
conservation. Here in Ethics ^ I, Proposition XI, Third Proof,
however, in summarizing Descartes* second proof in Medi-
tation III, he continues to use the term " existence," which
would seem to be a return to the "existence" form of Des-
cartes' proof. But "existence" may mean both to "come
into existence" and to "continue to exist." In this proof
in the Ethics it may therefore be taken in the latter sense.
From the act of creation it is deduced, in mediaeval phi-
losophy, that God possesses the attribute of power, or that
He is omnipotent. 3 Though wisdom and will may enter into
the act of creation, still it is said that it is through "power"
that God creates. 4 It is for this reason that Descartes speaks
of the "power" to create or to conserve, and Spinoza still
1 The compatibility of the belief in the existence of God with the belief in the
eternity of the universe is assumed by Maimonides. See Moreh Nebukim^ I, 76,
Sixth Argument: "But he seems to forget that we are at issue with those who,
whilst they believe in the existence of God, admit at the same time the eternity
of the universe."
2 MeditationeS) III (Oeuvres, VII, p. 49, 11. 12 ff.).
3 Emunot we-De'ot, II, 4; Cuzari, V, 18, 7-9.
4 Ibid. Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa I'heologica, Pars I, Quaest. 9, Art. 2:
"Omnes enim creaturae, antequam essent, non erant possibiles esse . . . sed per
solam potentiam divinam, in quantum Deus poterat eas in esse producere."
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 205
more explicitly says: "posse existere potentia est" (Ethics , I,
Proposition XI, Third Proof), and he also speaks of "potentia
conservandi" (Prin. Phil. Cart. y I, Prop. VII, Lemma II).
Descartes* second argument may therefore be referred to, as
indeed Spinoza does seem to refer to it, as the argument
from power, and it may be considered as one of the variations
of the mediaeval arguments from creation or divine govern-
ment.
Reduced to its syllogistic formula, Descartes' second ar-
gument in Meditation III as restated by Spinoza in his third
proof may be given as follows:
Everything that continues in its existence must have
a cause.
We and the world continue in our existence.
Therefore, we and the world must have a cause.
This syllogistic form is clearly brought out in Spinoza's
Principia. In the Ethics it is somewhat obscured, owing to
Spinoza's predilection for indirect proof of the reductio ad
absurdum type of argument. But it can be easily brought
into accord with the argument employed in the Principia. It
is an a posteriori , cosmological argument, pure and simple,
only verbally different from the arguments from creation or
government.
The proof in the form in which it is given in the Ethics may
be fully unfolded as follows:
We have the idea of the existence of ourselves as finite
beings and we also have the idea of the existence of God as
an infinite being.
There are three possibilities as to the truth of these ideas.
First, they are both false, and therefore " nothing exists." x
Second, only the idea of our own existence is true, and
1 "Ergo vel nihil existit."
206 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
therefore, " there is nothing which necessarily exists except-
ing things finite/* x
Third, both ideas are true, and therefore a "being abso-
lutely infinite also necessarily exists/' 2
The first of these possibilities is to be rejected, for "we
ourselves exist/' 3
The second possibility is to be rejected, for "if, therefore,
there is nothing which necessarily exists excepting things
finite, it follows that things finite are more powerful than the
absolutely infinite being, and this (as is self-evident) is
absurd/' 4 The force of this argument is to be understood
in the light of Descartes' argument against our being our-
selves the authors of our existence. Descartes' argument
originally is that if we were ourselves the authors of our
existence we should have endowed ourselves with every per-
fection of which we possessed any idea and which we include
in our idea of God. Spinoza presents here the same argument
in the form of a reductio ad absurdum. He proceeds as fol-
lows: If we exist and God does not exist, then we must
exist "in ourselves," s that is to say, we must be the authors
of our own existence. Therefore, the idea we have of our own
existence is more powerful than the idea we have of God's
existence, inasmuch as "inability to exist is impotence, and,
on the other hand, ability to exist is power." 6 But we have
set out with the assumption that we have an idea of God as
as infinite being and of ourselves as finite beings. Hence, a
self-contradiction.
1 "Si itaque id, quod jam necessario existit, non nisi cntia finita sunt."
2 "Vel Ens absolute infinitum necessario etiam existit."
3 "Atqui nos . . . existimus."
4 "Si itaque id, quod jam necessario existit, non nisi entia finita sunt, sunt ergo
entia finita potentiora Ente absolute infinite: atque hoc (ut per se notuni) absur-
dum est."
5 "Atqui nos, vel in nobis, vel in alio, quod necessario existit, existimus."
6 "Posse non existere impotentia est, et contra posse existere potentia est."
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 207
Consequently, the third possibility must be true, and
" therefore the being absolutely infinite, that is to say, God,
necessarily exists/' x
So much for Spinoza's third proof. We shall turn now to
his fourth proof.
Suppose we say that our clear and distinct idea of God
is that of a being of the highest power, i.e., of the highest
power to create or to conserve, just as Anselm said that it
is the idea of the greatest being and as Descartes himself
said that it is the idea of the most perfect being or of a self-
caused being. We should then be able to frame an ontologi-
cal proof from the idea of God as the cause of existence or
conservation. Descartes himself has already performed this
conversion of his second proof into an ontological proof from
"power" in the following passage in his Primae Respon-
siones: 2 "Further, because we cannot think of God's ex-
istence as being possible, without at the same time, and by
taking heed of His immeasurable power, acknowledging that
He can exist by His own might, we hence conclude that He
really exists and has existed from all eternity; for the light
of nature makes it most plain that what can exist by its own
power always exists. And thus we shall understand that
necessary existence is comprised in the idea of a being of the
highest power, not by any intellectual fiction, but because
it belongs to the true and immutable nature of that being to
exist." Descartes thus has three forms of the ontological
proof:
1. From the idea of a most perfect being.
2. From the idea of a self-caused being.
3. From the idea of a most powerful being.
What Spinoza is really trying to do in his fourth proof is
1 "Ergo ens absolute infinitum, hoc est (per Defin. 6.) Deum, necessario existit."
3 Oeuvrcs, VII, p. 119, 11. 11 ff.
208 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
simply to reproduce the third form of Descartes' ontological
proof.
Reduced to a syllogism, Spinoza's fourth proof runs as
follows:
If we have a clear and distinct idea of God as a being
of the highest power, then God is immediately per-
ceived by us to exist.
But we have a clear and distinct idea of God as a be-
ing of the highest power.
Therefore, God is immediately perceived by us to
exist.
Here, again, the proof merely shows how our valid im-
mediate perception of God's existence is implied in our clear
and distinct idea of God as a being of the highest power.
The basis of the ontological proof, as we have said, is this
valid immediate perception of God's existence.
There remains now only the last part of the Scholium of
Proposition XI to be explained, the part which contains a
provisional objection quoted in the name of "many persons*'
against "this demonstration." In order to simplify the dis-
cussion of this part of the Scholium, we shall preface it by
a few general remarks.
First, the demonstration of which Spinoza says here that
its force may not be easily grasped by many persons refers
to the third proof and not to the fourth proof given at the
beginning of the Scholium. It will have been noticed that
the fourth proof is not given by Spinoza as an independent
proof but as a Scholium to the third proof. And so when he
says in that Scholium that "many persons, nevertheless, will
perhaps not be able easily to see the force of this demon-
stration," the reference is to the third proof.
Second, the provisional objection raised in the Scholium
is to be read in the light of Spinoza's discussion in his Scho-
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THK EXISTENCE OF GOD 209
Hum to Proposition VII in Principia Philosophiae Carte-
sianae, I.
Third, the answer to this provisional objection is to be
read in the light of Spinoza's Demonstration of Lemma I
of the same Proposition in his Principia.
In the chojium to Proposition VII in the Principia y
Spinoza discusses Descartes' distinction between "difficult"
(difficile) and "easy" (facile) creation or conservation. He
interprets these terms as referring to the production of "more
perfect" (perfectius) and "less perfect" (imperfectius) things
respectively. In this Scholium to Proposition XI here in
the Ethics Spinoza reproduces the same distinction, explain-
ing the expression "more difficult to produce" (factu diffi-
ciliores) as referring to that "to which they conceive more
attributes pertain." By the same token we may say that
"easy" production is the production of that to which they
perceive less attributes pertain. We may thus further con-
clude that by his distinction between "more difficult" and
"easy" production here Spinoza again means, as in the Prin-
cipia^ the distinction between the production of the "more
perfect" and the production of the "less perfect."
With this distinction in view, says Spinoza, "many per-
sons" will try to refute the third proof. The third proof, it
will be recalled, starts with the hypothesis that we have two
ideas, one of God as an infinite being and another of man as
a finite being, and proceeds to argue that if man exists and
God does not exist it will be contrary to the hypothesis. But
these "many persons" will say, contends Spinoza, that the
distinction between God and man as infinite and finite means
a distinction between infinite perfection and finite perfec-
tion or between having an infinite number and a finite num-
ber of properties. But it has just been said that the difference
between the "more perfect" and the "less perfect" corre-
2io THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
spends respectively to the difference between "difficult"
existence or production and "easy" existence or production.
Accordingly, the existence denied of God and the existence
affirmed of man are of two different kinds entirely, one being
infinitely "difficult" existence and the other being "easy"
existence. To deny therefore infinitely difficult existence of
God while affirming easy existence of man does not imply a
contradiction of our idea of God as an infinite or most perfect
being. Quite the contrary, it is because we conceive of God
as an infinite and most perfect being that His existence be-
comes infinitely difficult, and hence He does not exist,
whereas man, being conceived as finite and imperfect,
thereby has existence which is easy, and hence he does exist.
Spinoza could have put into the mouth of these "many
persons" the following illustration. Suppose we have two
ideas, one of our possessing a million dollars and the other
of our possessing one dollar. The first idea is more perfect
than the second, inasmuch as more attributes or properties
pertain to it. But because the idea of having a million dol-
lars is more perfect their existence is more difficult and con-
sequently they do not exist in our pocket, whereas the idea
of having one dollar is less perfect; therefore its existence is
easy and it does exist in our pocket.
To this provisional objection tentatively raised in the
name of "many persons" Spinoza answers by recalling his
old distinction between things "which are produced by ex-
ternal causes" l and things "which can be produced by no
external cause." Of the former, he argues, it is indeed true
to say that the greater the perfection the more difficult its
existence and the smaller the perfection the easier the ex-
istence. Hence the idea of a million dollars has less possi-
bility of existence than that of one dollar, for the perfection
1 Ethics, I, Prop. II, Schol. Cf. Principia Philosophiae Cartesianac^ I, Prop. 7,
Lemma I, Nota i.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 211
as well as the existence of a million dollars is not intrinsic.
The perfections of beings dependent upon external causes are
themselves external perfections, and the more of them there
are the more dependent the existence of the beings becomes
upon external causes. "For whatever perfection or reality
those things may have which are produced by external
causes, whether they consist of many parts or of few, they
owe it all to the virtue of an external cause, and therefore
their existence springs from the perfection of an external
cause alone and not from their own." x But if you have an
idea of anything with a set of internal perfections, growing
out of its own nature, then the possibility of its existence in-
creases in proportion to the number of perfections, so that
if we get an idea of an infinitely perfect being its existence
becomes absolutely necessary. "In an idea or concept of
everything, existence either as possible or as necessary is con-
tained." 2 "For, as we cannot affirm existence of nothing, as
we detract from the perfection of a concept and conceive its
content to approach zero as its limit, so much do we detract
from its possible existence. If we conceive this degree of per-
fection to be infinitely diminished, even to zero, it will con-
tain no existence, or but an absolutely impossible one. On
the other hand, if we increase this degree of perfection to
infinity we conceive that it has the highest possible existence
and so to be absolutely necessary." 3 This kind of internal
perfection which grows out of the nature of things, as dis-
tinguished from external "marks of perfection which men
from ignorance and tradition are accustomed to esteem as
such," 4 is to be understood only as "so much reality or
being." s God, therefore, who is conceived as having an
infinite number of perfections growing out of His own nature,
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 11, Schol.
3 Principia Philosophiac Cartesianac, I, Axiom 6. Cf. Prop. 7, Lemma I, Dem-
onst. 3 Ibid.) Prop. 7, Lemma I, Demonst.
Hid.) Prop. 7, Lemma I, Nota 2. * //</.
212 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
has the most reality and being. 1 You cannot argue, as would
those "many persons/' that because God is infinitely perfect
His existence is infinitely difficult, and hence He does not
exist. Only external perfections may be said to increase the
difficulty of existence; internal perfections, on the contrary,
increase the possibility of existence. Such internal "per-
fection consequently does not prevent the existence of a
thing, but establishes it; imperfection, on the other hand,
prevents existence, and so of no existence can we be more
sure than of the existence of the Being absolutely infinite or
perfect, that is to say, God." 2
To sum up our main conclusions: Historically there were
two kinds of proofs for the existence of God, based upon two
kinds of knowledge, indirect and direct. The indirect kind
of knowledge gave us the various cosmological and teleologi-
cal proofs. The direct kind of knowledge gave us the proofs
based upon revelation, the innateness of the idea of God,
and universal assent. The ontological proof as stated by
Anselm, Descartes, and Spinoza is not an independent proof.
It is only a different way of formulating the old proofs based
upon direct knowledge. In Anselm, it is a modified form of
the argument from universal assent. In Descartes and
Spinoza it is a modified form of the argument from the in-
nateness of the idea of God.
Of the four proofs for the existence of God given by Spinoza
in the Ethics , the first and third correspond respectively to
Descartes' ontological proof in Meditation V and his cos-
mological proof in the second proof of Meditation III.
Descartes' first proof in Meditation III is not reproduced
by Spinoza in the Ethics, but is reproduced by him in the
Short Treatise and in his Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae,
and is referred to in his correspondence and in De Intellectus
1 Cf. Ethics , I, Prop. 9. * Ethics, I, Prop, u, Schol.
PROP, ii] PROOFS OF THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 213
Emendatione "Tractatus. Spinoza's second proof in the Ethics
is a modification of Descartes' ontological proof in Medita-
tion V, enriched by elements borrowed from a cosmological
proof in Hebrew philosophic sources. Spinoza's fourth proof
in the Ethics is the conversion of his third proof, which is
cosmological, into ontological form, which conversion was
also made by Descartes himself.
The idea of God which is assumed in the ontological proof
to imply existence is differently phrased in the different
forms of the proof. In Anselm, it is the idea of the greatest
being. In Descartes, it is the idea of the most perfect being,
or of a self-caused being, or of the most powerful being.
Spinoza's three ontological proofs the first ^ second ', and
fourth proofs in the Ethics make use of three descriptions
which may be reduced to two. In the first proof, the idea
of God is that of a being whose essence involves existence.
In the second proof, it is that of a being whose existence is
necessary per se. These two can be reduced to what Des-
cartes described as a self-caused being. In the fourth proof,
it is the idea of a being who is most powerful. This difference
in terminology, however, is only verbal. Any other term,
such, for instance, as the most real being (ens realissimum),
can be used, if it is assumed to be that which is immediately
perceived of God, without introducing anything new in the
ontological proof. The recurrent claims for the discovery of
new ontological proofs for the existence of God which we
meet in philosophic literature generally prove, upon analysis,
to be nothing but the substitution of some new terms for
such older terms as the greatest, the most perfect, the self-
caused, and the most powerful. Oftentimes, these so-called
newly discovered ontological proofs are not even ontological,
but rather disguised cosmological proofs.
CHAPTER VII
EXTENSION AND THOUGHT
I. THE FRAMEWORK OF SPINOZA'S UNIVERSE
IN OUR analysis of the Ethics so far we have found that of the
first thirteen propositions twelve deal with the traditional
problem of the nature of God, which we have discussed in
the chapters on the definition, unity, and simplicity of sub-
stance, and one proposition deals with the proofs of the ex-
istence of God. The remaining propositions of the First Part
of the Ethics similarly deal with a problem which in tradi-
tional philosophy would go under the title of the relation of
God to the world. Spinoza starts out in Proposition XIV
with a recapitulation of his denial, both in Short Treatise,
I, 2, and in Propositions II-VI in the First Part of the Ethics,
of the fundamental belief of all mediaeval philosophers that
between God and the world there is a distinction of pure
form and matter, the two constituting, as it were, two sub-
stances. "Besides God," he therefore maintains, "no sub-
stance can be nor can be conceived" (Prop. XIV). His
demonstration of this proposition is again a summary of
what he has already said in the Short 'Treatise, I, 2, and in
Propositions II-VI, namely, if the world were of a nature
absolutely distinct from that of God, all the difficulties
which the mediaevals themselves had pointed out against the
assumption of the existence of two deities * or against the
assumption of the emanation of a material world out of an
immaterial cause by the ordinary process of necessary
causality 2 would recur and would be unanswerable (Dem-
1 Cf. above, p. 83. 2 Cf. above, p. 88.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 215
onst.). He thus concludes that there cannot be anything in
the nature of the universe, including matter, which is not in
God himself, who according to all traditional opinions is the
sole cause of the universe. "Hence it follows with the great-
est clearness, firstly, that God is one, that is to say (Def. VI),
in nature there is but one substance" (Corol. I). But this
one substance or God, again according to all traditional
opinions, 1 "is absolutely infinite " (ibid.), and therefore can-
not be fully known by the finite intellect. 2 It is only the in-
finite intellect (infinitus intellectus)* i.e., the infinite intellect
of God (infinitus Dei intellectus) f that can perceive every-
thing which pertains to this one substance, that is to say,
its infinite attributes. The finite "human mind can only get
to know those things which the idea of an actually existing
body involves, or what can be inferred from this idea." s
But inasmuch as "this idea of the body neither involves nor
expresses any other attributes of God than extension and
thought," 6 it follows that the human mind knows God "in
so far only as He is considered under the attribute of ex-
tension" 7 and "under the attribute of thought, and not in
so far as He is considered under any other attribute." 8 And
so, just as his discussion of the impossibility of two substances
in the Short 'Treatise culminates in the statement "that we
posit extension as an attribute of God," 9 so also here Spinoza
concludes with the statement that "it follows, secondly,
that the thing extended and the thing thinking are either
attributes of God or affections of the attributes of God"
(Corol. II).
1 Cf. above, p. 117. 2 Cf. above, p. 142.
i Ethics, II, Prop. 7, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 90, 1. 4).
Epistola 66 (Opera, IV, p. 280, 11. 8-9).
* Epistola 64 (Opera, IV, p. 277, 11. 10-13).
6 Ibid. (11. 18-19). i Ibid. (11. 23-24).
8 Ibid. (11. 28-29). 9 Short Treatise, I, 2, 18.
21 6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
The last expression, "or affections of the attributes of
God," is a reference to the modal system of extension and
thought, which Spinoza describes most fully and clearly in
the Short treatise T and his correspondence with Schuller. 2
The full scheme of Spinoza's system of extension and thought
may be pieced together from these two main sources. In its
bare outline it is as follows: There is, to begin with, sub-
stance or God with infinite attributes. Of these only two
attributes are known to us, extension and thought. From
these attributes there follows a series of modes, to wit, (i) im-
mediate infinite modes, (2) a mediate infinite mode, and (3)
finite modes. Of extension, the immediate infinite mode is
motion-and-rest; of thought, the immediate infinite mode
is the absolutely infinite intellect (intellectus absolute infini-
tus). Only one mediate infinite mode is specifically named by
Spinoza, and that is the face of the whole universe (fades
totius universi). He does not make it clear, however, whether
it is a mode of extension or of thought or of both. The finite
modes are the particular things (res particular es}. Substance
and its attributes are called by Spinoza natura naturans^ the
entire modal system of extension and thought is called by
him natura naturata^ and within the latter he distinguishes
between the two classes of infinite modes, which he calls
"general," and the single class of finite modes, which he calls
"particular."
As a skeleton framework to hold together and to unify the
fragmentary pieces of the visible universe, this scheme of
Spinoza is to be regarded as one of the stages, an advanced
stage, to be sure, in the long development of similar schemes
since man began to distinguish between the visible and the
invisible and to discern behind phenomenal sporadic changes
1 Ibid. y 1, 8-9.
a Epistolae 63-64.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 217
a certain unity and a certain causal connection. Any attempt
to interpret this scheme of Spinoza as an adumbration of any
specific theories of modern science is justifiable in the same
sense as the Stoics were justified in transforming the gods
and goddesses of Olympia into the natural forces and moral
principles of their own philosophy, or as Philo and the medi-
aeval Jewish, Christian, and Moslem theologians were justi-
fied in investing the God and angels of the Bible with signif-
icances of their own philosophic principles. There is indeed
a justification in all such attempts at allegorical methods of
interpretation, whether applied to Homer, the Bible, or the
works of Spinoza, but only in so far as they are confined to
an effort to show that all these systems of myths, religion,
and philosophy were inspired by a common striving to see the
universe as a whole and to interpret it as a unit, and how in
reaching out for the truth they almost attained it. But the
allegorical method of interpretation becomes a perversion
of truth when confused with the method of historical re-
search. The first step in understanding any author is to find
out what he means by what he says and how he came to
say it in a certain particular manner. In Spinoza's skeleton
framework of the universe, the terms used are those of tra-
ditional philosophy, and the concepts represented by these
terms, as well as the connection between them, are likewise
reminiscent of skeleton frameworks of the universe invented
by his predecessors. We happen to know also that philoso-
phers throughout the ages have come to whatever new views
they have happened to arrive at as a result of criticism of
older views and a modification of the views criticized by
them. We have already seen how Spinoza's propositions in
the Ethics so far can be best explained as a criticism and
modification of his mediaeval philosophic background. We
shall therefore try to show how the entire scheme of Spinoza's
21 8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
theory of extension and thought has grown out of a typical
scheme held by mediaeval philosophers.
The mediaeval skeleton framework of the universe in its
bare outline and without any discussion of its finer subtle
points starts out, like that of Spinoza, with God who is in-
finite in His perfections; but unlike Spinoza's, it assumes God
to be pure form, whose sole activity is thinking. The product
of God's thinking is an Intelligence, which is likewise pure
form and the activity of which is likewise thinking. But this
Intelligence, owing to the dual aspect of its existence, being,
on the one hand, necessary of existence, for it is the inevi-
table product of divine thinking, and, on the other hand, only
possible of existence, for by its own nature and without a
cause it could not have come into being, contains also a dual-
ity in its nature, the duality of necessity and possibility.
Out of the necessary element in its nature there emanates
another Intelligence, which is again pure form and the
activity of which is again thinking; but out of its possible
element there proceeds a sphere which is material and the
activity of which is motion. As the astronomy of the Middle
Ages posited a plurality of such concentric celestial spheres,
the number of which varied according to different views but
is generally spoken of as nine, 1 the process is repeated until
we come to the last in the series of the concentric spheres,
the so-called lunar sphere, and to the last in the series of the
Intelligences, generally spoken of as the Tenth or Active
Intelligence. This so-called Tenth Intelligence, like all the
others, has in its nature the duality of possibility and neces-
sity. Out of its possibility there arises the underlying gen-
eral matter which is common to all the sublunar things and
the nature of which is pure possibility and potentiality.
Then by the motion of the spheres their common circular
1 Cf. Moreh Nebukim, II, 4.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 219
motion as well as the particular variations in their common
circular motion this common underlying matter is pre-
disposed for the assumption of the general as well as the par-
ticular forms by which the simple elements and the compound
things are differentiated among themselves from each other.
The forms themselves from the primary forms of the four
elements to souls and minds, which are also called forms
flow from the activity of the Tenth Intelligence, 1 which
means that they ultimately flow from God.
Thus, according to this scheme, the entire universe is
divided into matter and form. These two exist together in
the physical part of the universe, but form exists apart from
matter in the world of the Intelligences 2 and in God. While
on the whole matter owes its existence to God as its ultimate
cause, it does not come directly from God, inasmuch as God
is pure form, and by a mediaeval principle, which may be for-
mulated as omne materiale e materially matter cannot arise
from form. Matter arises somewhere in the process of emana-
tion at a stage removed from God, and its origin is accounted
for by what I have described elsewhere as "emergent
emanation/' 4
In order to simplify the process of showing how Spinoza
derived his own scheme from the mediaeval scheme, it is
necessary for us to separate in the latter its essential from its
non-essential elements. The essential element in the scheme
is the main philosophic thesis that God is pure form and
1 The most obvious sources from which Spinoza could have derived his knowl-
edge of this mediaeval scheme are Moreh Nebukim^ I, 72; II, 4; and Shem-Tob's
commentary on Moreh Nebukim y II, 13.
2 For a difference of opinion, however, with regard to the immateriality of the
Intelligences, see below, p. 223.
* Cf. my paper, "The Problem of the Origin of Matter in Mediaeval Jewish
Philosophy and Its Analogy to the Modern Problem of the Origin of Life," in Pro-
ceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Philosophy , p. 602.
* Cf. ibid., pp. 603-604.
220 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
hence the material universe did not proceed from Him
directly. The non-essential elements are the assumptions
which happened to be part of the mediaeval scientific con-
ception of the universe, namely, the theory of celestial
spheres, the theory of the plurality of Intelligences, and the
theory that the universe was finite in extent, being enclosed
within an all-surrounding sphere. They were, however, not
essential to the scheme itself. The non-essential character
of these scientific assumptions in the mediaeval scheme is
attested by the fact that in the history of philosophy, even
before Spinoza, they had been eliminated or modified one by
one without affecting the main philosophic thesis of the im-
materiality of God. The theory of the finite extent of the
universe, which was an Aristotelian heritage in the history
of philosophy, was attacked by Crescas * at the beginning of
the fifteenth century, as it was again attacked by Bruno 2
about two centuries later, so that by the time of Spinoza
the infinity of the universe was already treated as a philo-
sophic commonplace. The theory of celestial spheres was
eliminated from consideration in respectable scientific circles
with the fall of the Ptolemaic astronomy in the sixteenth
century, and even before that time two important features
of that theory, namely, the difference between the matter and
the motion of the celestial bodies and those of terrestrial
bodies, had been disposed of by Crescas. 3 With the elimi-
nation of the celestial spheres there would necessarily have
to follow the elimination of the plurality of the Intelligences,
for the number of the Intelligences, according to the mediae-
val view itself, was determined by the number of the spheres. 4
But still one Intelligence of pure form would have to remain
1 Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, pp. 115-117.
2 Cf. ibid., pp. 115, ii 8. 3 Cf. ibid., pp. 118-120.
< Cf. Moreh Nebukim, II, 4.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 221
for as long as the main thesis of God as pure form remained
and for as long as the origin of the material world was ex-
plained not as an act of special creation out of nothing but
as a process of emanation out of the substance of God. Thus
the mediaeval scheme, stripped of its non-essential acces-
sories and modified to fit the new scientific conceptions of
the universe, must have presented itself to the mind of
Spinoza as follows: There is God, a pure form, whose sole
activity is thinking. The product of God's thought is an
Intelligence, which is also pure form, but in the nature of
which there is a duality of necessity and possibility. Out of
this Intelligence emanates the physical universe, its matter
out of the possibility of the Intelligence's nature, and its
form, motion, and thought out of the necessity of the Intelli-
gence's nature.
It is this main thesis, which on the whole had survived all
the changing conceptions of the universe up to the time of
Spinoza and from which the intermediary Intelligence was
eliminated only whenever emanation gave place, as, for in-
stance, in the case of Descartes, to a special act of creation
out of nothing, that Spinoza constantly and repeatedly makes
the subject of a frontal attack. 1 He does not dwell on the
absurdity of the mediaeval theories of celestial spheres or on
the plurality of Intelligences, for these were already dead
issues in his own time and were not essential, as we have
seen, to the main thesis. He does indeed discuss the problem
of infinity, but not especially with reference to the infinite
extent of the universe, but with reference to certain general
aspects of the problem which were still vital issues in his own
time, and he does it only in a letter in which he answers a
question addressed to him and in a scholium to a proposi-
tion in which he refutes some unnamed opponents. 2 The
Cf. above, Chapter IV. * Cf. below, Chapter VIII.
222 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
main thesis, however, is attacked by him directly. He shows
that if God is pure form, then the interposition of another
form between God and the universe will not remove the diffi-
culty of how matter could arise from form by the ordinary
process of necessary causality. 1 As an escape from this diffi-
culty he takes the bold step of making the material universe
proceed by necessity directly from God, with the inevitable
consequence that God himself becomes material, or, to use
his own terms, extension becomes an attribute of God. In
a letter to Oldenburg Spinoza seems to allude to this method
of reasoning leading to his conclusion with regard to exten-
sion when he says: "And, on the other hand, things which
they [the theologians], on account of their prejudices, regard
as created, I contend to be attributes of God, and as misun-
derstood by them/' 2
The conclusion arrived at by Spinoza that God was ma-
terial is not new in the history of philosophy. The most
notable exponents of this view in European philosophy are
the Stoics, who may have perhaps arrived at their material-
ism, like Spinoza, as a result of a criticism of the Platonic
and Aristotelian dualism. 3 Though the Stoic view was not
unknown to mediaeval Jewish philosophers, for in a work
written in Arabic by an unknown Jewish or Moslem author
and preserved in a Hebrew translation it is quoted in the
name of Zeno, i.e., Zeno of Citium, 4 still none of them had
ever attempted to bridge the gulf between God and the
world by endowing God with materiality. Ibn Gabirol's
Fons Vitae, to be sure, is said to have given rise to such a
1 Cf. above, p. 91. a Epistola 6 (Opera, IV, p. 36, 11. 21-23).
3 This explanation for the Stoic materialism has been suggested by Zeller, but
is rejected by him. Cf. Zeller, Philosophic der Gricchcn, III, i (4th edition),
pp. 125 ff. English translation: Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics, pp. 127 ff.
* See David Kaufmann, Die Spurtn Al-Batlaj&si 's in der jiidischen Religions -
Philosophic (Budapest, 1880). Hebrew Text, p. 36, 11. 10 ff.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 223
view in David of Dinant, 1 but this is far from being a true
representation of the real view of Ibn Gabirol. Ibn Gabirol
goes only so far as to assert, as do also Bahya Ibn Pakuda a
and Judah ha-Levi, 3 that the distinction of matter and form
is also to be found in the Intelligences or angels, a view
which was taken over from him by Duns Scotus and his
followers and maintained by them against Thomas Aqui-
nas. Leo Hebraeus refers to this view and ascribes it to
Plato. 4 God himself, even according to Ibn Gabirol, was
free of matter. Crescas, to be sure, comes near attributing
extension to God when, after defining space as extension
and assuming it to be infinite and the world to be in it, he
quotes in support of his view the old rabbinic dictum that
God is the place of the world. 5 Logically, if God is the place
of the world and the place of the world is extension, God
must have extension as one of His attributes. But Crescas
stops short of drawing this daring conclusion. God still con-
tinues to be to him pure form, and in the problem of crea-
tion, in order to bridge the gulf between the immaterial God
and the material world, he has to resort to the solution of
endowing God with will and purpose and design. It is said
that in Bruno there is an intimation that extension is one
of God's attributes, 6 but if this really represents Bruno's
reasoned-out view, then to say of Bruno, as does Pollock,
1 Cf. Erdmann, Grnndriss der Geschichte der Philosophic, 192 and 188. But
according to Albertus Magnus, David of Dinant's view that God is "principium ma-
teriale omnium " was due to the influence of Alexander of Aphrodisias: "Alexander
etiam in quodam libello quern fecit de Principio incorporeae et corporeae subslantiae,
quern secutus est quidam David de Dinanto in libro quern scripsit de TOOT/J, hoc
est, de divisionibus, dicit Deum esse principium materiale omnium" (Summa Theo-
logiae, Pars I, Tract. IV, Quaest. 20, Membrum 2, Quaestio Incidens).
2 Hobot ha-Lebabot, I, 6.
* Cuzari, IV, 3. Cf. commentaries Jol Yehudah and Ozar Nehmad on V, 1 8, 6.
4 Dialoghi a" //more, III, p. 244 (Bari, 1929). Cf. p. 246, where Avicebron is
referred to. s Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, p. 123.
6 Pollock, Spinoza, p. 104. Cf. De la Causa, III, p. 261, 11. 14-18 (ed. Lagarde).
224 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
that "he rejects the notion of formless matter" x is to put the
wrong emphasis on his view. What should have been said
is that he rejects the notion of matterless form. Clearer
than all these intimations as to an extended God is the state-
ment made by Henry More in a letter to Descartes, which
reads: "God seems to be an extended thing/' 2
Spinoza, however, did not come to his view by merely
adopting the statements of the Stoics or of Bruno or of More,
or by merely carrying out to its logical conclusion the hint
thrown out by Crescas. He had been forced to it, as we have
shown in a previous chapter, 3 by the logic of the situation
and as a result of his thorough and critical examination of
the various mediaeval solutions of the problem of the rise
of matter out of an immaterial God. Finding all the solutions
of this difficulty under the theory of emanation unsatisfac-
tory, and refusing to resort to the theory of creation ex nihilo
or to the theory of the co-existence of an eternal matter
alongside God, he was forced to the conclusion that God
was not immaterial.
II. PROPERTIES, ATTRIBUTES, AND MODES
We have thus seen how the main outline of Spinoza's
skeleton framework has developed out of the mediaeval
framework. We shall now try to show in a similar manner
the development of the individual parts within that frame-
work the infinity of God's attributes, the two known
attributes of extension and thought, and the modal system
under the two known attributes.
' Ibid.
2 Descartes, Correspondance, DXXXI (Oeuvres, V, p. 238, 1. 21): "Res enim
extensa Deus videtur esse." Cf. Dunin-Borkowski, Der jungc DC Spinoza, pp.
359
* Cf. above, Chapter IV.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 225
The infinity of God's attributes is implied throughout the
mediaeval discussions of the nature of God, especially in the
oft-repeated statement that God is indescribable. 1 A close
and almost verbal resemblance to Spinoza's statement as to
the infinity of attributes is to be found in Crescas, who, in
discussing a certain Talmudic passage in which the excessive
enumeration of divine attributes is discouraged, explains it on
the ground that such an enumeration "would appear as an
attempt to limit that which is infinite in number.'* 2 His
pupil Joseph Albo puts it still more directly when he says:
"It must be understood that the perfections which exist in
God are unlimited in number, that is to say, they are infinite
with reference to their plurality." 3 The term "perfection"
is used here by Albo as synonymous with "attribute." With
these mediaeval thinkers, to whom God was immaterial and
separate from the world and to whom the attributes were
expressions of divine perfections, it was only logical that
they should insist not only upon the infinite degree of per-
fection of each attribute but also upon the infinite number
of attributes. For them to say that God possessed an infinite
number of attributes meant nothing more than to say that
God's powers and perfections were inexhaustible. But with
the gradual disappearance of the separation of God and the
world, if not their complete identification, in the Renaissance
philosophy, as for instance in the philosophy of Bruno, and
with the general acceptance in opposition to Aristotle of the
belief in an infinite number of worlds, the ascription of in-
finite attributes to God naturally assumed a new meaning.
To the minds of some people it must have conveyed the idea
of the existence of an infinite number of independent worlds.
1 Cf. Moreh Nebukim, I, 59.
3 Or Adonai) I, iii, 3 (p. 24a).
* 'Ibkarim, II, 25. Cf. above, p. 117.
226 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Thus Schuller asks of Spinoza whether or not " there must
be constituted as many worlds as there are attributes of
God." x Spinoza tries to set him aright on this point. In
his answer to Schuller, 2 where reference is made to the Scho-
lium to Proposition VII, Part II, and in other places where
the infinite attributes are discussed, 3 Spinoza makes it quite
clear that by infinite attributes he does not mean an infinite
number of independent worlds, but rather an infinite number
of aspects of one single infinite universe, analogous to the
mediaeval conception of the infinite attributes of God.
The infinite attributes of God, however, are not known
to us. Only some of them we are able to affirm of God, and
even these, according to the mediaevals, do not tell us any-
thing about the true essence of God. They are only inade-
quate terms by which we express the various ways in which
God manifests himself through nature. The selection of
attributes which are admissible of God constitutes one
phase of the problem of attributes in mediaeval Jewish phi-
losophy, and various lists have been drawn up by various
philosophers. Saadia 4 enumerates life, power, and knowl-
edge. Bahya Ibn Pakuda s mentions existence, unity, and
eternity. Ibn Zaddik's 6 list contains existence, power,
knowledge, abundance, justice, goodness, mercifulness, life,
truth. Judah ha-Levi, 7 dividing attributes into actional,
relational, and negational, mentions under them respectively
the following groups: (a) making poor and rich, casting
1 Epistola 63. a Epistola 64.
* Cf. Short Treatise, I, i, 8, note 3 (Opera, I, p. 17, 11. 33 ff.).
Emunot we-De'ot, II, 4: Q3P1 ,^1D' ,'["!.
s Hobot ha-Lebabot y I, 10: lIDlp ,1R ,NM.
6 'Olam Katan, III (pp. 57 ff.): ,]Dm ,3'BD ,pH2C ,T0y ,DZ>n ,1133 ,rMOXD
DDK ,'n.
7 Cuzari, II, i: ,Dp131 top /JOTI Dim ,00110 *]K ^DtfO ,T0yD1 BP11D (a)
rriN ,'n ( f ) ; NIWI 01 ,
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 227
down and exalting, merciful and gracious, jealous and re-
vengeful, strong, almighty; (b) blessed and praised, glorified,
holy, exalted and extolled; (c) living, one, first and last.
Abraham Ibn Daud * mentions eight: unity, truth, existence,
eternity, life, knowledge, will, and power, but concludes:
"We do not contend that there are no other attributes which
may be similarly affirmed of God, provided only that it be
made clear that they are to be understood in such a way as
to imply no plurality in His essence/' 2 Descartes likewise
enumerates a similar list of attributes "in so far as they may
be known by the light of nature alone/' 3 His list mentions
eternal, omniscient, omnipotent, the source of all goodness
and truth, creator of all things, and infinite perfection.
Spinoza does not altogether disregard these traditional
attributes of God. But they are not to him what he would
call "the proper attributes of God" 4 in the specific sense in
which he uses the term "attribute," namely, "that which
the intellect perceives of substance, as if constituting its es-
sence." 5 They are called by him propria y "that is to say,
without them God would indeed be no God, but still it is
not they that constitute God: for they reveal nothing of the
character of substance, through which alone God exists." 6
The contrast between attributes and properties is also im-
plied in his opening statement in the Appendix to the First
Part of the Ethics, where he divides the contents of the First
Part into two problems, namely, (i) "the nature of God and
(2) its properties." 7 By "the nature of God" he means
there the attributes. Similarly in the Tractates de Intellectus
' Emunah Ramah, II, iii (p. 52): ,yTIY! /PIP! ,TROn ,NXO:n ,JlDKn /
M ,nmn. a ibid. (p. 56).
3 Principia Philosophiae, I, 22.
< Short Treatise, I, 2, 28. 5 Ethics, I, Def. 4.
6 Short Treatise, I, 3, i, and note i.
7 Cf. above, p. 112.
228 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Emendatione he says of "one" and "infinite" that "these
are not attributes of God which set forth His essence." x
These properties are further described by Spinoza either as
being "an extraneous denomination, such as that He exists
through himself, is eternal, one, immutable, etc.," or as
having "reference to His activity." 2 What he means here
by an "extraneous denomination" is not quite clear. But
a passage in the Cogitata Metaphysica may throw light upon
it. In that passage, using the traditional term "attribute"
rather loosely in the sense of his own term "property," he
enumerates the following eleven properties: eternity, unity,
greatness, immutability, simplicity, life, understanding, will,
power, creation, concurrence. These, he says, are divided
by some into incommunicable (incommunicabilia) and com-
municable (communicabilia) 3 a division which he char-
acterizes as "more nominal than real," for all of them are
to be incommunicable or homonymous, inasmuch as there
can be no similarity in their meaning when applied to God
and when applied to other beings. Spinoza himself divides
them into those which explain God's "active essence"
(actuosam ejus essentiam), such as "understanding, will, life,
omnipotence, etc.," and those which only explain "His mode
of existence" (ejus modi existendi), such as "unity, eternity,
necessity, etc." 4 Now, in his correspondence, Spinoza speaks
of the properties as being explanations of the expression
necessary existence 5 or of the identity of essence and exist-
ence, 6 the latter of which, as we have shown, is itself derived
from the nature of necessary existence. 7 Taking, therefore,
1 76, note z (Opera, II, p. 29). 3 Short Treatise^ I, 2, 29.
* This distinction has been traced by Freudenthal to Thomas Aquinas and Heere-
boord. Cf. "Spinoza und die Scholastik," in Philosophische dufsatze, Eduard
Zcller . . . gewidmetjV. n6.
Cogitata Metaphysica, II, n.
5 Epistola 35. 6 Epistola 83. 1 Cf. above, pp. 126 ff.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 229
all these passages together, we may conclude that the "ex-
traneous denomination " is an explanation of God's "mode
of existence" or of the expression "necessary existence/*
And thus Spinoza's properties correspond to what Mai-
monides described as (i) explanation of a name, 1 and (2)
actions, 2 both of which are distinguished by him from essen-
tial attributes. In a letter to Oldenburg, evidently referring
to these lists of attributes, Spinoza writes: "I say that
many attributes which they [the theologians of his time]
and all others at least who are known to me attribute to
God, I regard as things created." 3 By "things created"
(creaturas) he undoubtedly means what Maimonides calls
"actions."
According to Joel the distinction between attributes and
properties referred to by Spinoza is analogous to the distinc-
tion made by Crescas between essential attributes and attri-
butes merely as intellectual conceptions. 4 The analogy is
wrong on several grounds. First, the intellectually con-
ceived attributes of Crescas may have a closer relation to
Spinoza's definition of attributes s than to his definition of
properties. Second, Crescas' intellectually conceived attri-
butes imply a certain conceptual theory of universals which
Spinoza's properties do not. Third, Crescas' intellectually
conceived attributes, as I have shown, are one of several
forms of anti-realistic conceptions of attributes in Jewish
philosophy, 6 of which Maimonides' "explanation of a name"
is an extreme type, and which, incidentally, may be traced to
1 Moreh Ncbukim, I, 51.
* Ibid., I, 52.
3 Epistola 6 (Opera, IV, p. 36, 11. 19-21).
* Joel, Zur Genesis der Lehre Spinoza s, pp. 19 ff.; Joachim, A Study oj the Ethics
of Spinoza, p. 42, n.
s Cf. above, p. 152.
6 Cf. my "Crescas on the Problem of Divine Attributes" in Jewish Quarterly
Review, n.s., VII (1916), pp. 1-44, 175-221. Cf. above, pp. 150 ff.
230 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
the nominal definition mentioned by Aristotle and described
by him also as the explanation of a name. 1 The fact that
Spinoza divides properties into those which are explanations
of the expression necessary existence and those which de-
scribe actions shows quite clearly that they are traceable to
what Maimonides describes as explanations of a name and
actions.
But even as propria, not all the attributes that have been
used by the mediaevals with reference to God are of interest
to Spinoza. Many of them are only adjectives which happen
to have been applied to God in the traditional literature of
religion. Spinoza passes them by and confines himself only
to those which are of a philosophic character. " We shall not
trouble ourselves very much about the ideas that people
have of God, but we shall only inquire briefly into what the
philosophers can tell us about it." 2 Of these so-called philo-
sophic propria, or, as he calls them here, " attributes which do
not pertain to God," he reproduces a list which concludes
with the phrase "and so forth": "A being existing through
or of itself, cause of all things, omniscient, almighty, eternal,
simple, infinite, the highest good, of infinite compassion." 3
In a foot-note to this passage, he describes these attributes
which do not pertain to God as "certain modes which may
be attributed to God" either in consideration of both his
known attributes, such as eternal, self-subsisting, infinite,
cause of all things, immutable, or in consideration of the
attribute of thought only, such as omniscient, wise, etc., or
in consideration of extension only, such as omnipresent,
fills all, etc. A list of propria under the loose name of attri-
butes is given in the Cogitata Metaphysica, namely, eternity,
unity, greatness, immutability, simplicity, life, understand-
1 Analytica Posterior a > II, 10, 93 b, 29-37.
3 Short Treatisf, I, 7, 2. * Ibid.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 231
ing, will, power, creation, concurrence. 1 In a letter to Hudde
he enumerates four propria, eternal, simple, infinite, indivisi-
ble, all of which are reduced by him to the single property of
perfection. 2 In a later letter to Hudde he refers not only
to these four properties but also to "the remaining similar
properties " and to their reduction by him to one property. 3
In a letter to Tschirnhaus he mentions as properties the as-
sertions "that He exists necessarily, that He is unique, im-
mutable, infinite, etc." 4 In the Appendix to the First Part
of the Ethics there is an indirect reference to properties, of
which he mentions necessary existence, one, acting by the
necessity of His own nature, cause of all things, all things
being in Him, predestination. 5 A list of three propria is
given by him in the Short 'Treatise^ namely, that God is
the cause of all things, divine providence, and divine pre-
destination. 6
These propria ^ which in traditional philosophy had passed
for divine attributes, do not according to Spinoza reveal
anything of the nature of God. Even in mediaeval philoso-
phy they were taken, as a rule, as homonymous terms to be
understood in a sense entirely unrelated to their ordinary
meaning. It was well, indeed, for the mediaevals to give
up their inquiry about the nature of God at this point, for
to them God was absolutely distinct from the universe, as
pure form must be distinct from matter, and consequently
what they called attributes could not tell us anything of the
nature or essence of God or what God is. They told us only
what He is not or what He does in the world the so-called
1 Cogitata Metaphysica, II, I-H. The origin of this list in various Latin sources
is given by Freudenthal, "Spinoza und die Scholastik," in Philosophische Aujsatoe
Eduard Zeller . . . gewidmet, p. no.
1 Epistola 35. * Epistola 36. Epistola 83.
5 Appendix to Ethics, I.
6 Short 'Treatise, I, 3, 5, and 6.
232 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
negative and actional interpretations of divine attributes. 1
But according to Spinoza God is as material as the world>
and His essence, therefore, apart from His actions, does re-
veal itself in the nature of the physical universe. God or sub-
stance, to be sure, is unknown to us in His infinite fullness,
and even that part of Him which is known to us is known to
us only through attributes which are not substance itself but
only "that which intellect perceives of substance/' 2 Still,
the intellect perceives them "as if constituting its essence/' 3
that is to say, as if constituting the essence of substance.
While the mediaevals considered the essence of God un-
known, because the knowledge gained of God's essence is
not so positive as the knowledge that one may gain, accord-
ing to their theory of knowledge, of the essence of other
beings, Spinoza considered the essence of God in so far as
it could be known through nature as positive as, and even
more positive than, the knowledge one may gain, according
to his own theory of knowledge, of the essence of any par-
ticular being. One must therefore go, according to Spinoza,
to the physical universe, to consider its ways, and to be wise
as to the nature of God.
If we are to attempt to reconstruct hypothetically the
process of Spinoza's study of nature and of his reasoning
which ultimately led him to the discovery of the two known
attributes of God, we must assume that he started with the
Aristotelian method of classifying being. Three classifica-
tions of being are to be found in Aristotle, namely, the ten
categories, substance and accident, and matter and form.
Of these three classifications, the first must have been dis-
missed by Spinoza outright as something unuseful for his
purpose. Not only did it seem to him, as to others after
1 Moreh Ncbukim, I, 52.
a Ethics, I, Dcf. 4. J Ibid.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 233
him, to be logically faulty, but it is also reducible to lower
forms, for it is based upon the distinction of substance and
accident, the nine categories outside of substance being
nothing but an enumeration of various accidents casually
selected. 1 The classification of substance and accident, or
rather of substance and mode, to be sure, is used by Spinoza
as the ultimate classification of being in his own system, 2
and rightly so, since in his own system only one substance is
assumed. In the system of Aristotle, however, where three
kinds of substances are assumed, the classification of sub-
stance and accident could not be ultimate, since substance
presupposes already the distinction of matter and form, for
the three substances in Aristotle are matter, form, and con-
crete things composed of matter and form. 3 Spinoza must
have therefore started his revision of the mediaeval scheme
with the last of the Aristotelian classifications of being,
namely, matter and form.
Then as a next step, we may assume, Spinoza must have
modified Aristotle's classification of matter and form to suit
his own particular theory of the materiality of God. In
Aristotle, as we have seen, matter and form are substances,
each of them existing "in itself." Though in concrete com-
posite things form does not exist "in itself," 4 for it is insep-
arable from matter and cannot exist apart from matter,
still form can also be pure and exist "in itself" apart from
matter, as in the case of his own God. To Spinoza, however,
form could never be pure and exist apart from matter, for
even God, he has already shown, must be material. Matter
and form, therefore, could not be substances; they could be
only attributes of substance, and there could be only one
such substance, and that is God. Particular things are not
1 Cf. above, p. 62. * Cf. above, pp. 63 f.
i Cf. above, p. 67. 4 Cf. above, p. 68.
234 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA CETHICS, i
substances. That they cannot be substances he has already
shown from the very same terms used in the mediaeval defi-
nition of substance. 1
Then Spinoza must have taken one further step and
changed the terms "matter'' and "form" into "extension"
and " thought." The reason for his doing so will become clear
to us when we consider the ambiguity of the old terms mat-
ter and form. In Aristotle and throughout the Middle Ages
matter and form were correlative terms. They were applied
simultaneously to everything within the hierarchy of beings
that lie between the lowest matter and the highest form.
They could not therefore be used by Spinoza in his own
specific and restricted sense with reference to the two known
attributes of God without leading to some confusion. It
was in fact this multifariousness of meaning of the terms
matter and form that led mediaeval philosophers to classify
them according to their different applications and to label
them by certain distinguishing adjectives, so that in Thomas
Aquinas there are no less than fifty-one varieties of matter
and no less than one hundred and twenty-one varieties of
form. 2 In order therefore to avoid confusion, Spinoza had
to find certain equivalents for matter and form which would
have the traditional sanction of expressing the same contrast
and which would also stand respectively for one traditional
specific matter and for one traditional specific form.
Such two terms he found in extension and thought. The
common matter underlying the four elements, according to
Aristotle and his commentators, is something extended; in
fact, it is the first kind of matter that is extended, and hence
could be called extension. There is indeed a difference of
opinion among his mediaeval commentators as to whether
1 Cf. above, Chapter III.
3 Cf. L. Schiitz, 'Thomas-Lexikon (1895): "Materia" under c and "Forma" un-
derb.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 235
extension was the underlying common matter of the four
elements itself or whether it was a sort of form of a still
further inextended matter, in which case the underlying
common matter of the four elements would be itself composed
of matter and form, respectively known as prime matter
(mater i a prim a) and corporeal form (forma corporeitatis).
The latter was the opinion of the leading Arabic and Jewish
philosophers, such as Alfarabi, Avicenna, Algazali, Aver-
roes, Joseph Ibn addik, Abraham Ibn Daud, and Joseph
Ibn Aknin, though there was a difference of opinion among
them as to the nature of the forma corporeitatis. The origin
and history of this controversy about the forma corporeitatis
have been discussed by me elsewhere. 1 Crescas, however,
argues for the elimination of the inextended prime matter
and makes the forma corporeitatis or extension itself at once
the prime matter and the underlying common matter of the
four elements. 2 The same view was also held, according to
the testimony of Isaac Abrabanel, by his son Judah Abra-
banel, 3 better known as Leo Hebraeus, author of the Dialoghi
cT Amore. However it is, the common matter underlying the
four elements was conceived to have extension as something
inseparable from it, on which account it could be spoken of
as extension. A further justification for the substitution of
extension for matter by Spinoza was the fact that Descartes
defined matter as extension, 4 though, perhaps, not in the
same sense in which Crescas identified the two. The reason
for Spinoza's substitution of thought for form is quite obvi-
ous, for the highest form or God is spoken of by Aristotle
and throughout the Middle Ages as pure thought.
1 Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle in the notes on pp. 579-590, of which
a summary is given on pp. 99-101.
3 Ibid.) pp. 102-104, 261-263; notes 26-32 on pp. 598-602.
3 Ibid.) p. 600.
4 Principia Philosophiae, II, 4, and cf. Spinoza, Epistola 83.
236 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
But "extension" and "thought" are abstract terms which
"the intellect perceives of substance, as if constituting its
essence." 1 It is only through their respective activities that
they become manifest to our senses. Now, in Aristotle and
throughout the Middle Ages God as pure thought was con-
ceived as an active principle. Thought meant thinking, and
that process of thinking is always active and is never in a
state of quiescence. This is the trend of Aristotle's state-
ments when he says of God's thought that it "thinks itself
because it shares the nature of the object of thought. . . .
For that which is capable of receiving the object of thought,
i.e. the essence, is thought. And it is active when it possesses
this object. Therefore the latter (possession) rather than
the former (receptivity) is the divine element which thought
seems to contain." 2 Maimonides re-echoes these statements
when he declares that "God is the intellectus^ the intelligent,
and the intelligibile" and that "God is an intellect which
always is in action." 3 Extension or matter, however, is dif-
ferent, according to Aristotle and the mediaevals and also
Descartes; 4 it is never active, it is always passive. It is set
into motion by an external agent, which ultimately termi-
nates in God, who is the cause of motion in matter, but who
is himself not matter and is not in motion. The view is most
clearly set forth by Maimonides: "The principles of any
individual compound substance are matter and form, and
there must needs be an agent, that is to say, a mover which
sets the substratum in motion, and thereby renders it pre-
disposed to receive a certain form. The agent which thus
predisposes the matter of a certain individual being is called
1 Ethics, I, Def. 4.
a Metaphysics, XII, 7, io72b, 19-23.
J Moreh Nebukim, I, 68.
* Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, II, Prop. 12, and cf. Descartes, Principia
Philosophiat) II, 36.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 237
the immediate mover. Here the necessity arises of inquiring
into the nature of motion, the moving agent and the thing
moved. But this has already been explained sufficiently;
and the opinion of Aristotle may be formulated in the words
that matter is not the cause of its own motion. 1 This is the
important proposition which leads to the investigation of
the existence of the prime mover." 2
Spinoza accepts the old philosophic view with regard to
God's thought that it is the act of thinking and that God is
therefore an intellect which is always in action. But he dis-
agrees with the old philosophic conception of matter as
something inert. In one of his letters he directly criticizes
Descartes for maintaining that the variety of things can be
deduced "from extension in no other way than by supposing
that this was the effect produced in extension by motion
which was started by God," 3 and gives as his own view that
it must be "explained through an attribute, which expresses
eternal and infinite essence/' 4 Since according to his own
view extension is an attribute of God just as thought is, ex-
tension must be active no less than thought, and just as
thought is thinking so extension is motion, not motion im-
parted to it by an external agent, but something which ex-
presses the activity of its own nature. These actional aspects
of the attributes of extension and thought are what Spinoza
calls immediate infinite modes.
1 Cf. Metaphysics, I, 3, 9843, 21-25; XII, 6, 107 ib, 28-30.
2 Moreh Nebukim^ II, Introduction, Prop. 25; Crescas' Critique of Aristotle ,
p. 315. Letter from Tschirnhaus (Epistola 82).
* Letter to Tschirnhaus (Epistola 83). Spinoza's statement that "matter is
badly defined by Descartes as extension" is not to be taken literally as an objec-
tion to Descartes' identification of matter with extension. It is to be taken in con-
nection with the entire letter of Tschirnhaus and as referring especially to the lat-
ter's restatement of the opinion of Descartes that the variety of things can be
deduced "from extension in no other way than by supposing that this was the effect
produced in extension by motion which was started by God." Cf. also the defini-
tion of matter in Cogitata Metaphysica, II, 10 (Opera, I, p. 269, 11. 31-33).
238 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
The immediate infinite mode of thought is designated by
Spinoza in four ways: (i) Intellect (Intellectus , Verstaari)*
(2) Absolutely infinite intellect (intellectus absolute infinitus). 2
(3) An infinite power of thought (potentia infinita cogitandi). 3
(4) The idea of God (idea Dei).* The term intellectus in the
first two designations is to be understood here not only in
the sense of the thinking subject but also in the sense of the
act of thinking, that is to say, not only in the sense of the
intellect, vovs, but also in the sense of intellection, j/irjcns,
on the principle reproduced by Maimonides as the common
opinion of the philosophers that "God is the intellectus > the
intelligent, and the intelligibile" and that "all intellect is
identical with its action; the intellect in action is not a thing
different from its action, for the true nature and essence of
the intellect is comprehension/' s This principle is also re-
produced by Spinoza. 6 When it is recalled that according
to Spinoza there is no potential intellect but that every in-
tellect is actual, 7 it will become clear how the term intellectus ,
which literally means the understanding subject, is used by
him in the sense of the act of understanding. When, there-
fore, in the third designation he describes the infinite mode
of thought as potentia infinita cogitandi, the term potentia
is not to be taken in the sense of potentiality or faculty or
the power to do something but in the sense of the power
displayed in doing something, for ordinarily, as says Mai-
monides, "when we assume the intellect to be potential, we
necessarily distinguish two things, the potential intellect
and the potential intelligible object." 8
1 Letter from Schuller (Epistola 63), and Short Treatise, I, 9.
3 Letter to Schuller (Epistola 64). * Epistola 32 (Opera, IV, p. 173, 1. 18).
< Ethics, II, Props. 3, 4, and 8. Cf. I, Prop. 21, Demonst.
s Moreh Nebukim, I, 68. Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 24, 45.
6 Ethics, II, Prop. 7, Schol. Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 24, 45.
? Ethics, II, Prop. 48, Schol., and Ethics, I, Prop. 31, Schol.
8 Moreh Nebukim, I, 68.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 239
The active sense of the term intellectus is made clear by
Spinoza himself in his description of the immediate infinite
mode of thought in the Short Treatise. He says that "it has
been from all eternity, and to all eternity will remain im-
mutable. ... It has one function, namely, to understand
clearly and distinctly all things at all times/' x The em-
phasis in these statements is on the terms "eternity," "im-
mutable/' and "at all times," and they reflect the following
statements of Maimonides: "Now it has been proved that
God is an intellect which always is in action, and that . . .
there is in Him at no time a mere potentiality, that He does
not comprehend at one time, and is without comprehension
at another time, but He is an intellect in action always." 2
Spinoza continues to describe there the function of the in-
finite mode of thought as that "which produces invariably
an infinite and most perfect satisfaction, which cannot omit
to do what it does." 3 This seems to reflect Aristotle's de-
scription of the constant activity of the First Principle or
God: "And its life is such as the best which we enjoy, and
enjoy for but a short time. For it is ever in this state (which
we cannot be), since its actuality is also pleasure . . . and
the act of contemplation is what is most pleasant and best." 4
The expression idea Dei we take to be the equivalent of
the expression intellectus absolute infinitus as a description
of the immediate infinite mode of thought. These two ex-
pressions, however, indicate two different aspects of that
immediate infinite mode. The term intellectus, as we have
seen, literally refers to the thinking subject, the vovs in
Aristotle's enumeration of the threefold aspect of God's
thinking, namely, the j>oDs, the v&rjcns, and the voyrbv or
1 Short treatise, I, 9, 3. 2 Moreh Nebukim, I, 68.
J Short Treatise , I, 9, 3.
Metaphysics , XII, 7, loysb, 14-24.
240 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
voovjjitvov. The term idea in idea Dei is a transliteration of
elSos in the specific sense of eldos vorjT&v (forma intelligibilis)*
and hence it reflects the object of thought, the vor\rbv or
voovnevov in Aristotle's threefold enumeration. But inasmuch
as in God, according to Aristotle, Maimonides, and Spinoza
himself, the thinking subject, the act of thinking, and the
object of thought are identical, the expressions intellectus
absolute infinitus and idea Dei are identical in meaning,
both designating the immediate infinite mode of thought.
That the relation between the "idea of God" and the "ab-
solutely infinite intellect" was conceived by Spinoza to be
like that of object of thought to the thinking subject, which,
of course, in God are identical, may be shown from the fol-
lowing passage. In Proposition IV of Ethics , II, Spinoza says
that "the idea of God . . . can be one only." In the Dem-
onstration of this proposition he proves it by the contention
that "the infinite intellect comprehends nothing but the
attributes of God and His affections," which are all united
in God as one. This passage makes it quite clear that the
"idea of God" was considered by Spinoza to be related to
the "infinite intellect" as the object of thought to the
thinking subject with which it is identical. Another proof-
text may perhaps be found also in the following passage:
"We must remember, besides, that our mind, in so far as it
truly perceives things, is a part of the infinite intellect of
God (Corol. Prop. XI, Part II), and therefore it must be
that the clear and distinct ideas of the mind are as true as
the ideas of God (Dei ideae)." 2 If in this passage the plural
"Dei ideae" means the ideas of God in the "infinite intellect
of God" rather than the ideas of God in "our mind," then
it is quite evident that the relation between the "idea of
1 Metaphysics, XII, 9, 10753, 3-5. Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 46-48, 93.
3 Ethics, II, Prop. 43, Schol., end.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 241
God" and the "infinite intellect of God/' i.e., the absolutely
infinite intellect, is like that between the clear and distinct
ideas of our mind and our mind, that is to say, like the re-
lation between the object of thought and the thinking sub-
ject, which two are identical in God.
Some students of Spinoza take the idea Dei as the mediate
infinite mode of thought corresponding to the fades totius
universi which they take as the mediate infinite mode of
extension. 1 This view, however, is dictated only by the
necessity of finding a special mediate infinite mode of thought
in order to round out the symmetry of the modal system.
No statement in Spinoza could be found which would defi-
nitely corroborate it. On the contrary, the following pas-
sage in the Short Treatise would seem to contradict it. Says
Spinoza: "And since, as a matter of fact, nature or God is
one being of which infinite attributes are predicated, and
which contains in itself all the essences of created things, it
necessarily follows that of all this there is produced in thought
an infinite idea (oneyndige Idea), which comprehends ob-
jective the whole of nature just as it is realiter" 2 The "in-
finite idea" in this passage undoubtedly refers to the idea
Dei, and from the context of the passage it is quite clear
that it cannot be a mediate mode of thought, for right after
this statement Spinoza says definitely: "Wherefore also, in
the ninth chapter of the First Part, I called this idea a crea-
tion created immediately by God." 3 Furthermore, the use
of the idea Dei in the Demonstration of Proposition XXI of
Ethics, I, leaves no doubt that it is an immediate rather than
a mediate mode of thought. 4
1 Pollock, Spinoza, pp. 187-188, referring also to Ed. Bohmer, "Spinozana," in
Zeitsehrijt fur Philosophie und philosophische Kritik, 42 (1863), pp. 107-116;
Joachim, A Study oj the Ethics of Spinoza, p. 94.
3 Short Treatise, Appendix II, 4 (Opera, I, p. 1 17, 11. 24-29).
i Ibid. (p. 117, 11. 29-31; p. 607, 10). * Cf. below, p. 378.
242 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
The immediate infinite mode of extension is designated by
Spinoza in two ways: (i) Motion. 1 (2) Motion and rest. 3
The addition of rest to motion must have been suggested to
him by Descartes, who speaks of motion and rest as " two
diverse modes of a body in motion." 3 Whether Descartes
himself meant by this addition that rest was a real entity,
or whether he used it only as a rhetorical flourish, is a ques-
tion which has been raised in connection with another pas-
sage in Descartes. 4 But it would seem that Spinoza had
taken it to mean something positive, in opposition to Aris-
totle and the mediaevals, to whom rest was only the privation
of motion. 5 The positive character of rest is affirmed by
Spinoza when he says that "as is self-evident, the same force
is required to give a body at rest a certain velocity as is re-
quired to bring the same body with that given velocity to
rest/* 6 or when he says that "by force we understand the
quantity of motion. ... In bodies at rest by force of re-
sistance we understand the quantity of rest." 7 It is interest-
ing to note that Crescas in his criticism of Aristotle similarly
maintains, though in a different sense, that there is a quan-
tity of rest as there is a quantity of motion. 8 It has been
suggested that by motion and rest Spinoza means energy in
motion and energy in position, or kinetic and potential
energy. 9
1 Letter from Schuller (Epistola 63), and Short Treatise, I, 9.
2 Short Treatise, 1, 2, 19, note 7 (Opera, I, p. 25, 11. 26-27); II, notes to Preface;
II, 19, 6 (Opera, I, p. 90, 11. 26-27); U, 20, 4, note 4 (Opera, I, p. 98, 1. 35);
Appendix II, 15 (Opera, I, p. 120, 1. 24); Ethics, I, Prop. 32, Corol. 2; Epistola 64;
Meyer's Preface to Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae (Opera, I, p. 132, 1. 13).
3 Principia Philosophiae, II, 27.
Pollock, Spinoza, p. no. Physics, IV, 12, 22ib, 12-13.
Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, II, Def. 8 (2).
Ibid., Prop. 22, Demonst., and Prop. 37, Corol. Cf. E. Schmitt, Die unendliche
Modi bei Spinoza (Leipzig, 1910), p. 47, n. 2.
Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, pp. 287-288.
Pollock, Spinoza, p. 113.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 243
In the history of philosophy an immediate creation of God
has been sometimes called a son of God. Thus Philo de-
scribes the intelligible world, which was an immediate crea-
tion of God and created by Him from eternity, as a son of
God, whereas time, which is not an immediate creation of
God but is the offspring of the cosmos, is described by him
as a grandson of God. 1 This designation has gone over to
Christian theology, and Spinoza refers to the Christian side
of it elsewhere in his works. 2 But Philo's statement is also
reproduced by Azariah dei Rossi, 3 and it is also reflected
in Leo Hebraeus' Dialoghi d* Amore.* Following tradition,
therefore, Spinoza characterizes the immediacy of these two
infinite modes by saying of motion that it is "a son, product,
or effect created immediately by God," and of understand-
ing that it "is also a son, product, or immediate creation of
God, created by Him from all eternity/' 5
Spinoza's God, though He can no longer be contrasted
with the universe as the immaterial with the material, can
still be contrasted with it as the simple whole with the ag-
gregate whole. His God, as we shall show in the next chap-
ter, is not identical with the physical universe. He transcends
it in a certain special sense of the term transcendance. 6 And
so, the aggregate totality of the physical universe, in so far
as it is the necessary result of the activity of God's attributes
of extension and thought, is called by Spinoza also an in-
finite mode of God, but in order to differentiate it from the
other infinite modes he calls it a mediate infinite mode. This
distinction between immediate and mediate infinite modes,
Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis, VI, 31.
Cogitata Mctaphysica, I, 10; Epistola 73; Ethics, IV, Prop. 68, Schol.
Me 'or 'Enayim, Imrc Binah y Ch. 4, p. 100 (ed. Cassel).
Diahghi d'Amorc t III, p. 244 (Bari, 1929).
Short Tnatisf, I, 9, 2-3.
Cf. below, p. 322.
244 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
however, does not occur in all the writings of Spinoza. In
the Short Treatise he does not mention it. On the contrary,
the distinction drawn there is not between two kinds of in-
finite modes but rather between infinite modes, as motion
in extension and understanding in thought, and particular
things, the former of which are immediately created by God
whereas the latter are said to be created by God by a sub-
sidiary instrumental cause. God is therefore called by him
the proximate cause of the infinite modes but the remote
cause, in a certain sense, of the particular things. 1 But the
distinction between immediate and mediate infinite modes
is referred to several times in the Ethics? and a mediate
infinite mode is specifically named by Spinoza in a letter to
Schuller.'
The name given by Spinoza to that mediate infinite mode
is "the face of the whole universe" (jades totius universi).*
The phraseology of this expression is reminiscent of the
Biblical manner of describing the totality or wholeness of
a certain extent of territory. Thus when the Bible wants to
say "over the entire earth/' it says "upon the face of all the
earth," which in the Vulgate is translated by super faciem
totius terrae (Dan. 8, 5), or by super faciem universae terrae
(Gen. 7, 3, I Sam. 30, 16), or by super faciem omnis terrae
(II Sam. 1 8, 8, Zech. 5, 3). The term fades may also reflect
the Greek Trp6<rwjrov in the sense of "person," for the Latin
fades as well as the Hebrew word for " face " 5 has acquired the
meaning of "person" under the influence of the Greek term.
Accordingly the fades totius universi may mean the whole
universe taken as an individual, in conformity with Spino-
za's statement that "we may easily conceive the whole of
1 Short Treatise, I, 3, 2 (8). But cf. Ethics, I, Prop. 28, Schol.
2 Ethics, I, Prop. 23, Demonst.; Prop. 28, Schol.; Appendix (Opera, II, p. 80,
1. 17). 3 Epistola 64.
t Ibid. s D.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 245
nature to be one individual/* l In coining or adopting this
expression for the mediate modes, Spinoza may have also
been influenced by the Cabalistic term " faces " (parzufim,
from 7rp6(ra?7roj>), which stands for the mediate emanations
from the Infinite (En Sof) y following from Him through the
mediacy of the Sefirot. Abraham Herrera in his Puerto, del
Cielo refers to these mediate emanations as the "faces of the
universe of the infinite." In the Spanish original, the phrase
reads: "parzupim del mundo del ynfinito." 2 In the Hebrew
version, the same term "parzupim/' or rather "parzufim,"
is used. 3 In the abridged Latin version made from the He-
brew, the phrase reads: "Personae Systematis(,) Infiniti." 4
Whether Spinoza had before him the Spanish original in
manuscript or the Hebrew version printed in Amsterdam in
1655, twenty years prior to the writing of his letter to Schul-
ler, dated "29 Julii, 1675," where the phrase "facies totius
universi" occurs, it can be easily seen how Herrera's descrip-
tion of his mediate emanations by the phrase "parzupim of
the universe of the infinite " suggested to him the phrase
"facies totius universi" as a description of his own mediate
infinite mode.
The expression "the face of the whole uni verse " is ex-
plained by Spinoza himself as meaning "the whole universe
which, although it varies in infinite ways, yet remains always
the same/' s This explanation, it seems to me, may refer to
two principles in Spinoza's philosophy.
In the first place, it may refer to the Cartesian and
1 Scholium to Lemma 7, after Prop. 13 of Ethics^ II.
2 Cf. Livro Quarto de La Puerta del Cielo De Abraham Cohen de Htrrera y Cap. 3,
fol. 38b. MS. in the Library of the "Portugeesch Israelietisch Seminarium ETS
HAI'M " in Amsterdam. A copy of this passage was made for me through the courtesy
of the Librarian, Dr. J. S. da Silva Rosa.
3 Sha'arha-Shamayitn,ll,3'. *)1D JW
Porta Cce/orum, II, 3, p. 45.
5 Kpistola 64.
246 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Spinozistic principle of the preservation of the proportion
of motion and rest. 1 According to this principle, the preser-
vation of the proportion of motion and rest in the parts
composing the body of an individual results in the preser-
vation of the form (forma) 2 or shape (figurd)* of that indi-
vidual as a whole. Consequently the preservation of the
proportion of motion and rest in the particular parts which
compose the physical universe and constitute it as an in-
dividual whole will preserve the face (fades), i.e., the form
(forma) and shape (figura), of the universe as a whole. As
Spinoza says elsewhere: "Thus, if we advance ad infinitum y
we may easily conceive the whole of nature to be one individ-
ual, whose parts, that is to say, all bodies, differ in infinite
ways without any change of the whole individual." 4
In the second place, it may refer to the principle of " the
order and interdependence of nature as a whole " (totius
naturae or do et cohaerentia) , s fades thus meaning or do et
cohaerentia. This principle is also spoken of by Spinoza as
"the order of the whole of nature or the connection of
causes'" (prdo totius naturae, sive causarum connexio)? or as
" the fixed and unchangeable order of nature or the chain of
natural events" (fixux et immutabilis naturae ordo sive rerum
naturae concatenations or as "the concatenation of causes"
(concatenatio causarum)* With reference to this principle,
too, nature as a whole may be considered as an individual
consisting of parts, "inasmuch as the power of nature is
simply the aggregate of the powers of all her individual
See Lemma 7, after Prop. 13 of Ethics, II. Cf. below, Vol. II, p. 69, n. 4.
EthicSy IV, Prop. 39, Demonst.
See Axiom 3 preceding Lemma 4, after Prop. 13 of Ethics, II.
Scholium to Lemma 7, after Prop. 13 of Ethics, II.
tfractatus Thcologico-Politicus, Ch. 16 (Opera, III, p. 191, 11. 5-6).
6 Ethics, II, Prop. 7, Schol.
^ Vractatus Theo/ogico-Po/iticus, Ch. 3 (Opera, III, p. 45, 11. 34-35).
8 Ibid., Ch. 4 (Opera, III, p. 58, 1. 21).
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 247
components/' x Now, this order of nature, according to
Spinoza, may be explained either by the attribute of thought
or by the attribute of extension, according as the compo-
nent parts of the universe are considered either as modes of
thought or as modes of extension. 2 By the same token, we
may infer that according to Spinoza the order or the face of
the whole universe may be also explained by the joint
activity of both attributes, if the component parts of the
universe are considered as modes of both thought and
extension.
Consequently, the mediate infinite mode designated by
Spinoza as "the face of the whole universe/' if taken with
reference to the principle of the preservation of the propor-
tion of motion and rest, will be a mode of extension only,
but if taken with reference to the principle of the order of
the whole of nature, will be a mode of both extension and
thought. As Spinoza does not say that "the face of the
whole universe" is a mode of extension only and as he
nowhere specifically mentions a mediate infinite mode of
thought, we may conclude that "the face of the whole uni-
verse" is a mediate infinite mode of both extension and
thought.
In our presentation of the system of infinite modes we
have in some respects parted from the interpretations
which one may find in the Spinoza literature, and in some
other respects we have placed ourselves on the side of one
class of interpreters as against that of another class. 3 Among
the interpreters of Spinoza there are some who take the
"face of the whole universe" to be only a mode of exten-
1 Ibid., Ch. 16 (Opera, III, p. 189, 11. 21-23).
> Ethics, II, Prop. 7, Schol.
J For a classification of the various interpretations of infinite modes, see
E. Schmitt, Die uncndliche Modi bei Spinoza (Leipzig, 1910), pp. 5 ff.
248 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
sion, 1 but in order to preserve the symmetry of extension
and thought, they supply by conjecture the missing mediate
infinite mode of thought out of other parts of Spinoza's
writings. Two Spinozistic expressions have been bor-
rowed to fill up that lacuna in Spinoza's list of infinite
modes: (i) God's idea (idea Dei). 2 (2) "The constant form
of reasoned thought or Necessary Logical laws." 3 Sup-
port for the first conjecture is adduced from the fact that
certain descriptions of the idea Dei would seem to make it
the ideal counterpart of the fades fotius universi. 4 Martineau,
who is the author of the second conjecture, does not adduce
any textual support for his view. I am inclined to reject
both these conjectures, for the following reasons. As we
have already seen, the expression fades totius universi may
include both the modes of extension and the modes of
thought. Then, as we have also shown, 5 the idea Dei is an
immediate mode of thought and the equivalent of the in-
tellectus absolute infinitus. Finally, Martineau's "Neces-
sary Logical laws" cannot be a mediate infinite mode paral-
lel to the fades fotius universi, for from a statement in
Meyer's Preface to Spinoza's Prindpia Philosophiae Carte-
sianae it may be indirectly inferred that the "Necessary
Logical laws" are parallel to "motion and rest" and con-
sequently must be identical with the "absolutely infinite
intellect" and are therefore an immediate infinite mode. The
passage reads as follows: "And as the human body is not
absolute, but its extension is determined according to natural
laws of motion and rest, so also mind or human spirit is not
1 See ibid. y p. 116, n. 4, where a list of authors holding different interpretations
of the fades totius universi is given. Cf. Pollock, Spinoza, p. 188.
2 Pollock, Spinoza y p. 187; Joachim, A Study oj the Ethics of Spinoza, p. 94.
^ Martineau, A Study of Spinoza y p. 200.
4 Joachim, op. '/., p. 95.
5 Cf. above, pp. 239 ff.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 249
absolute but is determined through ideas by natural laws
of thought." *
In the philosophy of Aristotle and in the Aristotelian phi-
losophy reproduced by the mediaevals sometimes for the pur-
pose of refutation, a distinction is drawn between the uni-
verse as a whole and the particular things within it. The
universe as a whole is said to be eternal and immutable, to
have neither beginning nor end, never to have been different
nor ever to change, but always to remain the same. 2 The
particular things in the sublunary part of the universe, how-
ever, are different. They are called transient and are said
to be subject to constant change 3 and to the process of gen-
eration and corruption. 4 Following tradition, Spinoza simi-
larly distinguishes between the " general," which are the
infinite modes, and the "particular," which are the particu-
lar things. 5 The infinite modes are described by him as
eternal and immutable 6 and as remaining always the same, 7
whereas the particular things are described by him as "tran-
sient . . . which did not exist from all time, or have had a
beginning" 8 and as "individual mutable things." 9
But these transient things, according to the mediaeval
Aristotelians, do not act sporadically and haphazardly. They
are all subject to the necessary and immutable laws which
govern the universe as a whole and the influence of which
reaches every part of it. This view has been summed up in
the following statement of Maimonides: "This whole order
[of the universe], both above and here below, is never dis-
1 Preface to the Pnncipia Philosophiae Cartesianac (Opera, I, p. 132, 11. 12 ff.).
3 Aforeh Nebukim, II, 13, Third Theory.
J lbid.,\\, 10. < /#</., II, 11.
s Short Treatise, I, 8.
6 Ibid., I, 9. i Epistola 64.
8 Short Treatise, II, 5, 5 (Opera, I, p. 62, 11. 32 ff.). Cf. 2 (p. 563).
9 Tractatus de Intellects Emendatione, 100 (Opera, II, p. 36, 1. 22).
250 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
turbed or interrupted, and nothing new is produced in it
which is not in its nature and nothing happens in it which
is contrary to law." x Furthermore, even according to Mai-
monides himself, to whom the world does not follow from
God by mere necessity but by knowledge, God's eternal
knowledge is of such a nature that in determining the changes
in particular things it determines them in such a way that
they follow "according to an imperishable and immutable
order." 2 So also Spinoza maintains that the "individual
mutable things" (haec singularia mutabilia) "are produced
and are ordered" according to "fixed and eternal things"
(res fixae aeternaeque) , that is to say, the infinite modes,
which are of an eternal and immutable nature. The sequence
of individual mutable things is, therefore, "to be sought
from fixed and eternal things only, and also from the laws
inscribed in them, as it were in true codes." 3
These fixed and eternal things, though they are themselves
only modes which by definition can neither be nor be con-
ceived without substance, 4 may still be considered with refer-
ence to the individual mutable things which are dependent
upon them as substance is considered by Spinoza with refer-
ence to modes, that is to say, the individual mutable things
can neither be nor be conceived without the infinite modes.
The relation between them, therefore, is like that between
substance and mode, namely, the relation between the whole
and the part or between the universal and the particular. 5
This is the significance of the following passage: "It may
indeed be said that these individual mutable things so inti-
mately and essentially, if I may so speak, depend upon those
that are fixed that the former without the latter can neither
' March Nebukim, II, 13. * Ibid., Ill, 21.
* Tractatus de Intellcctus Emendatione t 101 (Opera> II, p. 36, 11. 35 ff.).
* Ethics, I, Def. 5. s See above, pp. 74 ff.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 251
be nor be conceived. Hence these fixed and eternal things,
although they may be individual (singularia), nevertheless,
on account of their presence everywhere and their extensive
power, will be like universals to us, or so to speak, the genera
of the definitions of individual mutable things, and proxi-
mate causes of all things." *
If this interpretation of the passage just quoted is correct,
then the "fixed and eternal things" do not refer directly to
substance or to attribute but only to the infinite modes, both
the immediate and the mediate, though, of course, indirectly
they may include also substance and attribute, inasmuch as
they, too, are fixed and eternal and are the cause of the ex-
istence of the infinite modes. According to some interpreters
of Spinoza, however, the fixed and eternal things refer di-
rectly to substance, attribute, and even finite modes. 2 The
application of the expression " fixed and eternal things"
to the infinite modes, that is to say, to the absolutely infinite
intellect, motion and rest, and the face of the whole uni-
verse, reflects the expression "eternal things" which was
applied by the mediaevals to the Intelligences, motion, and
the universe as a whole, when these were assumed with Aris-
totle to be eternal. 3 The expression goes back to Aristotle
himself. 4 Again, the characterization of the infinite modes
as singularia in the passage quoted is in conformity with
what we have said above, namely, that Spinoza's substance
or God is in some respect transcending the universe and is
a simple whole as contrasted with the universe, or, as he
1 'Tractatus de Inttllectus Emendatione, 101 (Opera, II, p. 37, 11. 3 ff.).
For different interpretations of the meaning of the res fixae et aeternae, see
E. Schmitt, Die uncndliche Modi bei Spinoza (Leipzig, 1910), pp. 68-69.
J See my Crtscas' Critique of Aristotle , pp. 287, 291, and note 18 on p. 645, note
31 on p. 662, note 32 on p. 663. The Hebrew expression underlying "eternal
things" is: D'TOan onain.
* rA del fora, Physics, IV, 12, 22 ib, 3-4.
252 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
calls it, natura naturata^ which is an aggregate whole. Con-
sequently, substance is the only true whole or universal, and
the infinite modes are in their relation to it only singularia.
In mediaeval philosophy a distinction is made between
the possible per se, the possible per se but necessary in con-
sideration of its cause, and the necessary per se. This dis-
tinction is based upon an Avicennian proposition which is
reproduced by Maimonides as follows: "Everything that
has a cause for its existence is in respect to its own essence
only possible of existence, for if the causes exist, the thing
likewise will exist, but if the causes have never existed, or if
they have ceased to exist, or if their causal relation to the
thing has changed, then the thing itself will not exist." r
The origin, history, and implications of this proposition I
have discussed elsewhere. 2 According to this threefold divi-
sion of possibility and necessity, the particular things are
called possible per se, the celestial spheres are called possible
per se but necessary in consideration of their cause, and God
is called necessary per se a division based upon the
Aristotelian division of the universe into the transiently
movable, the eternally movable, and the eternally immov-
able. 3 Spinoza reproduces this mediaeval threefold division
of possibility and necessity in different connections in several
places in his works. 4 But here he applies it to his theory of
infinite modes. He changes, however, the terms " possible
and " necessary " to "transient" and "eternal," with which,
as we have seen, they are connected. 5 The particular things,
1 Moreh Nebukim^ II, Introd., Prop. 19; cf. my Crescas* Critique of /Iristotle,
P- 33-
2 Crescas Critique of An static , pp. 109-1 n, 681-685.
* Metaphysics, V, 5, 10153, 33-34. See Crescas' Critique of Aristotle > p. 109 and
pp. 680 ff.
See above, pp. 1 87 ff.
5 Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, pp. 109 ff. and 680 ff.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 253
he says, are transient, i.e., possible perse. The infinite modes,
while transient or possible per se, are not to be considered as
transient or possible in consideration of their cause. God is
eternal, i.e., necessary per se. "Now some objects are in
themselves transient; others, indeed, are not transient by
virtue of their cause. There is yet a third that is eternal and
imperishable through its own power and might. The tran-
sient are all the particular things which did not exist from all
time, or have had a beginning. The others are all those
modes [marginal note adds: the general modes] which we
have stated to be the cause of the particular modes. But the
third is God." J
But while Spinoza operates on the whole with mediaeval
conceptions and uses mediaeval terms, he always tries to
emphasize the two points upon which he fundamentally
differs from the mediaevals, namely, the necessity of God's
causality and the denial of God's immateriality. This em-
phasis upon his two points of difference from the mediaevals
may be discerned in the explanations he offers for the mean-
ing of the old expression natura naturans as applied to God
in contrast to natura naturata as applied to the world.
The distinction between God and the world, according to
the mediaevals, is twofold. In the first place, God is the
cause and the world His effect, and by cause they mean an
intelligent cause, a creator, acting by design and with a
purpose. In the second place, God is immaterial and the
world material, so that God, if He is to be called substance
at all, 2 is a substance beyond all substances, a superior or
immaterial substance as against the world which consists
of material substances. These two distinctions between God
and the world are sometimes illustrated by the contrast be-
1 Short treatise, II, 5, 5 (Opera, I, p. 62, 11. 28 ff.). Cf. 2 (p. 563).
2 Cf. above, p. 67.
254 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
tween the expressions natura naturans and natura naturata.
Whatever the origin of these two expressions and whatever
their variety of meanings, 1 it is sufficient for our present
purpose to know that they were used by Thomas Aquinas in
a sense which implied the two fundamental distinctions be-
tween God and the world as we have stated them. God,
says he, is called natura naturans because He is "the uni-
versal cause of all things that happen naturally,'* 2 by which
he means, of course, that God is an intelligent and purposive
cause. This universal cause, he says again in another place,
belongs "to some superior substance, in which sense God is
said by some to be natura naturans'' 3 Spinoza seems to
refer to this last passage when he says of the natura naturans
that "the Thomists likewise understand God by it, but
their natura naturans was a being (so they called it) beyond
all substances." 4
Now, Spinoza wanted to make use of these two expressions
as respective designations of what in his philosophy corre-
sponded to God and the world in mediaeval philosophy,
namely, God and the modes. But still he did not want to use
them in their old meaning by which they connoted a distinc-
tion between an intelligent cause and a premeditated effect
or between an immaterial substance and a material sub-
stance. What did he do? He simply revised their meaning.
Defining natura naturans as including substance and its at-
tributes and natura naturata as including all the modes, the
infinite as well as the finite, 5 he describes the differences be-
tween them in such terms that when we study them closely
1 Cf. H. Sicbeck, "Ueber die Entstehung der Termini natura naturans und
natura naturata" in Archivjur Geschichte der Philosophic > 3(1889-1890), pp. 370 ff.
Commcntaria in Librum Btati Dionysii De Divinis Nominibus, Caput 4,
Lection.
3 Summa fhtologicay Prima Secundac, Quaest. 85, Art. 6.
Short Treatise, I, 8. s Ibid., I, 8; Epistola 9.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 255
we discover that they are aimed directly against the Thomis-
tic conception of the meaning of these expressions. In the
first place, wishing to make it clear that, while he retains the
original meaning of natura naturans as that of a universal
cause, he does not mean by it an intelligent and purposive
cause, Spinoza says that "by natura naturans we are to
understand . . . God in so far as He is considered as a free
cause," * by which he means to say, in so far as He acts by
the necessity of His own nature, 2 whereas "by natura
naturata I understand everything which follows from the
necessity of the nature of God, or of any one of God's attri-
butes." 3 In the second place, in opposition to the Thomists,
who used the two expressions to designate a distinction be-
tween God as an immaterial substance and the world as a
material substance, Spinoza, who denies finite substances
and considers the distinction between God and the world as
that between substance and mode, explains natura naturans
by his own definition of substance and natura naturata by
his own definition of mode. He thus says again: " By natura
naturans we are to understand that which is in itself and
is conceived through itself/* whereas "by natura naturata
I understand ... all the modes of God's attributes in so
far as they are considered as things which are in God, and
which without God can neither be nor can be conceived." 4
Another difference between Spinoza and the mediaevals,
again growing out of his attribution of materiality to God,
is his contention that the "two attributes may be conceived
as really distinct that is to say, one without the assistance
of the other." s This passage, like so many other utterances
' Ethics > I, Prop. 29, Schol.
1 Ibid., I, Dcf. 7.
3 lbid. y I, Prop. 29, Schol.
4 Ibid. t I, Prop. 29, Schol., and cf. Defs. 4 and 5.
s Ibid., I, Prop. 10, Schol.
256 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
of Spinoza, is to be understood as a veiled criticism of the
mediaevals- in this case, of their conception of the inter-
relation of matter and form. According to Aristotle and the
mediaevals, though there exists a pure form, such as God
and the Intelligences, still in the physical universe matter
and form are only relative terms. Not only does not either
one of them exist without the other, but neither one of them
can be conceived without the other. Matter is matter only
with reference to some form, and form is form only with
reference to some matter. Furthermore, since God is pure
form, then matter, under the theory of emanation, must
ultimately have been produced by pure form, and it is form
which continues to be the active, producing principle in
matter. Matter itself is non-being; it is inert. It is form
which constitutes the existence of bodies, 1 and it is form
which sets matter in motion. 2 Form is said to exist in matter,
and matter is said to exist through form. 3 As against this,
Spinoza maintains that extension and thought, which in his
philosophy are the successors of matter an^ forrn, 4 are two
attributes of substance, existing in it together from eternity,
each having the same sort of existence as the other, and each
having its own independent form of activity, extension that
of motion and rest, and thought that of thinking. Unlike
form which produces motion in matter, thought does not
produce motion in extension. Motion is an activity of ex-
tension itself. Extension and thought, again, are not cor-
relative terms, which cannot be conceived but through each
other; they can be conceived independently of each other
with reference to substance only. Nor does thought exist in
extension any more than extension exists through thought.
1 Cf. my Crcscas* Critique of Aristotle, pp. 257 ff.
* Ibid., pp. 89, 299, 672-673. J Ibid., pp. 99, 257 ff., 577, n. 15.
< Cf. above, p. 234.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 257
"For this is the nature of substance, that each of its attri-
butes is conceived through itself, since all the attributes
which substance possesses were always together, nor could
one be produced by another; but each expresses the reality
or being of substance/* l
But still, though distinct from each other, extension and
thought, again unlike matter and form, do not imply a
plurality in the nature of substance. The reason why the
mediaevals considered matter and form to constitute a
plurality 2 wherever they existed together is not that they
could be physically separated but that they were considered
by them two distinct substances, each of which was supposed
to exist in itself 3 and each of which was also supposed to be
in contrast to the other, matter being potential, form actual,
matter being the cause of corruption, form the cause of
generation. 4 But according to Spinoza, extension and
thought are not two substances but attributes of one sub-
stance, and they are only that " which intellect perceives of
substance, as if constituting its essence.*' s There is no con-
trast between them of potentiality and actuality, or of im-
perfection and perfection. They are both expressing two
different phases of the activity of substance, which in sub-
stance itself are one. Consequently, from the fact that the
two attributes are conceived as distinct from each other it
is not to be concluded that " they constitute two beings or
two different substances " 6 after the manner of the Aristote-
lian and mediaeval matter and form. The independence of
each attribute which Spinoza insists upon is merely to em-
phasize his denial of the interdependence of matter and form
1 Ethics , I, Prop. 10, Schol.
2 Cf. above, p. 113. Cf. above, p. 67.
Cf. above, p. 236. s Ethics, I, Def. 4.
6 Ibid., I, Prop. 10, Schol.
258 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
in mediaeval philosophy; it is not an independence which
implies the reality of the attributes in their relation to sub-
stance or a reality in the difference between themselves,
with the result that the unity of substance can no longer
be logically maintained. The relation of the attributes to
each other is of the same order as their relation to substance.
Just as the difference between attribute and substance is
only a conception of the human mind, so the difference be-
tween the attributes themselves is only a form of conception
in the human mind, "for this is the nature of substance, that
each of its attributes is conceived through itself." * It is in
this sense only that the "two attributes may be conceived as
really distinct that is to say, one without the assistance of
the other." 2
Still, while extension is an attribute of God, it must not
be confused with corporeality in the popular anthropomor-
phic conception of God. Spinoza dismisses this popular form
of anthropomorphism which imagines "God to be like a man,
composed of body and soul and subject to passion," without
much ado, "for all men who have in any way looked into
the divine nature deny that God is corporeal." 3 Behind
this last statement there are the long discussions of the rabbis
and of all the religious philosophers since Philo, who sought
to spiritualize or to explain away the anthropomorphic ex-
pressions in certain portions of the Bible. Maimonides
speaks for all of them when he emphasizes the importance of
"God's incorporeali ty and His exemption from all passions,"
as doctrines "which must be explained to every one accord-
ing to his capacity, and they must be taught by way of
< Ibid. > Ibid.
J Ibid., I, Prop. 15, Schol. This Scholium belongs to Prop. 14; cf. Freudenthal,
"Spinozastudien," in Zeitschrift fur Philosophif, 108 (1896), p. 251, n. 2. The rest
of this chapter is a discussion of the first part of this Scholium.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 259
tradition to children and women, to the stupid and igno-
rant/ 1 '
The argument, however, which Spinoza reproduces in the
name of philosophers for the incorporeality of God does not
represent any of the standard philosophical arguments re-
produced by Maimonides, 2 but it does represent the argu-
ment quoted with approval by Maimonides in the name of
the Kalam. The argument in Spinoza reads as follows:
"That He cannot be so they conclusively prove by showing
that by body we understand a certain quantity possessing
length, breadth, and depth, limited by some fixed shape;
and that to attribute this to God, a being absolutely infinite,
is the greatest absurdity/' The Kalam argument in Mai-
monides reads as follows: "If God were corporeal, He would
be finite, which is true; and if He were finite, He would have
a certain dimension and a certain fixed shape, which is equally
a correct conclusion." 3 Spinoza's passage is clearly a para-
phrase of Maimonides' passage with the additional inclusion
of the current definition of "body."
But the mediaevals, proceeds Spinoza, deny of God not
only body but also matter and extension in general, and thus
by removing from divine nature "substance itself, corporeal
or extended," they affirm " that it was created by God." This
leads Spinoza to a recapitulation of his arguments against
creation, namely: if God is pure form, how could matter
have arisen from Him ? Of course, the mediaevals have their
different solutions of the problem of the origin of matter;
none of them sufficiently explains, however, " by what di-
vine power it could have been created." This is quite a good
summary of his main points against creation. 4 He concludes,
1 Moreh Nebukim, I, 35. * Ibid., and II, i.
J Ibid., I, 76, Third Argument.
Cf. above, Chapter IV.
260 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
as he always does after an argument against creation, " that
extended substance is one of the infinite attributes of God."
Spinoza then reproduces two arguments by which the
philosophers have endeavored to prove the incorporeality of
God:
" First, that corporeal substance, in so far as it is sub-
stance, consists, as they suppose, of parts, and therefore they
deny that it can be infinite, and consequently that it can
pertain to God/' So far I have been unable to find the source
of this argument in the form in which it is given here by
Spinoza. My impression is that it is a composite argument
made up of the following parts: (i) The standard argument
for the incorporeality of God on the ground that God is one
and indivisible, whereas corporeality implies composition
and divisibility. Maimonides puts this argument as follows:
"There is no unity unless one discards corporeality, for a
corporeal thing is not one, but composed of matter and form,
which are two distinct things by definition; and furthermore
it is divisible." x Exactly the same argument is given by
Descartes 2 and also by Spinoza in the Short Treatise* (2)
The Aristotelian denial of the existence of an infinite cor-
poreal magnitude, 4 which is reproduced by Maimonides s
and elaborately discussed by Crescas. 6 That this argument
is of a composite nature may be inferred from the following
statement with which Spinoza introduces it: "But for the
sake of a fuller explanation, I will refute my adversaries 1
arguments^ which, taken altogether (omnia), come to this."
Cf.
Moreh Nebukim, I, 35.
Principia Philosophiae, I, 23; Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, I, Prop. 16.
below, p. 268.
Short Treatise , I, 2, 18 (Opera, I, p. 24, 11. 12-15). Cf 1 . below, p. 269.
Physics, III, 5, 2043, 8 ff.; Metaphysics, XI, 10, io66b, i ff.
Moreh Nebukim, II, Introduction, Prop. I.
Or Adonai, I, i, i ; I, ii, i; cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, pp. 135 ff.
PROP. 14] EXTENSION AND THOUGHT 261
" Taken al together " is undoubtedly a reference to the com-
posite nature of the argument. A further proof that the
argument as reproduced here in the Ethics is of a composite
nature is the fact that in the Short Treatise l it is reproduced
in its simple form, without any mention of infinity.
"A second argument is assumed from the absolute per-
fection of God. For God, they say, since He is a being ab-
solutely perfect, cannot be passive; but corporeal substance,
since it is divisible, can be passive. " This argument, too, is
found in Descartes 2 and in the Short Treatise* and is implied
in Maimonides' fourth proof for the existence, unity, and
incorporeality of God from the concept of actuality and
potentiality. 4
The remaining parts of the Scholium to Proposition XV,
which is taken up with a refutation of the alleged arguments
against the possibility of an infinite corporeal substance, will
be discussed in the next chapter.
1 Short Treatise, I, 2, 18 (Opera, I, p. 24, 11. 11-15).
2 Principia Philosophiae, I, 23.
3 Short Treatise y I, 2, 18 (Opera I, p. 24, 11. 15-18).
< Moreh Nebukim^ II, i, Fourth Argument.
CHAPTER VIII
INFINITY OF EXTENSION
THE arguments of his "opponents" against the possibility of
an infinite corporeal substance are introduced by Spinoza
incidentally in connection with his discussion in the Ethics
of the traditional rejection of extension as an attribute of
God. The cause of this rejection, declares Spinoza, is to be
found in the alleged incompatibility of extension with the
infinity of the divine nature, for extension, assumed to be
divisible and consisting of parts, cannot be infinite. 1 And
thereupon Spinoza proceeds to adduce, as he says, "one or
two/' but actually three, of the "many examples" by which
his opponents have tried to show, on the assumption of the
divisibility of corporeal substance, that it could not be in-
finite. In the Short Treatise^ however, this traditional argu-
ment for the rejection of extension as a divine attribute is
reproduced without any reference to the problem of infinity.
According to this earlier version of the argument, extension is
said to be rejected as an attribute of God because, being
divisible and consisting of parts, it is incompatible with the
simplicity of the divine nature. 2 In both these places Spino-
za's refutation of the argument is the same an attempt
to show that extension need not necessarily be divisible
and composed of parts. This he does by drawing a distinc-
tion between extension as an attribute and extension as a
mode and by showing that while the latter is divisible the
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol.: "First, that corporeal substance, in so far as it is
substance, consists, as they suppose, of parts, and therefore they deny that it can
be infinite, and consequently that it can pertain to God."
3 Short Treatise,!, 2, 18 (Opera, I, p. 24, 11. 11-15): "For since extension is divis-
ible, the perfect being would have to consist of parts, and this is altogether inappli-
cable to God, because He is a simple being."
PROP. i5,scHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 263
former is simple. In the Short treatise * this distinction is
clearly drawn; in the Ethics * there is only an emphasis on
the indivisibility and simplicity of substance, with the implied
inference that modes only are composed of parts and divisi-
ble. But here, again, in the Short Treatise the refutation aims
to establish merely the simplicity of extension, whereas in
the Ethics it aims to establish its infinity as well as its sim-
plicity. In the Ethics, furthermore, Spinoza reinforces his
refutation of his opponents by introducing a new distinc-
tion, namely, a distinction between quantity regarded "as
it exists in the imagination" and quantity regarded "as it
exists in the intellect/' the former being "finite, divisible,
and composed of parts" and the latter being "infinite, one,
and indivisible" a distinction, he says, which will be
"plain enough to all who know how to distinguish between
the imagination and the intellect." 3 Both these distinctions
mentioned in the Ethics occur also in two different places in
the Tractates de Intellectus Emendatione. In one place there,
Spinoza says that the idea of quantity, if the understanding
(intellectus) forms it absolutely, is infinite, whereas the idea
of quantity, if the understanding perceives it by means of
a cause, is finite. 4 This distinction is undoubtedly identical
with his distinction between extension as an attribute and
extension as a mode, the former of which is infinite and the
latter finite. In another place he speaks of the errors into
which those "who do not accurately distinguish between in-
tellect and imagination" easily fall, and he mentions as one of
the errors their belief that extension must be finite. 5 Finally,
these distinctions between substance and mode and between
1 Short Treatise ; I, 2, 21-22 (Opera, I, p. 26, 11. 6-7).
- Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 58, 1. i6-p. 59, 1. i).
3 Ibid. (Opera, II, p. 59, 11. 20-32).
* Tractates de Intellectus Emendatione, 108 (Opera, II, p. 39, 11. 4-14).
s Ibid., 87 (p. 32, 1. 35-p. 33, 1. 3).
264 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
intellect and imagination, with the addition of a third dis-
tinction, namely, that between the infinite and the indefinite,
occur again in one of Spinoza's letters to Meyer. 1
It is the purpose of this chapter to isolate the problem of
the infinity of extension from the problem of the applica-
bility of extension as an attribute of God, and to place this
aspect of Spinoza's discussion of the problem of infinity, both
the arguments of his unnamed opponents and also his
criticism thereof, in the light of its historical setting. We
shall deal here with certain texts of Crescas some of which
have already impressed Joel and other students of Jewish
philosophy with their obvious resemblance to certain pas-
sages in Spinoza's discussion of infinity. 2 As mere parallel
passages they are interesting enough, if only to increase the
number of such parallels that may be culled from the wide
philosophic literature of the Middle Ages. It may perhaps
be of somewhat greater significance if it is shown that even
Spinoza's refutations are found among those offered by
Crescas, but here, too, as we shall see, they may be found
also in the works of other writers. But the matter grows in
importance when we notice that the three "distinctions"
mentioned by Spinoza in his letter remind one of three ref-
utations by Crescas of three arguments which correspond
respectively to the three "examples" of Spinoza. The mat-
ter becomes of still greater importance when, as we hope
to show, Spinoza's entire discussion of the indivisibility of
infinite extension is found to involve many difficulties which
can be cleared up by the aid of a thorough understanding
of Crescas' position on the same subject.
1 Epistola 12.
a Cf. M. Joel, Dow Chasdai Creskas* religionsphilosophische Lehren, p. 22, n. i.
Cross-references to Spinoza are also to be found in: M. Schreiner, Der Ka/am in
der judischer Literatur^ p. 27, n. 5; I. I. Efros, The Problem of Space in Jewish
Mediaeval Philosophy, pp. 93, 97, 107; M. Waxman, The Philosophy of Don Hasdai
Crescas , p. 40, n. 36.
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 265
It is safe to say that whomsoever in particular and di-
rectly Spinoza may have had in mind when assailing his op-
ponents for denying the infinity of corporeal substance, it is
ultimately the views and arguments advanced by Aristotle
that he is contending with. Aristotle it was who boldly
came out against the conception of an infinite which had
been held by some of his predecessors, and it is in his writ-
ings that we find the most elaborate discussion of the subject.
With a long array of arguments, in which all his characteris-
tic theories of physics and metaphysics come into play,
Aristotle exploded the theory of the existence of any possible
phase of the infinite. This negation of the infinite, with the
avalanche of arguments found in Aristotle's Physics, Meta-
physics , and De CaeloJ had passed into the stock-in-trade of
philosophic lore of mediaeval thought, where it played an
important part, for it enters as an element into one of the
chief proofs for the existence of God, namely, the cosmological
proof based upon the assumption of the impossibility of an
infinite regress. A few new arguments against infinity may
have been added later, the old arguments of Aristotle may
have been changed, garbled, misinterpreted, split up, and
reclassified, but it is always to Aristotle that any mediaeval
discussion of the impossibility of an infinite can be traced.
It is, therefore, of the utmost importance for us to know to
what extent the reasons attributed by Spinoza to his un-
named opponents for denying the infinity of corporeal sub-
stance do actually agree with what we know to be the views
of Aristotle.
If we were to believe Spinoza, the main reason why Aristo-
tle and his followers rejected infinity was their belief that
corporeal substance is composed of parts. "Wherefore the
whole heap of arguments," he says, "by which philosophers
1 Physics, III, 4-8; Metaphysics^ XI, 10; De Caelo, I, 5-7.
266 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
commonly endeavor to show that extended substance is
finite, falls to the ground by its own weight, for all these
arguments suppose that corporeal substance is made up of
parts." r It would also seem that it is not the mere divisibility
of extended substance that Spinoza understood to be the
assumption underlying the arguments against infinity, but
rather its divisibility into heterogeneous parts and its com-
position of those parts, so that extended substance, ac-
cording to Spinoza, was not considered by his opponents
as a continuous quantity. Thus he says: "Wherefore those
who think that extended substance is made up of parts or of
bodies really distinct from one another are talking foolishly,
not to say madly. It is as though one should attempt by the
mere addition and aggregation of many circles to make up
a square, or a triangle, or something else different in its
whole essence/' 2 He furthermore compares the relation of
the parts of which corporeal substance is supposed to be
composed to that of points to a line. "In the same way,
others, who have persuaded themselves that a line is made
up of points, could also find many arguments by which they
would prove that a line is not divisible to infinity." 3 Finally,
Spinoza seems to imply that the assumption of the divisibility
of corporeal substance, which is supposed to underlie the re-
jection of its infinity, is analogous to the belief in the discon-
tinuity of nature as held by those who admit the existence of
a vacuum, and thus he concludes the argument that "since,
therefore, it is supposed that there is no vacuum in nature
(about which I will speak at another time), but that all the
parts must be united, so that no vacuum can exist, it fol-
lows that they cannot be really separated; that is to say,
1 Epistola 12 (Opera, IV, p. 55, 1. i6-p. 56, 1. i).
' Ibid. (p. 55,11. 11-16).
3 Ibid. (p. 56, 11. 2-4).
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 267
that corporeal substance, in so far as it is substance, cannot
be divided." '
And yet how strangely un-Aristotelian are these views
attributed by Spinoza to Aristotle. Aristotle, as we know
him from his own writings, no more considered corporeal
substance to consist of heterogeneous parts than a line to
consist of points, for both body and line are to him continu-
ous quantities and infinitely divisible. "It is impossible,"
he says, "that anything continuous should be composed of
indivisibles; as, for instance, a line of points, since a line is
a continued quantity, but a point is indivisible." 2 And what
is true of a line is also true, according to Aristotle, of the
other magnitudes, for " there is the same reasoning with
respect to magnitude, time, and motion; for either each or
no one of these consists of indivisibles and is divided into
indivisibles." 3 Following out this line of reasoning, he con-
cludes that "it is also evident that everything which is con-
tinuous is divisible into things always divisible." 4 And it is
because of his belief in the continuity of corporeal substance
that Aristotle rejects the existence of a vacuum and main-
tains "that there is not an interval different from bodies,
either separable or actual an interval which divides the
whole body, so that it is not continuous, as Democritus and
Leucippus say, and many other physicists or even perhaps
as something which is outside the whole body, which re-
mains continuous." 5 Thus for every view ascribed by Spi-
noza to his opponents we may find in Aristotle a statement
to the contrary.
Then there is another difficulty. Spinoza argues that his
opponents denied the existence of an infinite because they
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 59, 11. 16-19).
* Physics, VI, I, 231.1, 24-26.
a I bid. i 2316, 18-20. , 4 Ibid., 23 ib, 15-16.
s Ibid., IV, 6, 213,1, 31-2135, 2.
268 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
erroneously believed that infinite substance must be divisi-
ble, whereas he maintains that infinite substance is indivisi-
ble. Now, Aristotle himself discusses the possibility of an
indivisible infinite substance, but, while admitting that there
is an indivisible substance and that that substance can be
called infinite, he argues that the term "infinite" when ap-
plied to that indivisible substance will not mean infinite
except in the sense in which a voice is called "invisible,"
but that, he concludes, is not what he means by the term
"infinite" when he investigates whether an infinite exists. 1
How then can Spinoza argue against those who deny the
existence of an infinite and at the same time use the term "in-
finite" in a sense which is explicitly rejected by his oppo-
nents ? Is he not committing here the fallacy of equivocation ?
It has been suggested that in attacking his opponents for
conceiving corporeal substance as an aggregate of distinct
bodies it was Descartes whom Spinoza was aiming at. 2
In proof of this a passage is cited in which Descartes rejects
extension as a divine attribute on account of its divisibility.
A closer examination of this passage, however, will reveal that
while it contains one of those arguments which Spinoza says
are found "in authors, by which they endeavor to show that
corporeal substance is unworthy of divine nature, and can-
not pertain to it," 3 that argument is not used by Descartes
to prove that corporeal substance cannot be infinite. Des-
cartes simply endeavors to show that inasmuch as extension
is divisible, and inasmuch as divisibility indicates imper-
fection, extension cannot be an attribute of God. 4 This
1 Ibid., Ill, 5, 2043, 8-14; Metaphysics, XI, 10, io66b, 1-7.
a Cf. H. H. Joachim, A Study of the Ethics of Spinoza, p. 30, n. I.
* Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 58, 11. 13-16).
4 Principia Philosophiac, I, 23: "Thus since in corporeal nature divisibility
is included in local extension, and divisibility indicates imperfection, it is certain
that God is not body." Compare Spinoza's Principia Philosophiae Cartfsianae, I,
Prop. 1 6.
PROP. i5,scHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 269
exactly corresponds to the second of the two arguments
which Spinoza ascribes, both in the Ethics and in the Short
Treatise, to those who denied extension as an attribute of
God. 1 It is in this sense only that Tschirnhaus said to Leib-
niz, evidently in the name of Spinoza, that Descartes er-
roneously attributed divisibility to extension. 2 But it does
not mean that Descartes believed in the heterogeneity of
matter and its divisibility into irreducible parts on account
of which he had to deny its infinity. Quite the contrary*
Descartes believed that matter, whose essence is extension, 3
is infinite in extent. 4 Furthermore, Descartes was far from
considering corporeal substance to consist of parts really
distinct from one another, for, by denying the existence of
atoms 5 and of a vacuum, 6 he held extension to be continuous
and infinite in divisibility. 7 Though he admits "that cer-
tain sensible bodies are composed of insensible particles," 8
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 58, 11. 9-13): "A second argument is
assumed from the absolute perfection of God. For God, they say, since He is a be-
ing absolutely perfect, cannot suffer; but corporeal substance, since it is divisible,
can suffer: it follows, therefore, that it does not pertain to God's essence." Short
treatise, I, 2, 18 (Opera, I, p. 24, 11. 13-15): "Moreover, when extension is divided
it is passive, and with God (who is never passive, and cannot be affected by any
other being, because He is the first efficient cause of all) this can by no means be
the cause." See Wolf's note on p. 178. Cf. above, p. 260.
2 "Extensionem non inferre divisibilitatem, inque eo lapsum esse Cartesium."
Cf. K. I. Gerhardt, "Leibniz und Spinoza," in Sitzungsberichte der kb'niglich
prfussischen Akademie der H'issenschaften zu Berlin, 1889, p. IO 77> reprinted also
in I,. Stein, Leibniz und Spinoza, p. 283.
* Cf. Princtpia Philosophiae, II, 4, and Principia Philosophiae Cartcsianae, II,
Prop. 2.
4 Cf. Princtpia Philosophiae, II, 21, and Principia Phihsophiae Cartesianae,
II, Prop. 6.
s Cf. Principia Philosophiae, II, 20, and Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, II,
Prop. 5.
6 Cf. Principia Philosophiae, II, 16-19, and Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae ,
II, Prop. 3.
* Cf. Principia Philosophiae, II, 34, and Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae,
II, Prop. 5, Demonst.
8 Principia Philosophiae, IV, 201.
270 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
he himself takes great pains to point out that these parts are
not indivisible and insists that his view has more in common
with that of Aristotle than with that of Democritus. l All
that we may gather, therefore, from Descartes* own state-
ments is that, while extension is divisible and hence cannot
be applied to God, it is not divisible into indivisible parts in
the same way as, according to Spinoza's arguments here
against his opponents, a line would have to be divisible if it
were conceived to consist of points.
It was thus not Aristotle and his followers whom Spinoza
could have meant when he ascribed to his opponents the dis-
creteness of corporeal substance as the reason for their deny-
ing its infinity. Still less could he have meant Descartes, for
Descartes not only like Aristotle believed in the continuity
of extension, but also like Spinoza held it to be infinite. Un-
less, therefore, we are inclined to say that Spinoza willfully
imposed upon his opponents views which they would dis-
claim or that he unwarily misunderstood their position, we
are bound to look for some new meaning that may lie con-
cealed behind his uttered words. We must particularly try
to find out whether it is not possible that Spinoza uses here
the terms "indivisible" and "divisible" in some special and
generally unknown sense, for it is in the discovery of such a
special, uncommon use of these two terms, it would seem,
that we may find an answer to the questions raised by us.
We must therefore acquaint ourselves thoroughly with the
sources from which we have reason to believe Spinoza had
drawn his knowledge of the ancient controversy about in-
finity in order to learn the exact meaning of the terms he
uses, to fill out the gaps in his fragmentary statements, and
to restate the full implications of his argument of which his
words are sometimes mere suggestions.
1 Ibid., IV, 202.
PROP. i5,scHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 271
Allowing ourselves to be guided by the gentle hand of
Averroes through the uncharted texts of Aristotle's writings,
for it was Averroes by whom Spinoza's predecessors had
been so wisely guided in their pursuit of the same subject,
we may restate for our purpose certain pertinent facts with
regard to Aristotle's conception of infinity, (i) An infinite,
by definition, must be divisible, for "if it is indivisible, it
will not be infinite, unless in the same manner as voice is
invisible. Those, however, who say that there is the infinite
do not assert that it thus subsists, nor do we investigate it
as a thing of this kind, but as that which cannot be passed
through." * (2) A divisible infinite must be one of the fol-
lowing three: (a) A quantity existing as an accident in a
corporeal subject, (b) An incorporeal quantity, (c) An in-
corporeal substance. 2 An accidental quantity existing in a cor-
poreal subject is dismissed as something irrelevant to the
conception of infinity under discussion. Then an incorporeal
infinite quantity is dismissed on the ground that there is no
incorporeal quantity. To quote Averroes: "It cannot be
an incorporeal quantity, for since number and magnitude are
inseparable from sensible objects, it follows that whatever
is an accident of number and magnitude must likewise be in-
separable, and infinity is such an accident, for finitude and
infinity are two accidents existing in number and magnitude,
inasmuch as the essence of number and magnitude is not
identical with the essence of the infinite." 3 Finally, an in-
finite incorporeal substance is rejected on the ground of the
1 Physics, III, 5, 2043, 12-14. Cf. Metaphysics ) XI, 10, io66b, 5-7.
a Cf. Averroes' Middle Commentary on the Physics, Book III, Summa iii,
Chapter 4: "If the infinite is divisible, it must inevitably bean incorporeal quantity
or a quantity existing in a subject or one of the incorporeal substances." Para-
phrased also by Crescas, Or Adonai, I, i, i (p. 4a). Cf. my Crescas Critique of Aris-
totle, pp. 137 and 330.
J Averroes, loc. cit. Paraphrased also by Crescas, he. cit. (p. 4a-b). Cf. Crescas*
Critique of Aristotle, pp. 137 and 330.
272 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
absurdities that would ensue if it were supposed to be divis-
ible. We shall quote the argument on this last point in three
versions:
In Aristotle the argument is given as follows: "It is also
evident that it is not possible for the infinite to be, as sub-
sisting in energy and as essence and a principle: for whatever
part of it is assumed will be infinite, if it is partible: for the
essence of infinite and the infinite are the same, since the
infinite is essence or substance, and is not predicated of a
subject. Hence it is either indivisible, or divisible into in-
finites. But it is impossible that there can be many infinites
in the same thing. As air, however, is part of air, so likewise
infinite is a part of infinite, if it is essence and a principle. It
is, therefore, impartible and indivisible. But this is impossi-
ble, since it is infinite in energy; for it is necessary that it
should be a certain quantum." l
Averroes' version of the same argument runs as follows:
" After we have shown that the infinite cannot be an incor-
poreal nor a corporeal quantity, there is nothing left but
that it should be an incorporeal substance, of the kind we
affirm of soul and intellect, so that the thing assumed to be
infinite, that is, described as infinite, and infinite being itself
are one in definition and essence and not different in reason.
However, if we assume the infinite to be of this kind, its
essence thus being at one with its definition, then, as a result
of its being infinite, we shall be confronted with the question
whether it is divisible or indivisible. [In the first case,] if it
be divisible, then the definition of a part and the whole of it
will be the same in this respect, as must necessarily be the
case in simple, homoeomerous things. But if this be so, then
the part of the infinite will be infinite. For the parts must
inevitably either be different from the infinite whole or not
1 Physics, III, 5, 204a, 20-29. Cf. Metaphysics^ XI, 10, io66b, 11-19.
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 273
be different therefrom. If they be different, then the infinite
will be composite and not simple; if they be not different,
then the definition of the part will be the same as that of the
whole, for this reasoning must necessarily follow in the case
of all things that are homoeomerous. Just as part of air is
air, and part of flesh is flesh, so part of infinite is infinite,
forasmuch as the part and the whole in each of these are one
in definition and essence. If a difference is found in the parts
of homoeomerous bodies, it is due only to the subject which
is the receptacle of the parts and not to the form, for if we
imagine the form of a homoeomerous body without a subject,
the parts and the whole thereof will be the same in all respects
and without any difference. [In the second case,] if we say
that the infinite incorporeal substance is indivisible, which
must be the case of an incorporeal qua incorporeal, then it
cannot be said to be infinite except in the sense in which a
point is said to be infinite. In general, the treatment of the
existence of an incorporeal infinite is irrelevant to the sub-
ject under discussion." *
This Averroian version of Aristotle's argument is briefly
restated by Crescas in the following terms: "Again, we can-
not help asking ourselves whether this incorporeal substance
is divisible or indivisible. If it is divisible, since it is also
incorporeal, simple, and homoeomerous, the definition of
any of its parts will be identical with that of the whole, and
since the whole is now assumed to be infinite, any part thereof
will likewise have to be infinite. But it is of the utmost
absurdity that the whole and a part thereof should be alike
[in infinity]. And if it is indivisible, which, indeed, as an in-
corporeal, it must be, we can no longer call it infinite, except
as a point is said to be infinite/' 2
1 Averroes, he. cit. y quoted in my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, pp. 3 j 1-332.
1 Or Adonai, loc. cit. (p. 4:1). Cf. Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, p. 137.
274 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
The gravamen of this Aristotelian argument against an
infinite incorporeal substance, as will have been gathered,
is that if it were divisible its parts would each have to be
either infinite or finite, neither of which is possible. It is this
argument that is reproduced by Spinoza in his first "exam-
ple": "If corporeal substance, they say, be infinite, let us
conceive it to be divided into two parts; each part, therefore,
will be either finite or infinite. If each part be finite, then the
infinite is composed of two finite parts, which is absurd. If
each part be infinite, there is then an infinite twice as great
as another infinite, which is also absurd." l It will be recalled
that it is by this very same reasoning that Spinoza has
proved in Propositions XII and XIII that an infinite must
be indivisible. 2
It is simply a matter of ordinary good reasoning that any
attempt at a refutation of Aristotle's arguments against
infinity will have to proceed from his own premises and will
have to use terms in his own sense. The infinite will have
to be a quantitative term, "for it is necessary that it should
be a certain quantum," 3 as Aristotle plainly puts it. It will
have to be divisible. This at once renders it futile to seek to
establish an infinite incorporeal substance which is not quan-
titative and not divisible and of which the use of the term
infinite merely means its exclusion from the universe of
finitude in the same sense as a point is said to be infinite.
The infinite, the existence of which any criticism of Aristotle
will seek to establish, will thus have to be an incorporeal
quantity, inasmuch as an infinite quantity existing as an
accident in a corporeal subject has been disposed of by
Aristotle himself as something inconsistent with the concep-
tion of infinity. But an infinite quantity has been rejected
/ * j
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 57, 11. 28-33).
a Cf. above, pp. 156-157. * Cf. quotation above, p.
272,
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 275
by Aristotle on the ground that no incorporeal quantity
exists. The first step, therefore, in proving the existence of
an infinite will be to establish the existence of an incorporeal
quantity. Furthermore, this incorporeal quantity, while it
will be divisible in conformity with the definition of the term
infinite, will at the same time also have to be homoeomerous,
as everything incorporeal perforce must be, and consequently,
as a second step, a way will have to be found by which the
parts into which it is divisible will not each be infinite like
the whole nor finite unlike the whole.
It is exactly this process of reasoning that is employed by
Crescas in his criticism of Aristotle. Endeavoring to show
that an infinite is possible, he first seeks to establish the ex-
istence of an incorporeal quantity. He does so by proving,
by arguments which do not concern us here, that a vacuum
does exist, not indeed within the universe, dispersed through-
out the pores of bodies and thus breaking up their continuity,
as was held by Democritus, but rather outside the universe,
the view held by the Pythagoreans. 1 The vacuum is nothing
but tridimensional extension, or, as Crescas calls it, "in-
corporeal dimensions'* as contrasted with a plenum which
is "corporeal dimensions/' 2 The significance of this dis-
tinction may be fully appreciated when compared with the
view of Aristotle. Tridimensionality, according to Aristotle,
is either the essence of matter or a form of matter, for there
is a difference of opinion among his commentators on that
point. 3 In either case, tridimensionality is always corporeal,
for even if it is a form of matter, as a form it cannot exist
without matter. But to Crescas the vacuum outside the
universe is tridimensionality which has an independent,
1 Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle ', pp. 53-60.
J Or Adonai, I, ii, i (p. 146). Cf. Crescas' Critique of Aristotle ', p. 187.
* Cf. Crescas' Critique oj Aristotle y p. 101 and n. 18 on pp. 579-590. Cf. above,
PP- 234-235-
276 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
incorporeal existence. Furthermore, this incorporeal tridi-
mensionality, argues Crescas, is a continuous quantity, i.e., a
magnitude, inasmuch as it is described in terms of a continu-
ous quantity rather than in those of a discrete quantity, for it
is said to be "great and small" rather than "much and few." I
As such it is infinite in divisibility. But Crescas argues also
that it must likewise be infinite in extent, "for if it had a
limit it would have to terminate either at a body or at an-
other vacuum. That it should terminate at a body, however,
is impossible. It will, therefore, have to terminate at another
vacuum, and that will go on to infinity." 2
But here Crescas seems to become conscious of the diffi-
culty raised by Aristotle, in Averroes' version of the argu-
ment, against an infinite incorporeal substance. The infinite
vacuum is divisible, but it is also homoeomerous. This
being the case, the parts of the infinite vacuum will either
be identical with the whole in definition or not. If they are,
then the parts will each be infinite like the whole; if they are
not, then the whole will be composed of heterogeneous parts.
The passage in which Crescas refutes Aristotle's argument
and in which he also seems to touch upon this difficulty may
be given here in full: "We say that the argument is fallacious
and a begging of the question. For he who assumes the ex-
istence of an incorporeal infinite magnitude likewise affirms
the existence of an incorporeal quantity. By the same token,
it does not follow that the definition of the infinite would have
to apply to its parts, just as such reasoning does not follow
in the case of a mathematical line. Nor would there have to
be any composition in it except of parts of itself." 3
This passage of Crescas is evidently meant to be a refuta-
1 Or Adonai) I, ii, I (p. 153). Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, p. 189.
' Ibid.
3 Or Adonai y loc. cit. (p. Ha). Cf. Crescas Critique of Aristotle , p. 179.
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 277
tion of the argument contained in the passage quoted above
from Averroes and of which Crescas himself has given a para-
phrase. It will be recalled that Averroes argues against two
possible alternatives in the case where the infinite is assumed
to be both homoeomerous and divisible. First, if the parts
are each infinite like the whole, then the parts of an infinite
will be infinite, which is absurd. Second, if the parts are
each finite, then the infinite whole is composed of dissimilar
parts and is therefore no longer homoeomerous, which is
contrary to the assumption. Now, in this passage Crescas
evidently tries to answer both these alternatives. As against
the first, he seems to say that though the parts are assumed
to be of the same kind as the whole, they are not each in-
finite like the whole, for "it does not follow that the defini-
tion of the infinite would have to apply to all its parts, just
as such reasoning does not follow in the case of a mathe-
matical line.'' As against the second, he seems to say that
though the parts are finite, the infinite whole would not be
composed of dissimilar parts, for "nor would there have to
be any composition in it except of parts of itself."
When we examine, however, this passage closely, we find
that its reasoning is not quite fully explained. In the first
place, Crescas does not fully explain why in an infinite
which is assumed to be homoeomerous and infinite in essence
the parts should not each be infinite like the whole. He
merely asserts that it would not have to be so in the case of
an infinite, just as something similar would not have to fol-
low in the case of a mathematical line. But we may ask
ourselves: The infinite under discussion is infinite in its
essence just as a mathematical line is linear in its essence,
and since the parts of the line are linear like the whole, why
should not also the parts of the infinite be infinite like the
whole? In the second place, when Crescas, arguing appar-
278 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
ently against the second alternative, tries to show that the
infinite would not be composed of dissimilar parts even if its
parts were each finite, he simply says "nor would there have
to be any composition in it except of parts of itself." What
is the meaning of this statement?
Joel, probably starting with the a priori belief that Crescas
must have used the analogy of the mathematical line in the
same way as it is used by Spinoza in his letter to Meyer,
paraphrases this passage as follows: "So wenig die Linie
aus Punkten bestehe, so wenig habe man sich die unendliche
Ausdehnung aus Theilen zusammengesetzt zu denken." r
This paraphrase seems to take the passage as a refutation of
an argument which assumes that the infinite is composed of
heterogeneous parts. But as we have seen, quite the con-
trary, the analogy of the mathematical line is meant to be
a refutation of that part of the argument, paraphrased by
Crescas himself from Averroes, in which it is urged that if
the infinite does not consist of heterogeneous parts, then the
parts of the infinite will each have to be infinite.
In order to get at the meaning of this difficult passage we
must call to our aid everything that was possibly known to
Crescas about a mathematical line and its definition and out
of this try to reconstruct imaginatively what he could have
meant by his allusion to a mathematical line as a solution
of the difficulty raised against the existence of an infinite.
Two main facts about a mathematical line must have been
known to Crescas. In the first place, he was acquainted with
Euclid's definitions of a line, of which there are two. But it
must have been the second of these definitions 2 with which
Crescas operated, for it is this second definition which is most
frequently quoted in the texts with which Crescas was ac-
1 M. Joel, Don Chasdai Creskas' religionsphilosophische Lehren, p. 22.
2 Elements, Book I, Def. 3.
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 279
quainted. 1 This definition reads: "The extremities of a line
are points." In the second place, Crescas was well acquainted
with Aristotle's statements that a line is a continuous quan-
tity 2 and that "everything which is continuous is divisible
into things always divisible/' 3 According to these state-
ments, then, a line is divisible into parts which are lines, and
presumably a line can also be said to be composed of those
lines into which it is divisible. Now the following question
may be raised against these statements of Aristotle. Since
the parts into which a line is divisible and of which they are
also composed are according to Aristotle lines, they must also
be defined as lines. But by Euclid's second definition of a
line, the extremities of a line are said to be points. Conse-
quently, if a line is divided into as well as composed of lines,
a line must be also divided into and composed of points.
But this is contrary to Aristotle's statement that a line is a
continuous quantity and does not consist of points. 4
This question must have undoubtedly been in the mind of
Crescas when he made his allusion to the definition of a
mathematical line. In his brief statement that the definition
of the parts, of both the infinite and the line, is not identical
with that of the whole and that both would not be composed
except of parts of themselves, he gives us some clue as to
what his answer to this question would be. He would answer
it by saying that incorporeal quantities, which are continu-
ous and homoeomerous like a mathematical line and the
infinite vacuum, have no parts. Parts are to be found only
in discrete quantities, such as number, which is made up of
different units, or in corporeal continuous quantities where
the parts differ from the whole in accidental qualities, as,
1 Averroes* Epitome of the Physics, III (Hebrew version), p. rob. Cf. Isaac
Israeli, Sefer Yesodot, II, p. 45 (ed. Fried).
3 Physics, VI, i, 2313, 24. * Ibid., VI, I, ijib, 15-16.
Ibid., VI, I, ijia, 24-26.
280 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
for instance, the parts of an actual line which differ from the
whole in length. If Aristotle does speak of a mathematical
line as being infinitely divisible, the divisibility is merely in
thought and in capacity; in reality infinite divisibility means
nothing but a denial that the line consists of parts different
from the whole. Or, to put the matter in other words, in the
case of a discrete quantity, or of a corporeal continuous
quantity, the whole is both divisible into parts and com-
posed of those parts into which it is divisible; but in the case
of an incorporeal continuous quantity, while the whole is
infinitely divisible into parts, it is not composed of those
parts into which it is infinitely divisible. In the case of the
former, the parts are actual and co-exist with the whole; in
the case of the latter, the parts are only potential and do not
co-exist with the whole. This is what is behind Crescas'
statement that the definition of the whole need not neces-
sarily apply to the parts, for the parts are never actual and
do never co-exist with the whole, and this is also what he
means by saying that the whole is not composed "except
of parts of itself," i.e., of parts which do not exist outside
the whole or beside the whole. If Crescas had carried out
his argument in full he would have drawn upon Aristotle's
discussion as to "whether the formula [i.e., definition] of the
parts must be present in the formula of the whole or not," *
in the course of which discussion Aristotle says: "For even
if the line when divided passes away into its halves, or the
man into bones and muscles and flesh, it does not follow that
they are composed of these as parts of their essence, but
rather as matter; and these are parts of the concrete thing,
but not of the form, i.e., of that to which the formula refers." *
1 Metaphysics, VII, 10, 10346, 23-24.
2 Metaphysics, VII, 10, 10353, 17-21. This interpretation of Crescas' passage is
fully worked out in my Crescas' Critique oj Aristotle ^ pp. 391-394.
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 281
In other words, to be divisible does not always mean to be
composed.
The essential point in Crescas' answer to Aristotle's argu-
ment rests, as we have seen, upon the distinction between the
vacuum outside the world and the plenum within it, or be-
tween incorporeal extension and corporeal extension. The
answer given by Spinoza to the same argument, reproduced
by him in his first "example/' is based upon a similar dis-
tinction. What Crescas calls incorporeal extension or vacuum
or space logically corresponds to what Spinoza calls extended
substance or the attribute of extension, and what Crescas
calls corporeal extension corresponds to what Spinoza calls
the particular modes of extension. 1 To both of them, the
former is infinite, whereas the latter is finite. Spinoza thus
says in his letter to Meyer, and it is in answer to the first " ex-
ample " mentioned in the Ethics, that the argument is based
upon a failure to distinguish "between that which must be
infinite from its very nature, or in virtue of its definition,
and that which has no limits, not indeed in virtue of its es-
sence, but in virtue of its cause." 2 From a comparison of
his subsequent elaboration of this distinction in the letter
with his corresponding discussion of the same distinction in
the Ethics* in the Short Treatise^ and in the Tractates de In-
tellectus Emendatione 5 it is clear that the distinction is that
between extension as an attribute and as a mode. That the
latter is described by the expression "in virtue of its cause"
may be explained by the fact that Spinoza regards the rela-
tion of substance to mode as that of cause to effect. 6
1 Cf. Crescas' Critique of Aristotle t pp. 116-118.
2 Kpistola 12 (Opera, IV, p. 53, 11. 2-5).
Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol. (Opera, 11, p. 58, 1. i6-p. 59, 1. 19).
Short treatise, I, 2, 21-22 (Opera, I, p. 26, 11. 6-17).
s Tractatus de Intellects Emendatione, 108 (Opera, II, p. 39, 11. 4-14).
6 Cf. above, p. 76, and below, p. 324.
282 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
With his adoption of the old distinction between the two
kinds of extension, Spinoza also follows his predecessors in
his description thereof. But before we take up this point,
we have to explain Spinoza's use of the terms " indivisible "
and "divisible " in these descriptions. We have seen how the
term "divisible" may apply to three different kinds of divisi-
bility. First, it may apply to what the mediaevals would call
an incorporeal continuous quantity, such as Crescas Vacuum
or a mathematical line, which is free of any accidents. This is
said to be divisible to infinity into parts which are homogene-
ous with the whole, that is to say, a vacuum into vacuums and
a line into lines. Second, it may apply to what the mediaevals
would call a corporeal continuous quantity which is subject
to qualitative or quantitative accidents. This is said to be
divisible into parts which while not generically different from
the whole differ from it and from one another by certain
qualitative or quantitative accidents. Thus, to use the illus-
tration given by Averroes in the passage quoted above,
while parts of air are air and parts of flesh are flesh, the parts
differ from the whole and from one another in size or quality
or in some other accident. Third, it may apply to a discrete
quantity which is said to be divisible into parts which are
heterogeneous with the whole and of which the whole is com-
posed. Now, the first of these three kinds of divisibility is
divisibility only in potentiality but not in actuality, for no
actual division into infinity is possible. To say therefore of
a thing that it is potentially infinitely divisible is tantamount
to saying that actually it is indivisible. In fact, Aristotle
himself, who defines a continuous quantity as that which is
infinitely divisible, describes such a quantity also as indivisi-
ble, on account of its not being infinitely divisible in actual-
ity. "Since, however, the term indivisible (adialptrov) has
two meanings, according as a whole is not potentially divisi-
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 283
ble or is actually undivided, there is nothing to hinder us
from thinking an indivisible whole, when we think of length
(that being actually undivided)/' * Drawing upon this pas-
sage of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas similarly says: "Now the
indivisible is threefold, as is said in De Anima^ III. First,
the continuous is indivisible, since actually it is undivided,
although potentially divisible. . . . The third kind of indi-
visible is what is altogether indivisible, as a point and unity,
which cannot be divided either actually or potentially/' 2
Now, in order to remove the difficulties we have pointed
out at the beginning of the chapter with regard to Spinoza's
reproduction of the views of his opponents and also in order
to make the infinite extension which Spinoza affirms to be
of the same kind with reference to divisibility as that which
Aristotle denies, we must assume that when Spinoza in his
arguments against Aristotle's denial of an infinite extension
insists that extension is indivisible he does not mean that it
is indivisible like a point, that is to say, indivisible even
potentially, but rather that it is indivisible like a continuous
quantity in Aristotle's own use of the term, which means
that it is indivisible in actuality. He is thus not arguing
against Aristotle from a new assumption which Aristotle
would not admit, but he is rather arguing against him from
Aristotle's own assumption. And, similarly, when he argues
that his Aristotelian opponents believe that extension is di-
visible and is composed of parts, he does not mean to say
that they believe that extension is divisible into, and com-
1 De /4nima, III, 6, 430!), 6-8.
2 Summa Theologica^ Pars I, Quaest. 85, Art. 8: "Dicitur autem indivisibile
tripliciter, ut dicitur in 3 de Anima (text. 23 et deinceps) : uno modo sicut continuum
est indivisibile, quia est indivisum in actu, licet sit divisibile in potentia. . . .
Tertio modo dicitur indivisibile quod est omnino indivisibile, ut punctus et unitas,
quae nee actu nee potentia dividuntur" (quoted also by Schiitz in Thomas -Lexikon
(1895), un der "indivisibilis").
284 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
posed of, heterogeneous parts as if it were a discrete quantity;
what he means to say is that, thinking as they do of exten-
sion only as that which is subject to accidental differences,
they believe it to be divisible into parts which are quantita-
tively different from one another, and from such an assump-
tion they argue against the existence of an infinite extension
in the same way as one would argue against the infinite
divisibility of a line or of matter if one started out with the
assumption that a line is composed of points and that mat-
ter is composed of heterogeneous atoms dispersed in a
vacuum. The point which I have been trying to make is
this: When Spinoza charges his opponents with a belief that
extension is divisible, he does not mean to say that extension
is held by them to be divisible into indivisible parts. What
he means to say is that in their use of the divisibility of ex-
tension as an argument against its infinity they failed to
distinguish between extension as an attribute, or what the
mediaevals would call an incorporeal extension, and extension
as a mode, or what the mediaevals would call a corporeal ex-
tension. The former, because it is divisible into homogeneous
parts, can be called indivisible, and can therefore be infinite.
The latter, however, because it is divisible into parts which
are quantitatively different, cannot be infinite.
The attribute of extension is described by Spinoza in the
same terms in which the infinite incorporeal substance is
described in the passage quoted above from Averroes. It is
"infinite from its very nature, or in virtue of its definition"
or "in virtue of its essence." * Like Crescas' incorporeal ex-
tension it is continuous and has no parts, for "part and whole
are not true or real entities, but only things of reason, and
consequently there are in nature [i.e., substantial extension]
1 Epistola 12 (Opera, IV, p. 53, 11. 2-5).
PROP. i 5 ,scHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 285
neither whole nor parts." x It, therefore, "cannot be divided
into parts, or can have no parts "; 2 but, as we have already
pointed out, by this Spinoza simply means what Aristotle
would have sometimes described as being continuous and
infinitely divisible and what Crescas would have character-
ized as not being composed except of parts of itself. The
mode of extension, on the other hand, is "composed of finite
parts . . . and divisible " 3 just as any corporeal object, in
the view of his predecessors, is divisible either into hetero-
geneous parts or into parts which are qualitatively or quanti-
tatively different from each other. "Further/' says Spinoza,
"as regards the parts in nature, we maintain that division,
as has also been said already before, never takes place in
substance, but always and only in the modes of substance.
Thus, if I want to divide water, I only divide the mode of
substance, and not substance itself/' 4 Similarly, in the pas-
sage quoted above from Averroes, we read: "Just as part
of air is air, and part of flesh is flesh, so part of infinite is
infinite, forasmuch as the part and the whole in each of these
are one in definition and essence. If a difference is found in
the parts of homoeomerous bodies [like air and flesh], it is
due only to the subject which is the receptacle of the parts
and not to the form, for if we imagine the form of a homoe-
omerous body without a subject, the parts and the whole
thereof will be the same in all respects and without any
difference/' To be sure, Bruno, too, in his criticism of
Aristotle's rejection of infinity dwells upon the absence
of parts in the infinite, 5 but there is more in Spinoza's state-
1 Short Treatise, I, 2, 19 (Opera, I, p. 24, 11. 19-21).
2 Kpistola 12 (Opera, IV, p. 53, 11. 12-13).
3 Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 59, 11. 2-3).
* Short Treatise, I, 2, 21 (Opera, IV, p. 26, 11. 6-1 1). The same illustration from
water occurs also in Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 59, 1. 35~p. 60, 1. 3).
5 Cf. De rtnfnito universo et Mondi, Dial. II, p. 337 (ed. Lagarde).
286 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
merit than in Bruno's, and the excess is strongly reminiscent
of Crescas.
Thus when Spinoza maintains against Aristotle the exist-
ence of an infinite, indivisible extension, he does not reject
Aristotle's conception of the infinite as something divisible.
The indivisibility of his extension is not like the indivisibility
of a point, but rather like the indivisibility which Aristotle
sometimes applies to a continuous quantity which is other-
wise described by him as infinitely divisible. Again, when he
charges his opponents with considering extension as divisible
and composed of distinct points, he does not mean that they
held extension to be a discrete quantity, similar to the dis-
creteness of a line if it were supposed to consist of points;
he only means to say that, denying the existence of pure
extension, they considered extension divisible and composed
of parts on account of the qualitative or quantitative dif-
ferences in the parts of the material subject in which it ex-
isted, and thus they argued against the infinity of extension
in the same way as one could argue against the infinite divisi-
bility of a line or of matter if one started with the assumption
that a line was composed of points and that matter was made
up of heterogeneous parts dispersed in a vacuum.
Against the existence of an infinite extension there is an-
other argument the purpose of which is to show that the as-
sumption of an infinite would give rise to the absurdity of
one infinite being greater than another. This argument ap-
pears under various forms in many works of Hebrew and
Arabic philosophic literature, and it also occurs in the writ-
ings of Bruno. We shall restate here two versions of this
argument.
One version is found in Saadia, 1 in Gersonides, followed
by Crescas, and in Bruno. In Gersonides, the argument is
1 Emunot we-De'ot, I, 3, Eighth Theory (4).
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 287
illustrated by the movements of the heavenly spheres and is
aimed against the eternity and hence the infinity of time in
the past. Several propositions are assumed in this argument.
First, some of the heavenly spheres move faster than others.
Second, in the same given time, the fast-moving spheres per-
form a greater number of rotations than the slow-moving.
Third, one infinite cannot be greater than another. Out of
these propositions the argument may be formulated as fol-
lows: If time be infinite in the past, then the fast-moving
and slow-moving spheres will have performed an infinite
number of rotations. But since the number of rotations of
the fast-moving sphere must be greater than that of the slow-
moving, one infinite will be greater than another. 1 In Bruno's
argument the same difficulty is raised, but the illustration is
taken from the division of infinite distance into an infinite
number of paces (or feet) and an infinite number of miles. 2
Spinoza's second " example " follows closely these two argu-
ments, resembling in form more that of Bruno than that of
Gersonides. " Again, if infinite quantity is measured by
equal parts of a foot each, it must contain an infinite number
of such parts, and similarly if it be measured by equal parts
1 Milhamot Adonai, VI, i, 1 1 (pp. 341-342) : "Having laid down these premises, I
contend that, if past time were infinite in quantity, it would follow that there could
be no swift motion and slow motion among the spheres. The argument runs as
follows: The number of rotations performed by the swift-moving sphere in the
past time, which is assumed to be infinite, must of necessity be infinite, and the
same must be true of the number of rotations performed by the slow-moving sphere.
But inasmuch as one infinite number cannot be greater nor smaller than another
infinite number, it will follow that no one sphere is of swifter motion than another,
for if one sphere moved more swiftly than another, the number of rotations of the
swift sphere would of necessity be greater."
This argument is reproduced in Or Adonai, III, i, 3 (p. 643).
3 De I* infinite universe etMondi, Dial. II (p. 338): "El. Particolarmente di quello
che fa al proposito nostro de gl' infiniti passi, et infinite migla che uerrebono fare
un infinite minore, et un* altro infinite maggiore nell' immensitudine de 1'uniuerso."
Cf. on the same page: "la dimensione infinita non 6 meno de infiniti piedi, che de
infinite migla."
288 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
of an inch each; and therefore one infinite number will be
twelve times greater than another infinite number." r
In his answer Bruno endeavors to show that in the infinite
there can be no distinction of number and measure. "It is
an absurdity to say that in the infinite one part is greater
and another is smaller, and one part has a greater proportion
to the whole and another a smaller/' 2 Again: "In the in-
numerable and the immeasurable there is no place for more
or less, few or many, nor for any distinction of number or
measure." 3 A similar statement is also made by Galileo:
"These are some of those difficulties which arise from dis-
courses which our finite understanding makes about infinites,
by ascribing to them attributes which we give to things
finite and terminate, which I think most improper, because
those attributes of majority, minority, and equality agree
not with infinites, of which we cannot say that one is greater
than, less than, or equal to another." 4 Exactly the same
sort of answer is given by Crescas to Gersonides' argument,
and, strangely enough, it contains some of the same expres-
sions: "The fast spheres will, indeed, in a certain time per-
form the same number of rotations that slow spheres will
perform in a greater time, when the number of their rota-
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 57, 11. 33-37).
2 Op. cit. t pp. 337-338: "Essendo che implica contradittione che ne 1'infinito
sia parte maggiore, et parte m'more, et parte che habbia magglore et minore pro-
portione a quello."
3 De Immense et Innumerabilibus, II, 8 (Opera Latina, I, i, p. 284):
" Innumero nempe atque immense non locus ullus
Esse potest pluris, modici, pauci, atque minoris,
Quae numeri et mensi discrimina cernimus esse."
(English translation quoted from J. Lewis Mcln tyre's Giordano Bruno,
p. 1 88.)
4 Discorsi e Dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due Nuove Scienze, I, in Le
Opere di Galileo Galilei (Firenze, 1890-1909), Vol. 8, p. 77, 11. 35 ff., quoted by Ber-
trand Russell in his Scientific Method in Philosophy , p. 192, from Tho. Weston's
translation, p. 47.
PROP. i5,scHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 289
tions is of such a kind as can be described by the terms much
and few, great and small, within a certain time limit, that is
to say, when both the number and the time are finite, and
this indeed is due to the fact that the fast sphere and the
slow sphere cannot perform the same number of rotations
in equal time. But when the time or the number of rotations
is infinite, neither of these can be described by the terms
much and few, great and small, equal and unequal, for all
these terms are determinations of measure, and measurabil-
ity does not apply to an infinite. Hence, no absurdity will
ensue if both the fast and the slow spheres have performed
an infinite number of rotations in the past, inasmuch as the
number of their rotations cannot be properly described as
great and small and unequal." x
A similar distinction is to be discovered in Descartes' dif-
ferentiation between the infinite and the indefinite. From the
illustrations he gives it is clear that by the indefinite he
means that whose parts cannot be expressed by any number.
He furthermore describes the indefinite as that which has
no limits only "in a certain sense," from which it may be
inferred that the real infinite is that which has no limits.
The difference between the indefinite and the infinite, ac-
cording to Descartes, is therefore a difference between that
whose parts cannot be expressed by any number and that
which has no limits. By this distinction Descartes, like
Crescas and Bruno, disposes of such questions against the
existence of an infinite as, e.g., "whether the half of an in-
finite line is infinite." 2
The other version of the argument is found in Avicenna, 3
1 Or Adonai, III, i, 4 (p. 670).
2 Principia Philosophiac, I, 26, and Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, II,
Prop. 5, Schol.
* Al-Najat, II: Physics (Rome, 1593), p. 33, reproduced in Carra de Vaux's
Aviccnnc> p. 201.
290 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Algazali, 1 Saadia and Bahya, 2 Abraham ibn Daud, 3 and
Altabrizi. 4 Crescas cites it in the name of Altabrizi in an
abridged and modified form. We quote it here from Crescas:
" Suppose we have a line infinite only in one direction. To
this line we apply an infinite line [which is likewise infinite
only in one direction], having the finite end of the second
line fall on some point near the finite end of the first line.
It would then follow that one infinite [i.e. the first line]
would be greater than another infinite [i.e., the second line].
But this is impossible, for it is well known that one infinite
cannot be greater than another/' s
The refutation given by Crescas of this argument is again
based upon the distinction between the infinite in the sense
of the indefinite or of its being incapable of measurement and
the infinite in the sense of its having no limits. To quote:
"The impossibility of one infinite being greater than another
is true only with respect to measurability, that is to say,
when we use the term ' greater' in the sense of being greater
by a certain measure, and that indeed is impossible because
an infinite is immeasurable. In this sense, to be sure, the
first one-side infinite line [in Altabrizi's argument] will not
be greater than the second one-side infinite line, inasmuch as
neither of them is measurable in its totality. Thus indeed
the first line is not greater than the second, though it extends
beyond the second on the side which is finite." 6 What Crescas
is trying to do is to point out the possibility of an extension
1 Ma fyajid al-Falasifah, II, i (p. 126), quoted by me in Crescas* Critique of Aris-
totle, p. 347-
2 Kmunot we-De'ot, I, 3, Eighth Theory (3); Robot ha-Lebabot> I, 5.
J Emunah Ramah, I, 4.
* Commentary on Maimonides' Twenty-five Propositions, Prop. I, quoted in
my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle ', pp. 145-146.
5 Or Adonaiy I, i, I (p. 5a-b). Cf. Crescas' Critique 0} Aristotle ^ p. 149.
6 Or Adonai> I, ii, i (p. 153). Cf. Crescas' Critique oj Aristotle > pp. 190-191.
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 291
which is infinite in the sense that its parts cannot be equated
with or explained by any number and still is not infinite in
the sense that it has no limits. Such, for instance, are the
lines in Altabrizi's argument, which are infinite on one side
but finite on the other. When two such immeasurable but lim-
ited infinites are given, then while indeed one of them cannot
be conceived as greater than the other in the sense that the
total number of its parts can be expressed by a number which
is greater, still it can be conceived as greater than the other
in the sense that it can extend beyond the other on the
limited side. The reason why one immeasurable infinite can-
not be said to be greater than another, says Crescas, is that
their parts cannot be expressed by any number and there-
fore the terms great and small are inapplicable to them.
It is, therefore, as a refutation of his second " example "
in the Ethics that Spinoza in his letter to Meyer charges his
opponents with the failure to make a distinction "between
that which is called infinite because it has no limits, and that
whose parts we cannot equate with or explain by any number,
although we know its maximum and minimum/' 1 concluding
that, had they made such a distinction, " they would also have
understood which kind of infinite can be conceived as greater
than another infinite, without any complication, and which
cannot be so conceived." 2 The wording of Spinoza's answer
is strikingly reminiscent of both Crescas and Descartes.
Back again to Aristotle, byway of Averroes, Altabrizi, and
Crescas, we must go for the source of Spinoza's third "ex-
ample." In the De Caelo, Aristotle advances a series of argu-
ments to prove from the circular movements of the heavenly
spheres that the heavens cannot be infinite, for if they were
infinite they could not revolve in a circle. One of these
1 Fpistola 12 (Optra, IV, p. 53, 11. 5-8). 3 Ibid. (p. 53, 11. 14-15).
292 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
arguments, reproduced by Crescas from Averroes, runs as
follows: 1
Let ACE be an infinite circle.
Let CA and CB be infinite radii.
Let CA revolve on its centre C.
Let CB be fixed.
If an infinite sphere could rotate upon itself, then CA
would sometimes have to fall on CB.
But the distance AB is infinite, and an infinite distance
cannot be traversed.
Consequently, CA could never fall on CB.
Hence, no infinite body could have circular motion.
An argument advanced by Altabrizi seems to be a modifica-
tion of this Aristotelian argument. It is more general than
the Aristotelian argument in that it is detached from the
illustration of the movements of the spheres. Crescas re-
produces it in the name of "one of the moderns" as a rein-
forcement of Aristotle's argument. In Crescas' restatement
it read as follows: "The same difficulty [according to this
version of the argument] would arise in the case of any two
lines emerging from a common point if they were supposed
to be infinite. The distance between any two such lines at
the point where they are intersected by a common chord
would undoubtedly increase in proportion to the extension
of the lines, and as the lines are assumed to be infinite, the
distance between them would likewise have to be infinite.
1 Or Adonai, I, i, I (p. 73). Cf. De Cae/o, I, 5, 27 ib, 27-27 2a, 7; Crescas' Critique
of Aristotle, pp. 169 and 379-380.
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 293
But this is self-evidently impossible." z In almost exactly
the same terms Spinoza states his third "example." "Lastly,
if from one point of any infinite quantity it be imagined that
two lines, AE y AC y which at first are at a certain and deter-
minate distance from one another, be infinitely extended, it
is plain that the distance between B and C will be continu-
ally increased, and at length from being determinate will be
indeterminable." 2
In his answer Crescas again brings into play the distinc-
tion between the infinite and the indefinite. He endeavors
to show that while any given distance between any two points
in the infinitely extending lines must be finite, the distance
between them may be said to be infinite in the sense that
whatever distance we take there is always a greater distance
beyond it. It is analogous to what Aristotle says of magni-
tude and number that, while they are both finite in actuality
they are infinite in capacity, in so far as magnitude is infi-
nitely divisible and number is infinitely addible. They are
in this sense infinite, "for the infinite is not that beyond
which there is nothing, but it is that of which there is always
something beyond." 3 To quote him in part: "To this the
opponent of Aristotle may answer that distance increases
[infinitely] in the same manner as number is said to increase
[infinitely], but it always remains limited. That the possi-
bility of infinite increase is not incompatible with its being
actually limited may be seen from the case of infinite de-
crease, for the examination into contraries is by one and the
same science. 4 It has been demonstrated in the book on Conic
Sections that it is possible for a distance infinitely to decrease
r Or Adonai, loc. cit. Cf. Crescas' Critique of Aristotle^ pp. 171 and 381-382.
a Ethics, I, Prop. 15 (Opera, IT, p. 57, 11. 37 ff.).
3 Physics, III, 6, 207.1, 1-2.
Cf. Metaphysics, XI, 3, 1 06 1 a, 19.
294 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
and still never completely to disappear. 1 It is possible to
assume, for instance, two lines which, by how much farther
they are extended, are brought by so much nearer to each
other, and still will never meet, even if they are produced to
infinity. If, in the case of decrease, there is a certain distance
which always remains and does not disappear, a fortiori in
the case of increase it should be possible for a distance,
though infinitely increased, always to remain limited. 2 . . .
This, to be sure, is remote from the imagination, but reason
compels us to assume it." 3
Now, Spinoza does not furnish us with any direct answer
to the third "example," though his distinction between the
infinite and the indefinite may apply to it. But when he
says in his letter to Meyer that his opponents failed to dis-
tinguish, thirdly, " between that which we can only under-
stand but cannot imagine, and that which we can also im-
agine," 4 may we not assume that it is a reminiscence of the
last statement by which Crescas concludes his lengthy refu-
tation of the argument which is the exact prototype of the
third "example"? Had Spinoza taken the trouble to give a
full expression to what he had in mind when he quoted remi-
niscently this third distinction, he would undoubtedly have
given us a paraphrase of this last quoted of Crescas' refuta-
tions, as he did, in part, at least, of his two other distinc-
tions; or, perhaps, he would have gone still further and said
1 Apollonius, Conic Sections, II, Theorem 13. See Munk, Guide des figure's, I,
p. 410, n. 2.
2 Or Adonai, I, ii, I (p. i6a). Cf. Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, p. 207.
3 Or Adonai, he. cit. (p. i6b). Cf. Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, p. 21 1, That the
last statement of Crescas about imagination and reason refers to the entire argu-
ment and not merely to the passage immediately preceding it may be gathered from
Maimonides, who, speaking of the problem cited from the Conic Sections, similarly
remarks: "This is a fact which cannot easily be conceived, and which does not
come within the scope of the imagination" (Moreh Nebukim, I, 73, Prop. 10).
Epistola 12 (Opera, IV, p. 53, 11. 8-10).
PROP. 15, SCHOL.] INFINITY OF EXTENSION 295
with a generous but rather patronizing gesture: Nam, ut
ipsam apud Judceum quendam Rab Ghasdaj I vocatum, re-
y sic sonat. 2
1 The transliteration of IJasdai ('KIDF!) by "Ghasdai" follows Spinoza's own
method of transliterating the Hebrew I let (!"!) by gh. Cf. his Compendium Gram-
matices Linguae Hebraa, Cap. II (Opera, I, p. 288, 1. 18). The form "Jacdai"
(Opera, IV, p. 61, 1. 35) which occurs in Leibniz's copy of the letter evidently rep-
resents the Spanish-Portuguese transliteration of the name. In old Spanish docu-
ments published by Fritz Baer in his Die Juden im Christlichen Spanien, I (1929),
the name is usually written "Azday." But the following forms also occur: "Ad-
zay" (p. 712), "Atzay" (pp. 499, 676), "Azay" (pp. 616, 723), "Azdray" (p. 1000),
"nAzday" (p. 676), "Nazday" (p. 699). In these documents the personal name is
generally followed by the surname "Cresques," but it occurs also without it (pp.
741, 1000), as here in Spinoza's letter. In Giovanni Francesco Pico della Miran-
dola's Examen Doctrinae Vanitatis Gentium, VI, 2, the name is transliterated
"Hasdai" and is not followed by the surname. Nor is the surname given in the
references to Crescas in the works of Isaac ben Shem-Tob and Shem-Tob ben
Joseph ben Shem-Tob. Cf. my Crescas 1 Critique of Aristotle, pp. 32-33.
2 Epistola 12 (Opera, IV, p. 61, 11. 17-18).
THE CAUSALITY OF GOD
I. MATERIALITY AND CAUSALITY OF GOD
AFTER recapitulating his position as to the materiality of
God in Proposition XIV, Spinoza proceeds in logical order
to state his conclusion that there is nothing in the material
world which is not in God, or, to put it in the words of his
own Proposition XV, "whatever is, is in God, and nothing
can either be or be conceived without God." Taken by it-
self, this proposition would seem to be nothing but a repeti-
tion of the ordinary assertions of the omnipresence of God
which are current in the literature of every religion. In fact,
Spinoza himself acknowledges as much when he says that
"like Paul, and perhaps also like all ancient philosophers
... I assert that all things live and move in God; and I
would dare to say that I agree also with all the ancient
Hebrews as far as it is possible to surmise from their tradi-
tions/' r By "all ancient philosophers" he undoubtedly
refers not only to the Stoic poets Aratus and Cleanthes, to
whom Paul himself refers in his statement "as certain also
of your own poets have said," 2 and not only to the Stoics
in general, whose God was material like the God of Spinoza,
but also to those who like Aristotle conceived of God as
immaterial, for, though immaterial and hence separated
from the universe, that God was still He in whom the uni-
verse could be said to have its being, inasmuch as He was
its formal, efficient, and final cause. 3 Similarly by the "an-
cient Hebrews" Spinoza does not refer only to the teachings
1 Epistola 73. a Acts 17, 28. Cf. Commentaries ad loc. 3 Cf. below, p. 302.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 297
of the Hebrew Bible but also, and perhaps more particu-
larly, to the teachings of Judaism at the time of Paul, in its
Palestinian and Hellenistic branches, for the omnipresence
of God is emphasized by both of these branches of Judaism.
The classic expression on this point, used by both the rabbis
and Philo, is the statement which is quoted constantly in
the Middle Ages by Jewish as well as Christian philosophers,
namely, that God is the place of the world. 1 The belief in the
omnipresence of God has continued to be a religious common-
place in Judaism as well as Christianity and Mohamme-
danism, and has been maintained by every shade of religious
opinion, though, perhaps, not always without some slight
shade of logical inconsistency. The most pertinent passage
for our present purpose, both on account of its source and on
account of its phrasing, is the following quotation from the
Hymn of Unity, which is included in the Jewish liturgy:
"Thou encompassest all and fillest all; and since Thou art
all, Thou art in all. . . . Thou art not separated or detached
from anything, nor is any place empty or devoid of Thee.
. . . Thou art and existeth in all; all is Thine, and all is from
Thee." '
But while the proposition taken by itself contains nothing
new, it is used by Spinoza in a different sense. He himself
alludes to that difference in its use when he says in his refer-
ence to Paul and all ancient philosophers that he agrees
with their assertion, "though in another way." What the
difference between them is becomes clear in Proposition XV,
for this proposition is to be understood as a criticism of the
mediaeval inconsistency in first affirming that all things are
in God and then denying that matter is in God. For when
1 Genesis Rabbah 68, 9 ft al., Philo, De Somniis, I, 11; Crescas, Or Adonai, I,
ii, i; Leibniz, Nouveaitx Essais, II, 13, 17. Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle,
pp. 123, 201. > Shirha-Yihud, III.
298 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
the mediaevals reiterated their statements that God is all
and all is from God and in God, they had to make a mental
reservation with regard to matter. God was not matter, and
matter was not from God nor in God. Matter existed by the
side of God, according to Aristotle; it was created by God ex
nihilo, according to the generally accepted view of all the
three religions; it appeared somewhere in the process of
emanation, according to the emanationists. The statement
that God is all and all is from God and in God could not be
taken in its full and literal sense that " whatever is, is in God "
except by one who like Spinoza asserted that God was ma-
terial.
But is it only this that Proposition XV means to assert,
namely, that matter as well as form is in God, or does it
mean more than this? Does it not mean a complete denial
of the separation of God from the world, with the inevitable
consequence of the disappearance of God as a distinct being
either in thought or in reality?
In the history of philosophy Spinoza's conception of God
has been characterized by different names. In his own day,
it was called deism of the type that flourished then in France, 1
and it was also stigmatized as a disguised kind of atheism. 2
When this imputation of atheism was renewed by Jacobi, 3
Hegel quibbled about its being akosmism rather than athe-
ism. 4 Novalis met the charge of atheism by declaring Spinoza
a God-intoxicated man 5 a declaration which explains
Spinoza's profuse use of the term God rather than its mean-
ing. The term pantheism is the one which has been most
1 Epistola 42. 2 Kpistola 43.
3 Veber die Lehre des Spinoza in brief en an den llerrn Moses Mendelssohn, 1785.
Cf. Jacobi's Werke (1819), Vol. IV, i, p. 216.
4 Encyclopddie der philosophischen Wissenschaften, I, 50 (ed. Bolland), p. 74;
Vorlesungen uber die Geschichte der Philosophie (ed. Bolland), p. 891.
5 Schriften (ed. Paul Kluckhohn, Leipzig [1892]), Vol. Ill, p. 318, 253.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 299
often applied to it. Avenarius, who has stratified the writ-
ings of Spinoza on the basis of the use of the terms Na-
ture, God, and Substance, just as the higher critics stratify
the Pentateuch on the basis of the use of the terms Jehovah
and Elohim, has discovered three phases in the develop-
ment of Spinoza's pantheism, which he designates by the
following terms: Naturalist All-in-one, Theistic All-in-one,
and Substantive All-in-one l a distinction in which one
will find it hard to discover any difference. Windelband
brushes all these subtleties aside and declares outright that
Spinoza's conception of God is "complete and unreserved
pantheism." 2
The problem before us, however, is not to devise a fitting
term by which Spinoza's conception of God can be adequately
described, but rather to find out whether his God is absolutely
identical with the aggregate totality of particular things or
whether He does in some way transcend it. When we leave
what others have said about Spinoza's God and turn to what
he himself has said about Him, we find that the matter does
not become any clearer. Though he makes reference to the
characterization of his religion as one which "does not rise
above the religion of the Deists," 3 he does not definitely
disclaim it. Perhaps he saw no need of disclaiming it, since
the author of that statement had done it himself when he
said that "unless I am mistaken in my conjecture, this man
does not include himself in the ranks of the Deists, and does
not allow men to return to the least bit of religious worship." 4
Nor does he disclaim the charge of atheism except in so far as
1 Naturalistischc All-Einheit^ Thcisitischc All-Einheit, Substanzialistische All-
Einheit. Cf. R. Avenarius, Ucbcrdie bcidcn ersten Phasendcs Spinozischcn Pantheis-
mus (Leipzig, 1868).
2 Gtschichte der Philosophic (jrd edition), p. 336; English translation, A History
of Philosophy y p. 409. J Epistolae 42 and 43.
4 Epistola 42.
300 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
the term meant in his time a man who is "wont to desire
inordinately honors and riches." x No more conclusive than
this evidence from silence are his positive statements. While
in one place he asserts that "those who think that the Trac-
tatus Theologico-Politicus rests on this, namely, that God
and nature (by which they mean a certain mass, or corporeal
matter) are one and the same, are mistaken/' 2 in another
place he asserts that "I could not separate God from nature
as all of whom I have any knowledge have done/' 3 and in
still another place he identifies the terms God and nature. 1
All that one can with certainty gather from these passages is
that while Spinoza did not identify God with nature con-
ceived as an inert mass of matter, he did identify Him with
it when conceived in all its infinite attributes. Nor, finally,
can we get more light on the question from his statement
that "the universe is God," s for here, too, the statement
may merely mean, as may be judged from the context, "that
all things [that is to say, including matter] emanate neces-
sarily from the nature of God." 6 But does it also mean that
God is nothing but the aggregate of particular things which
constitute the universe?
Since the uttered statements of Spinoza do not throw any
light on the question, we shall try the use of the historical
critical method in order to solve our problem. We shall give
an analysis of the salient features of the traditional concep-
tion of God which Spinoza constantly uses as the target for
his criticism. We shall also try to find out what elements of
it he criticized and ultimately rejected. Finally we shall try
to reconstitute Spinoza's conception of God out of those
1 Kpistola 43. 3 Kpistola 73.
3 Kpistola 6.
Short Treatise, I, 2, 12 (Opera, I, p. 22, 11. 9-13).
5 Epistola 43.
6 Ibid.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 301
elements of the traditional God which were left by him
uncriticized.
The God of tradition whom Spinoza tries to dethrone is
sometimes depicted by him disdainfully in all his anthropo-
morphic crudity as He was pictured in the minds of the
vulgar. 1 But this may be considered only as an occasional
departure from what is really his general practice. As a rule,
the conception of God which he criticizes is that of the philos-
ophers, of the "men who have in any way looked into the
divine nature/' * This conception of God is marked by two
main characteristics, immateriality and causality. All the
problems raised about the nature of God by philosophers
throughout the Middle Ages can be grouped together under
these two terms. The immateriality of God it is which gives
rise to His unity, simplicity, immutability, and incompara-
bility, out of which springs the complexity of problems which
go under the general name of attributes. But such a concep-
tion of God's immateriality takes God completely out of
the universe, which is not what the mediaeval philosophers
wanted to do. And so, immediately after they establish
the absolute immateriality of God, they turn around and try
to introduce God back into the universe by establishing a
certain causal relation between them. It is through the cau-
sality of God that the world comes into being and is ruled
and guided by Him. God's omnipresence, omniscience,
omnipotence, and benevolence of which they all speak are
nothing but different ways of expressing the fact of divine
causality. These, then, are the two main characteristics of
the God of traditional philosophy. Now Spinoza's criticism
of this conception of God in Ethics, I, falls into two parts,
corresponding to these its two main characteristics, immate-
1 E.g., Ethics, I, Prop. 15, Schol.
> Ibid.
302 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
riality and causality. The first fifteen propositions are all a
criticism of the immateriality of God, culminating in Prop-
osition XV in the statement that "whatever is, is in God,"
which, as we have shown, means that everything, including
matter, is in God. Beginning now with Proposition XVI to
the end of the First Part, he criticizes the old conceptions of
the causality of God. In this chapter, however, we shall deal
only with Propositions XVI-XVIII.
In order to be able to follow Spinoza's criticism, we must
first give a formal statement of what the mediaevals meant
by divine causality. Causes have been divided by Aristotle
into four: the material, the formal, the efficient, and the
final. Beginning with this commonplace of philosophy, the
mediaevals asked themselves which of these causes God is.
He cannot be the material cause, they said, for God is im-
material. He must therefore be the three other causes. Mai-
monides is worth quoting on this point. "It has been shown
in the science of physics that everything, except the First
Cause, owes its origin to the following four causes the
material, the formal, the efficient, and the final. These are
sometimes proximate, sometimes remote, but each by itself
is called a cause. They also believe and I do not differ
from their belief that God, blessed be He, is the efficient,
formal, and final cause. " r
Now, in opposition to the mediaevals, as we have already
seen, Spinoza makes God a material cause. Again, in opposi-
tion to the mediaevals, as we shall see subsequently, Spinoza
unmakes God as the final cause. God then to him, if he were
to retain the Aristotelian terminology, would be a material,
formal, and efficient cause. But this terminology even in
Aristotle was not unalterably fixed. The final and efficient
causes are identified by him with the formal cause, and thus
1 Morch Nebukim, I, 69.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 303
the only real contrast between causes is that of the material
and formal. 1 This identification of the three causes is found
also in Maimonides. "Aristotle has already explained that
in natural things the efficient, formal, and final causes are
identical." 2 We can readily see how in Spinoza's reasoning,
with his discarding of the old Aristotelian terms matter and
form, the old designation of causes as material and formal
likewise disappears. " In creation," he says, "no other causes
concur except the efficient one." 3 God is therefore spoken
of by him as the efficient cause, for even as a material and
formal cause, it is only through the active properties of ex-
tension and thought that God is conceived as cause. Efficient
cause is thus to him the most applicable description of God,
efficient in the most general sense of active and as the sum of
all conditions that make for causality. There is a suggestion
of this kind of reasoning in Spinoza's statement that "since
substance is the principle of all its modes, it may with greater
right be called active than passive." 4 But in order to show
the difference between his conception of God as efficient
cause and that of the mediaevals, he analyzes their conception
of efficient cause and tries to show in what respect he de-
parts from them.
In the Short treatise, where an entire chapter is devoted
to the explanation "that God is a cause of all things," 5
Spinoza borrows a current eightfold classification of the
Aristotelian efficient cause, which has been traced to the
work of a Dutch philosopher by the name of Burgersdijck, 6
1 Zeller, Philosophic der Griechen, II, 2, pp. 327-330 (3rd edition). English trans-
lation, Aristotle, I, pp. 355~35 8 -
3 Moreh Nebukim, III, 13.
3 Cogitata Mctaphysica, II, 10 (Opera, I, p. 268, 11. 25-26).
4 Short Treatise, I, 2, 25 (Opera, I, p. 26, 11. 29-31).
s Short Treatise, I, 3.
6 Institution** Logicae, Lib. I, Cap. XVII. Cf. A. Trendelenburg, Historische
304 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
to show "how and in what sense God is a cause." This eight-
fold classification, with the exception of the eighth, which
appears later in the Scholium of Proposition XXVIII, is em-
bodied in Propositions XVI-XVIII of Ethics, I. The corre-
spondence between them, preliminary to our discussion of
the meaning of these seven kinds of efficient cause, is here-
with given: l
Ethics, I Short 'Treatise, I, 3
Prop. XVI 7. Universal cause
Prop. XVI Corol. i . . . . i. Emanative, productive,
active, efficient cause 2
Prop. XVI Corol. 2 .... 4. Cause through himself
(essential)
Prop. XVI Corol. 3. . . 6. First, initial cause
Prop. XVII Corol. i . . . 5. Principal cause
Prop. XVII Corol. 2. . . 3. Free cause
Prop. XVIII 2. Immanent cause
However, while Spinoza has borrowed the scheme and ter-
minology of the classification from Burgersdijck, he has made
free use of it for his own purpose. The causes enumerated in
this list are what the mediaevals themselves would have
ascribed to God, but when used by Spinoza there is an im-
plication that these causes are more truly applicable to his
own conception of God's causality than to theirs.
But let us follow out this implied contention of Propositions
XVI-XVIII that only God as conceived by Spinoza is in the
true sense a universal, efficient, essential, first, principal, free,
and immanent cause.
Beitrage zur Philosophic, Vol. Ill, p. 317 (Berlin, 1867); Ch. Sigwart, Benedict de
Spinoza's kurzer Tractat (2nd ed.), p. 171; A. Wolf, Spinoza's Short Treatise, pp.
1 Cf. Sigwart, op. cit., p. 172. Sigwart seems to have overlooked the corre-
spondence of Prop. 1 6 and Corollary i of Prop. 16 in the Ethics to the 7th and ist
classifications in the Short Treatise.
3 uytv/oejende, daarstellende, doende, werkende.
PROPS. 1 5-i 8] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 305
To the mediaevals, from the principle that God is a pure
simple form and that "a simple element can produce only
a simple thing " it appeared as an inevitable conclusion that,
if necessary emanation was to be the theory explaining the
origin of the world, the direct emanation from God must be
one simple Intelligence and that matter must therefore
emerge subsequently in the process. 1 According to this view,
while God may indeed be considered as indirectly the cause
of all the variety of material things, He is directly only
the cause of one simple thing. In this sense, then, God is
really what was called a particular cause as contrasted with
a universal cause, for the latter kind of cause meant the
ability to produce various things. 2 Thus while the mediae-
vals would undoubtedly insist upon calling God a universal
cause, 3 they could not really call Him a universal cause in
the strict sense of the term. But to Spinoza, since God is the
direct cause of both extended modes and thinking modes,
God can truthfully be called a universal cause.
Furthermore, Spinoza's God can be called a universal cause
with more right than the God of the mediaevals for still
another reason. Though the mediaevals believed like Spinoza
that God is infinite, still they did not believe, for reasons
we shall discuss later, that God ever did or ever will create
all the infinite things which He has in His mind and which
might be created. * The world is finite as contrasted with God
who is infinite. Their God therefore was a. particular and not
a universal cause, since He did not create everything that
was in His mind. But to Spinoza, just as from the two known
attributes arise the known modes of the world, so also from
the infinite attributes, which are unknown to us but which
1 Moreh Nebtikim, I, 22. 2 Short Treatise, I, 3, 2 (7).
* Cf. quotation from Thomas Aquinas, above, p. 254, n. 2.
4 Cf. below, pp. 314 ff. and 411 ff.
306 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
exist and are conceived as an idea in the infinite intellect of
God, arise an infinite number of modes unknown to us. 1 The
world is as infinite as God, though only two of its modes are
known to us, and God therefore is a universal cause in the
true sense of the term. This is what lies behind Proposition
XVI. It is a denial of the mediaeval view that the world
is finite and not the fullest expression of God's being. If
the world were finite, he argues, then God could be called
only a particular cause and not a universal cause. But the
world is not finite, for "from the necessity of the divine
nature infinite numbers of things in infinite ways (that is
to say, all things which can be conceived by the infinite in-
tellect) must follow" (Prop. XVI). Hence God can be truly
called a universal cause.
But in what manner do the modes follow from God? In
the Middle Ages it was said that they follow from God by
the process of emanation, and emanation was defined as a
special kind of efficient causation which applies exclusively
to the action of an immaterial agent upon a material object. 2
"Inasmuch as it has been demonstrated that God is incor-
poreal and has also been established that the universe is His
work and that He is its efficient cause ... we say that the
universe has been created by divine emanation and that
God is the emanative cause of everything that comes into
being within it." l God then is called by the mediaevals
the efficient cause only in a restricted sense, in the sense of
emanative cause. But to Spinoza, that distinction between
the act of a corporeal agent and the act of an incorporeal
agent does not exist. He therefore declares unqualifiedly
that "God is the efficient cause,'* 4 that is to say, the efficient
cause in its general unrestricted sense. In the Short Treatise
1 Cf. Epistolae 63, 64, and 66. * Moreh Nebukim, II, 12.
3 Ibid. Ethic s^ I, Prop. 16, Coroi. i.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 307
he makes his point still clearer when he says that God
can be called indifferently the "emanative," "productive,"
"active," or "efficient" cause, all of which "we regard as one
and the same, because they involve each other." *
Probably the mediaevals themselves would subscribe to
Spinoza's next statement that "God is cause through him-
self (per se y essentially), and not through that which is acci-
dental (per accidens)."* But still, since the world of which
they maintain God is the cause is unlike God in nature, God
being immaterial and the world being material, then, despite
their protestations, God must be considered not as an es-
sential cause but as an accidental cause, for one of the mean-
ings of essential cause, and the one which Spinoza has found
in Bergersdijck and Heereboord, is that the cause produces
something of its own kind. When the cause produces some-
thing which is not of its own kind, it is called accidental
cause. 3 Consequently, since according to the mediaevals the
world which was produced by God is not of His kind, for
God is immaterial and the world is material, God then is
only an accidental cause.
Similarly the mediaevals would whole-heartedly subscribe
to Spinoza's fourth characterization of divine causality con-
tained in his declaration that "God is absolutely the first
cause.'* 4 In fact, God has been called the first cause ever
since Aristotle. But behind this statement of Spinoza's that
God is the "absolutely" first cause there is an unexpressed
argument that the mediaevals could not with full right call
1 Short Treatise ', 1, 3, 2 (i).
2 Ethics, I, Prop. 1 6, Corel. 2.
Cf. Burgcrsdijck, Institutions Lo$icae, Lib. I, Cap. XVII, Theor. XV-XVI;
Heereboord, Hermcneia Logica, Lib. I, Cap. XVII, Quaest. XVI: "Similiter, cum
animal sibi simile generat, dicitur causa per sc generati animalis; cum generat
monstrum, dicitur causa per accidens."
Ethics, I, Prop. 1 6, Corol. 3.
308 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
their God an absolutely first cause. In the source used by
Spinoza, a distinction is made between two kinds of first
causes. One is called the absolutely first cause (causa abso-
lute prima) and the other is called a first cause in its own kind
(causa prima suo genere). An absolutely first cause is de-
scribed not only as a cause which is the first in a series of
causes, but also as one which is in no way dependent upon
anything else. 1 In fact, absolute independence of anything
else, whether external to God or within Him, is what the
mediaevals themselves insist upon when they describe God
as the first cause and as necessary existence. 2 It is with this
in mind that Spinoza argues here against the emanationists.
He seems to say: Inasmuch as according to the emanationists
God could not produce matter directly by himself but only
through His emanations, i.e., the Intelligences, God is de-
pendent, as it were, on his own emanations. He is therefore
not an absolutely first cause. It is only Spinoza's God who
produces everything directly by the necessity of His own
nature and is in no way whatsoever dependent upon anything
else that can be rightfully called an absolutely first cause.
II. GOD AS FREE CAUSE
Besides universal \ efficient l , essential \ and first, God is also a
principal and free cause. 3 With these Spinoza introduces
another one of his fundamental departures from mediaeval
philosophy. On the whole, Spinoza's views on the problem
of freedom may be treated under three headings: i. The
definition of the terms "free" and "necessary." 2. How
1 Cf. Burgersdijck, Institutions Logicae, Lib. I, Cap. XVII, Theor. XXIX,
1-2; Heereboord, Hcrmeneia Logica, Lib. I, Cap. XVII, Quaest. XXVI; idem.
Meletemata Philosophica, Disputationts ex Philosophia Selcctae, Vol. II, Disp. XVII.
a Cf. Ma)?a$id al-Falasijah, II, ii, 5-6 (pp. 139-140): "He [who is described as
having necessary existence] does not depend upon anything else." Cf. also Emunah
Ramah, II, i (p. 47), quoted below, Vol. II, p. 40.
Ethics, I, Prop. 17 and Corol. r-2; Short Treatise, I, 3, 2 (3-5).
PROPS. 1 5-i 8] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 309
God is free. 3. How man is not free. Here in our interpreta-
tion of Proposition XVII we shall deal only with the first two
topics, leaving the third topic to be discussed in our inter-
pretation of the next group of propositions.
His own understanding of the terms free and necessary is
made quite clear by Spinoza himself: "That thing is called
free which exists from the necessity of its own nature alone,
and is determined to action by itself alone. That thing, on
the other hand, is called necessary, or rather compelled,
which by another is determined to existence and action in a
fixed and prescribed manner/' x But how did Spinoza come
to this definition? We shall try briefly and simply to explain
the metaphysical and philological reasoning which had led
Spinoza to formulate this definition.
The problem of freedom is sometimes discussed by the
mediaevals as a problem of possibility. The question whether
anything is absolutely free is thus stated as a question
whether anything is absolutely possible. In Crescas, for
instance, the headings over the chapters on freedom read:
"An exposition of the view of him who believes that the
nature of possibility exists/' "An exposition of the view
of him who believes that the nature of possibility does not
exist." 2 There is a suggestion of this method of formulat-
ing the problem of freedom in the Short Treatise where in the
chapter on "Divine Predestination" Spinoza raises the
question "whether there are in nature any accidental things,
that is to say, whether there are any things which may hap-
pen and may also not happen." ' The phraseology used here
by Spinoza reflects the Aristotelian definitions of the acciden-
tal and the possible. The former is reproduced by Crescas
as that which "has in itself the possibility of being and of
1 Ethics, I, Def. 7. a Or Adonai, II, v, 1-2.
* Short Treatise, I, 6, 2.
3 io THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
not being'*; x the latter is given by Aristotle himself as that
which "may either be or not be." 2
We have already called attention on several occasions to
the mediaeval threefold division of possibility and necessity,
namely, (i) possible per se y (2) possible per se but necessary
in consideration of its cause, and (3) necessary per se. We
have also called attention to the fact that Spinoza has made
use of this threefold classification and that he has designated
the possible per se by the term contingent and the possible
per se but necessary in consideration of its cause by the
general term possible. 3 Now, the question raised by the
mediaevals through Crescas whether the nature of the possi-
ble exists really means whether pure possibility, i.e., possibil-
ity per se y exists. Crescas' answer is in the negative. There is
nothing in nature which can be described as pure possibility,
for for everything a cause can be found. So actually nothing
in nature is possible per se; everything which is possible per
se is necessary in consideration of its cause. Possible per
se does not represent an actual thing in nature; it is only a
logical distinction secundum quid.* It is this conception of
the possible per se as merely a logical distinction secundum
quid that must have led Spinoza to designate it by the term
contingent, which, in Spinoza's definition of it, appears also
as purely a logical distinction in things. According to this
view, then, actually existent things fall only under two di-
visions, those which are necessary by their cause and those
which are necessary by their own nature. These two mean-
ings of necessary, in fact, correspond to two out of the five
meanings that Aristotle attaches to the term. That which
1 Or Adonai, I, i, 8. Cf. my Crescas' Critique oj Aristotle , p. 249 and p. 551, n. 2;
Physics, VIII, 5, 2565, 9-10.
a Metaphysics t IX, 8, io5ob, 1 1-12. Cf. Crescas' Critique oj Aristotle, p. 551, n. 3.
* Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 3; Ethics, IV, Defs. 3-4. Cf. above, pp. 188 ff.
< Cf. Or Adonai, II, v, 3: ... nrn33 . . . HD 1X3.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 311
is necessary by its cause corresponds to necessary in the
sense which Aristotle describes as compulsory, 1 and that
which is necessary by its own nature corresponds to necessary
in the sense which Aristotle describes as that which cannot
be otherwise. 2 What Spinoza does, then, in his definition of
freedom in the Ethics is to simplify the terminology and to
call that which is necessary by its own nature free and to
call that which is necessary by its cause necessary or com-
pelled. "True freedom/* says Spinoza elsewhere, "is only,
or no other than [the status of being] the first cause/' 3 This
on the whole corresponds to the mediaeval definition of
freedom. "Free will/* says Judah ha-Levi, "qua free will,
has no compulsory cause." 4 Similarly Crescas defines free
will as the ability "to will and not to will without an ex-
ternal cause/' s
This definition of freedom is applied by Spinoza to God
in Proposition XVII and its two Corollaries. Starting out
in the proposition itself with the statement that God's
action flows from His own nature and is without compulsion,
he further explains in the first corollary that the compulsion
comes neither from without nor from within Him, that is to
say, God is what is generally called a principal cause, and
concludes in the second corollary that only God is a free
cause. All these would on their positive side seem to be
merely a reassertion of views commonly held by mediaevals.
But as elsewhere, Spinoza's statements here have also a nega-
tive side and are intended to emphasize something in opposi-
tion to the mediaevals. Fortunately, in this case, we do not
have to guess what it is that he wants to emphasize and
negate. He makes it clear for us in his Scholium.
1 Metaphysics, V, 5, 1015.1, 16. * Ibid., 34.
J Short Treatise, I, 4, 5. 4 Cuzari, V, 20.
s Or Adonai, II, v, 3 (p. 48 b).
312 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
On the whole, the mediaevals would have subscribed to
Spinoza's proposition that "God acts from the laws of His
own nature only, and is compelled by no one." x In fact, in
the Hymn of Unity, which is incorporated in the Jewish
liturgy, we find a statement that reads almost like it: "Thou
wast not compelled to perform Thy work, nor wast Thou in
need of any help." 2 But still the mediaevals considered
God's causality as an act of will, power, or intelligence. Will,
power, and intelligence are the three terms which are gener-
ally used by mediaevals in connection with creation, 3 with
the proviso, of course, that all the three are identical in God. 4
It is by means of will or power or intelligence that the medi-
aevals find themselves able to resolve all the difficulties
about divine causality. The mediaeval philosophers, for
instance, admit that God cannot "produce a square the di-
agonal of which is equal to its side, or similar other impossi-
bilities." 5 Still when the question is raised that "to say of
God that He can produce a thing from nothing is ... the
same as if we were to say that He could . . . produce a
square the diagonal of which is equal to its side, or similar
impossibilities," 6 or "what has made God create at one time
rather than at another," 7 they answer to this question that
"He willed it so; or, His wisdom decided so." 8
As against this, Spinoza opposes his own view of causality,
and in the process of unfolding it he emphasizes, allusively,
to be sure, the distinction between his view and theirs. The
1 Ethic 3 > I, Prop. 17.
3 Shir ha-Yihud, V.
3 Emunot we-De'ot, II, 4; Cuzari, V, 18, 7-10; Moreh Ncbukim, II, 18, Second
Method. Cf. above, p. 204.
Moreh Nebukim, II, 53. Cf. above, p. 155.
Ibid. y II, 13, and cf. I, 75, i; I, 75, 5; III, 15; Emunot wt-De'ot, II, 13.
Moreh Nebukim, II, 13, Second Theory.
Ibid. y II, 14. Cf. above, p. 100.
lbid. y II, 25. Cf. above, pp. 100 f.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 313
fundamental difference, out of which all others arise, is his
elimination of will and design from the causality of God.
This is what he means when he says in the first corollary of
Proposition XVII that "there is no cause, either external
to God or within Him, which can excite Him to act." By a
cause within God he means will and design. With the elimi-
nation of will and design from the nature of God, creation ex
nihilo becomes an impossible act, as impossible as any of
the things which the mediaevals themselves considered im-
possible, such, for instance, as the assumption that "God
could bring about that it should not follow from the nature
of a triangle that its three angles should be equal to two
right angles." '
Then Spinoza takes up another point.
One of the reasons that led the mediaevals to attribute
to God intelligence and will was the utter absurdity of the
opposite alternative, for to deny them of Him would imply
an imperfection in His nature. God, according to them, must
be "free from imperfections," 2 and as a result of this, "we
must remove from God anything that looks like an imperfec-
tion in Him." 3 Abraham Herrera, in his unpublished Tuerta
del Cie/o, of which a printed Hebrew version has existed
since 1655, puts the matter in the following way: "The
eternal and omnipotent God, whom we call the First Cause,
acts not from the necessity of His nature but by the counsel
of His intellect, which is of the highest order, and by the
choice of His free will," 4 for "to an Agent who is first and
most perfect we must attribute that kind of action which on
account of its superiority and priority excels any other kind
of action, and that is the voluntary kind of action, for it is
1 Ethics^ I, Prop. 17, Schol. 2 'Ikkarim, I, 15; Moreh Nebukim^ I, 35.
' 'I, 11,7.
' 'IMarim, 11,7-
4 Sha'ar ha-Shamayim^ III, 6, beginning.
3H THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
more perfect than all the natural and necessary actions and
does in fact constitute their entelechy and the realization of
their perfection." l It is undoubtedly to Herrera that Spinoza
refers when he says: "I know, indeed, that there are many
who think themselves able to demonstrate that intellect of
the highest order and freedom of will both pertain to the
nature of God, for they say that they know nothing more
perfect which they can attribute to Him than that which is
the chief perfection in ourselves." 2
But Spinoza goes still further in his criticism of Herrera.
Herrera touches upon a question which had been con-
stantly raised in the Cabala, namely, whether God could
create the infinite number of things which are in His intellect
or whether His power of creation was limited to that which
He has created. The question is stated by Moses Cordovero
as follows: "We shall raise a question by which some of the
adepts in Cabala have been perplexed, namely, whether the
Infinite, the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, has
it in His power to emanate more than these Ten Sefirot or
not, if we may express ourselves in this way. The question
is a legitimate one, for inasmuch as it is of the nature of His
benevolence to overflow outside himself, and inasmuch as it
is not beyond His power, it may be properly asked why He
has not produced thousands of millions of emanations. It
should indeed be possible for Him to produce many times
Ten Sefirot in the same way as He has produced this world." 3
In the discussion of this question by Herrera two points are
made: First, that "if God had acted from His own nature
and by necessity, He would have inevitably produced every-
thing that is in His power, which would be infinite/' 4 Sec-
1 Ibid.) Argument IV. 3 Ethics, I, Prop. 17, Schol.
3 Pardes Rimmonim y II, 7.
4 Shaar ha-Shamayim, III, 6, Argument III.
PROPS. 1 5-1 8] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 315
ond, since God has created by will and design, He has pur-
posely created only a part of that which is in His intellect,
in order to be able to create other and more perfect things.
"We shall say briefly, that it is because He does not act by
the necessity of His infinite nature that the Infinite, blessed
be He, even though He is infinite, has not brought into exist-
ence or created an infinite number of things in an infinite
time, which He comprehends and includes in His immovable
eternity, nor has He produced them in infinite superficies,
positions, and places, into which His infinite power and
magnitude extend. He acts only by the freedom of His will
and purpose, and it is because of this that He has brought
into existence and created finite things in finite times and
in finite places, and to these things and into these things only
has He extended himself, so that He might be superior to
His creatures not only in an infinite degree of perfection but
also in infinite power, and if He ever wills He may create
other things more excellent and greater and in more suitable,
wider, and longer places and positions, all of which He com-
prehends and includes most perfectly in His eternity and
greatness. This view offers more easily [than any other view]
a vindication of the infinite power and nature of the First
Cause, namely, the view we have maintained that for every
one of the created things, however excellent it may be, He
is able to produce something more excellent/' I A similar
argument is reproduced by Spinoza in the Cogitata Meta-
physica. "If God acts from necessity, He must have created
a duration than which no greater can be conceived/* a
That Spinoza had in mind the statements we have just re-
produced from Herrera is evident from his following summary
of the views of his opponents: " But although they conceive
' Ibid., Ill, 7.
3 Cogitata Metaphysica y II, 10.
316 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
God as actually possessing the highest intellect, they never-
theless do not believe that He can bring about that all those
things should exist which are actually in His intellect, for
they think that by such a supposition they would destroy
His power. If He had created, they say, all things which are
in His intellect, He could have created nothing more, and this,
they believe, does not accord with God's omnipotence; so
then they prefer to consider God as indifferent to all things,
and creating nothing excepting that which He has decreed
to create by a certain absolute will.** x Spinoza's own criti-
cism of this solution of the problem is that it virtually sacri-
fices God's power in order to retain His perfection. "There-
fore, in order to make a perfect God, they are compelled to
make Him incapable of doing all those things to which His
power extends, and anything more absurd than this, or more
opposed to God's omnipotence, I do not think can be
imagined." 2
The mediaevals, after having gone to all the trouble of
ascribing to God intelligence and will, explain them away as
homonymous terms. They say "there is nothing in common
between His essence and our essence. . . . There is only
a resemblance between them in name, but in essence they
are different." 3 Similarly of will they say that "the term will
is homonymously used of man's will and of the will of God,
there being no comparison between God's will and that of
man." 4 Spinoza restates this view in great detail in the
Scholium to Proposition XVII, in the course of which he
explains the homonymous use of terms by the illustration of
the term "dog," which is used for " the celestial constellation
of the Dog and the animal which barks." 5 This illustration
1 Ethics y I, Prop. 17, Schol. a Ibid. Cf. below, pp. 411 ff.
J Moreh Nebukim, III, 20. Ibid., II, 18, Second Method.
5 A similar illustration is mentioned in Cogitata Metaphysica, II, 11.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 317
is found in Philo * and in Maimonides and Averroes. 2 The
introduction here on the part of Spinoza of the discussion
about the homonymity of will and intellect when applied
to God, which, as we have seen, is nothing but a restatement
of the common mediaeval view, would seem to be entirely
superfluous unless we assume that he wanted to make use
of it afterwards as a refutation of the mediaevals in their
attribution of will and intellect to God. However, no such
refutation occurs in the Scholium. Probably what Spinoza
meant to convey to the reader, though he does not definitely
say so, is that since intellect and will are to be applied to
God only homonymously, they are meaningless terms, and
consequently God's activity might as well be described as
following from the necessity of His nature. This in fact
is what he argues in one of his letters: " Since ... it is
admitted universally and unanimously, that the will of God
is eternal and has never been different, therefore they must
also admit (mark this well) that the world is the necessary
effect of the divine nature. . . . For if you ask them whether
the divine will does not differ from the human will, they
will reply that the former has nothing in common with the
latter except in name; moreover they mostly admit that
God's will, understanding, essence or nature are one and
the same thing." 3 Spinoza's contention in this passage that
if the will of God is eternal then the world must be admitted
to be the necessary effect of the divine nature reflects Mai-
monides' elaborate arguments on the incompatibility of the
assumption of an eternal will of God and the belief in crea-
tion by design. 4
1 Df Plantations Noe y XXXVII, 155.
2 Maimonides, Mi Hot ha-Higgayon, Ch. 13; Averroes, Epitome of the Isagogc
(Mabo in Kol Meleket Higgayon, p. 2b). Cf. note in Klatzkin's Hebrew translation
of the Ethics (Torat ha-Middot), p. 348.
3 Epistola 54. 4 Moreh Nebukim^ II, 21.
318 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
The opposite of will and design, in the Middle Ages, is not
only necessity but also chance. Thus Maimonides, in clas-
sifying the various theories of creation, mentions in opposi-
tion to intelligent creation not only the Aristotelian theory
of necessity but also the Epicurean view of accident and
chance. 1 The difference between chance on the one hand,
and will and necessity on the other, is that chance denies
the existence of a cause at all in creation, whereas will and
necessity both assume the existence of a cause, though each
conceives the cause to act in a different way. " But it would
be quite useless to mention the opinions of those who do not
recognize the existence of God, but believe that the existing
state of things is the result of accidental combination and
separation of the elements and that there is none that rules
or determines the order of the existing things." 2 Spinoza
similarly tries to differentiate between chance and necessity
in one of his letters and makes the interesting observation
that if God is assumed to act by a will whose laws are un-
known to us, His activity really amounts to chance: "This
already impels me . . . briefly to explain my opinion on the
question whether the world was created by chance. My
answer is that, as it is certain that Fortuitous and Necessary
are two contrary terms, it is also clear that he who asserts
that the world is the necessary effect of the divine nature
also absolutely denies that the world was made by chance;
he, however, who asserts that God could have refrained from
creating the world is affirming, albeit in other words, that it
was made by chance/' 3 So also in another letter Spinoza
asks his correspondent: "Tell me, I pray, whether you have
seen or read any philosophers who hold the opinion that the
1 Ibid. y II, 13 and 20; cf. Emunot we-De'ot, 1, 3, Ninth Theory; Cuzari, V, 20.
3 Moreh Nebukim, II, 13.
* Epistola 54.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 319
world was made by chance, that is, in the sense in which
you understand it, namely, that God, in creating the world,
had set himself a definite aim, and yet transgressed His own
decree." x The implication of these statements is, as is quite
evident, that the attribution of will to God really amounts
to the denial of causality and to the explanation of the rise
of things by chance.
III. THE MEANING OF IMMANENT CAUSE
His denial of chance or of causelessness is reaffirmed by
Spinoza on several occasions in a positive way, as, for in-
stance, when he says that " of every existing thing there is
some certain cause by reason of which it exists." 2 He further-
more defines the cause of a thing by the statement that " if
this [cause] did not exist it were impossible that the thing
should exist," 3 which is reminiscent of Crescas' statement in
his definition of a cause that " should the cause be conceived
not to exist the effect could not be conceived to exist." 4 Now,
causes, according to Aristotle, are either external (ecros) to
the thing 5 or present (evvirapxovTa) within the thing. 6 So
also Spinoza on several occasions asserts that "we must look
for this cause in the thing or outside the thing," 7 and on
several other occasions he speaks of external and internal
causes. 8
What these internal and external causes are needs some
explanation. Aristotle himself designates the material and
formal causes as internal, whereas the efficient cause is de-
Epistola 56.
Ethics, I, Prop. 8, Schol.; cf. Epistola 34; Short Treatise, I, 6, 2.
Short Treatise, I, 6, 4.
Or Adonai, I, i, 3. Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, p. 221.
Metaphysics, XII, 4, 10700, 23. 6 Ibid., 22.
7 Ethics, I, Prop. 8, Schol. 2; Short Treatise, I, 6, 4; Epistola 34.
8 Ethics,!, Prop. 11, Schol.; Ill, Prop. 30, Schol.; Ethics, III, Affectuum Defini-
tiones, 24, Expl.; Epistolae 34 and 60.
320 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
scribed by him as external. 1 But inasmuch as the efficient
cause is said by Aristotle to be sometimes the same as the
formal cause, 2 the efficient cause may thus according to him
be both an internal and external cause. Although Aristotle
does not give any concrete examples of what he means by
external and internal causes, such examples may be gathered
from his own writings as well as from the writings of his
followers.
Of an external cause the following are two examples:
First, a physical object which is spatially external to an-
other physical object. Thus Maimonides, drawing upon
Aristotle, says that "everything must needs have a mover,
which mover may be either outside the object moved, as,
e.g., the case of a stone set in motion by the hand, or within
the object moved, as, e.g., the body of a living being," which
is moved by its soul. 3 In a passage corresponding to this
Aristotle says that "of those things which are moved es-
sentially, some are moved by themselves (vet)' aurou, i.e., by
an internal cause) and others by something else"; 4 and later,
in explanation of things which are moved by something else,
he says: "Thus, a staff moves a stone, and is moved by a
hand, which is moved by a man." s
Second, an incorporeal being, like God, causing motion in
a corporeal object. In this case, says Maimonides, the term
"external" 6 is to be taken in the sense of "separate," 7 that
is to say, separate from body (xupiaros rov aw^aros) or in-
corporeal.
Similarly of an internal cause two examples may be found.
1 Metaphysics, XII, 4, royob, 22 ff. a Physics, II, 7, 198*1, 24-26.
3 Moreh Nebukim, II, Introduction, Prop. 17.
< Physics, VIII, 4, 2545, 12-14. s Ibid., VIII, 5, 256a, 6-8.
6 n >-
7 Moreh Nebukim, II, I: ^"03, OJ^ = xw/n<rr6s 2 .
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 321
First, the soul which exists in the body and is inseparable
from the body and is the cause of its motion. We have
already quoted above a statement from Maimonides where
the soul is called an internal cause of motion. In a corre-
sponding passage Aristotle similarly illustrates those things
which contain in themselves the principle of motion by the
example of the motion of an animal. 1
Second, universal concepts such as genus with reference
to species and both of them with reference to the individual
essence. Genus and species combined make up a definition
and are therefore related to the essence defined as cause to
effect, for a good definition, according to Aristotle, must
not only set forth the fact but it should also contain (kvv-
Ttoipxtw} and present the cause. 2 This Aristotelian view is
implied in Maimonides' contention that God cannot be
defined by genus and species on the ground that " there are
no previous causes to His existence by which He could be
defined/' 3 Furthermore, since a definition according to Aris-
totle is of the form, 4 it may be called a formal or internal
cause. It is to be noted that Aristotle uses the same term
ivvirapxtw in describing both the nature of the causality of
the definition and the nature of the cause which he calls in-
ternal (twirapyuv). It is evident then that by internal cause
he does not mean only a cause which inheres in the effect,
but also a cause in which the effect inheres. The essential
characteristic of an internal cause therefore is the fact that
it is inseparable from its effect, either as the soul is insepa-
rable from the body or as the definition is inseparable from
the definiendum, for, as says Aristotle, the whole is in its
1 Physics, VIII, 4, 2546, 15-16.
2 De Anima, II, 2, 4133, 15. Cf. Analytica Pos(eriora y II, 10, 9jb, 38 ff.
* Moreh Nebukim, I, 52. Cf. Munk, Guide desfcgarcs, I, p. 190, n. 3; Friedlander,
Guide oj the Perplexed, I, p. 178, n. 2.
4 Metaphysics, VII, II, 10363, 28-29.
322 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
parts and the genus is in the species just as the parts are in
the whole and the species is in the genus. 1
Now, in the Middle Ages we meet with a contrast between
the terms transicns and immanens in such expressions as
actio transient and actio immanens or causa transient and
causa immanens* These two terms reflect Aristotle's ex-
ternal (CKTOS) cause and internal (tvvirapxuv) cause. That
this is so we have the testimony of Spinoza himself, who
says: "immanent (inblyvende} or internal (innerlyke) cause
(which is all the same to me)/' 3 The term immanens , there-
fore, by analogy with Aristotle's term tvvirapxuvy describes
not only a cause which resides in the effect but also a cause
in which the effect resides, for the essential meaning of an
immanent cause, as we have said, is its inseparability from
its effect. The term transcendent ', however, does not mean
in the Middle Ages the same as transient. It means to be
logically greater or more general, especially to be logically
greater and more general than the ten categories so as not
to be contained under them. 4 In this sense it is used in the
enumeration of the so-called transcendentales which are re-
ferred to by Spinoza. 5 The term transcendens is thus neither
the synonym of transient nor the opposite of immanens. In
fact, in the case of an immanent cause of the second kind
we have mentioned, i.e., immanent in the sense in which
the genus is the immanent cause of the species, the cause,
though immanent, may also be called transcendent in so far
as it is more general than its effect. The conception of a
1 Cf. Physics, IV, 3, 2ioa, 17 and 19.
2 Cf. R. Eucken, Geschichte der philosophi sc hen Terminologie, p. 204.
3 Short Treatise, II, 26, J (Opera, I, p. lio, 11. 22-23).
4 Cf. W. Hamilton, Lectures on Logic, I, p. 198 (ed. 1866); C. Prantl, Geschichte
der Logik, III, p. 245; R. Eucken, Geschichte und Kritik der Grundbegrife der
Gegenwart, pp. 79-80.
s Ethics, II, Prop. 40, Schol. I; Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 6. Cf. below, Vol. II,
pp. I23f.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 323
transcendent immanent cause is thus not a contradiction in
terms.
In the light of this discussion, when Spinoza says here in
Proposition XVIII that "God is the causa immanens and
not transiens of all things/' we may ask ourselves in which
of their two senses does he use the terms immanens and
transiens. It is quite clear that when he denies that God is
a causa transiens of all things he means to say that God is
neither a spatially external cause of all things nor a separate
immaterial cause of all things. It is equally clear that when
he affirms that God is the causa immanens of all things he
does not mean that God is in all things after the analogy of
the soul in the body in the Aristotelian manner of expres-
sion, 1 though among the Stoics God's immanence in the world
is expressed in terms of His being the soul, the mind, or the
reason of the world, and hence of His being in the world only
as a part of it. 2 Proposition XIV of Ethics, I, where Spinoza
says that all things are in God, and similarly the two Dia-
logues in the Short Treatise, where he likewise says that all
things are in God as parts are in the whole, make it quite
clear that the immanence of God does not mean that God is
in all things as the soul is in the body, but rather that all
things are in God as the less universal is in the more universal
or, to use Spinoza's own expression, as the parts are in the
1 The general misunderstanding of Spinoza's description of God as an imma-
nent cause by taking it in the sense that God is a cause who resides in His effects
after the analogy of the soul in the body occurs already in John Colerus' biography
of Spinoza, published in Dutch in 1705; "In order to understand him, we must
consider that . . . the immanent cause acts inwardly, and is confined without
acting outwardly. Thus when a man's soul thinks of, or desires something, it is or
remains in that thought or desire, without going out of it, and is the immanent
cause thereof. In the same manner, the God of Spinoza is the cause of the universe
wherein He is, and He is not beyond it. " (English translation: The Life of Benedict
de Spinoza, London, 1706, reprinted at The Hague, 1906, pp. 67-68.)
2 Cf. Zeller, Die Philosophic der Griechen, III, I, pp. 140-142; p. 151 (4th edi-
tion).
324 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
whole. 1 Spinoza's statement that God is the immanent cause
of all things is thus not an assertion that God is identical
with the aggregate totality of all things; it is only a denial
that God is the external and separable and hence immaterial
cause of all things. Inseparability from the effect, as we have
seen, is the essential characteristic of Aristotle's internal
cause. Spinoza makes the meaning of this term clear when
he defines the immanent cause negatively as that " which by
no means produces anything outside itself " 2 and as that in
which "the effect remains united with its cause in such a
way that together they constitute a whole." 3 When Spinoza
therefore says that all things are in God he means exactly
the same thing as when Aristotle says that man exists in
animal as a species in a genus. 4 And when he further says
that all things are in God as parts are in the whole he means
again exactly the same thing as when Aristotle says that the
"part is in the whole" 5 and as when Burgersdijck says that
"animal is a whole per se in respect to man and beast," 6 that
is to say, the species man and beast exist in the genus animal
as parts in a whole. It is in this sense that God is the im-
manent cause of all things; He is their internal cause as the
genus is the internal cause of the species or the species of
the particulars and as the whole is the internal cause of its
parts. Now the universal, even though it does not exist
separately from the particulars, is not logically identical with
the sum of the particulars, for to Spinoza the universal is an
ens rationiSy which means that it has a certain kind of con-
ceptual existence, even though conceptual in the sense that it
Cf. above, pp. 74 ff. Cf. also Epistola 32 to Oldenburg.
Short Treatise, I, First Dialogue, 12 (Opera, I, p. 30, 11. 24-25).
Ibid., Second Dialogue, 3 (p. 31, 11. 20-22).
Physics, IV, 3, 2ioa, 17-18. s Ibid., 16.
Institutiones Logicae, Lib. I, Cap. XIV, p. 52 (ed. Cambridge, 1680): "Animal
cst totum [per se] respectu hominis et bestiae."
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 325
is invented by the mind, as we have shown in our discussion of
his definition of attribute. 1 Consequently there is to be a
corresponding conceptual distinction between God and the
aggregate totality of modes. Being thus the immanent
cause of all things in the sense that He is inseparable from
them but still logically distinct from them, God may also be
said to transcend them according to the old meaning of the
term " transcendence," namely, that of being logically dis-
tinct and more general. With the totality of modes or what
Spinoza calls the fades totius universi God is not identical;
He is identical only with himself. With reference to the
totality of modes God is therefore called an immanent cause,
but with reference to himself He is called causa sui y which,
as we have already shown, 2 means the denial of any kind of
cause whatsoever, whether external or internal. This dis-
tinction implied in Spinoza's thought between one kind of
whole, God, which transcends its parts and is their cause,
and another kind of whole, the fades totius universi, which is
the sum of its parts, is clearly stated by Proclus: "Every
wholeness (6X6717$) is either prior to parts or consists of parts.
... A whole according to subsistence (/ca0' i;7rapu>), there-
fore, is that which consists of parts, but a whole according
to cause (/car' airiav) is that which is prior to parts." 3
But here a question may be raised. If God is related to the
totality of modes as the universal to particulars or as the
whole to the parts, then inasmuch as the universal as well
as the whole has only conceptual existence, the existence of
God which Spinoza has sought to establish is only a con-
ceptual kind of existence, conceptual, presumably, in the sense
of being invented by the mind. God is thus an ens rationis
1 Cf. above, pp. 146 ff. a Cf. above, p. 127.
3 Institutio fheohgica, LXVII (in Plotini Enneades^ ed. Creuzer et Moser,
Paris, 1855).
326 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
and not an ens reale. But this would seem to be contrary to
the whole trend of Spinoza's proofs for the existence of God,
which was to establish God as an ens reale*
This question is raised by Spinoza himself in the First
Dialogue in the Short 'Treatise. He puts it in the mouth of
Desire. "Methinks," says Desire, "I see a very great con-
fusion in this argument of yours; for, it seems you will have
it that the whole must be something outside of or apart from
its parts, which is truly absurd. For all philosophers are
unanimous in saying that the whole is a second intention
(tweede kundigheid), and that it is nothing in nature apart
from human conception (begrip)" 2 The "second intention "
is the scholastic intentio secunda which is applied to such uni-
versals as genus and species, 3 and what Desire is arguing is
that God, who is said by Spinoza to be the whole, is nothing
but an ens rationis or intentio secunda like a universal and
God cannot therefore be, as Desire erroneously assumes
Spinoza to say, "outside of or apart from its parts. "
In his answer in the First Dialogue, speaking through the
character of Reason, Spinoza first disclaims the imputation
that he considers God as a whole "outside of or apart from
its parts" by pointing out the difference between a transeunt
and an immanent cause and by insisting that an immanent
cause "by no means produces anything outside itself."
Then in the Second Dialogue, speaking through the char-
acter of Theophilus in answer to another question raised by
Erasmus, he states that though the whole like the universal
is an ens rationis there are two differences between them.
First, "the universal (algemeeri) results from various dis-
connected individuals, the whole, from various united in-
1 Cf. above, pp. 161 ff.
2 Short Treatise -, First Dialogue, 10.
3 Cf. R. P. M. Fernandez Garcia, Lexicon Scholasticum Philosophico- < Thcologicum y
p. 361. Cf. below, Vol. II, p. 122.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 327
dividuals." ' Second, "the universal only comprises parts
of the same kind, but the whole, parts both the same and
different in kind/' 2 These two differences, it may be re-
marked incidentally, reflect two of the several senses of
the term whole discussed by Aristotle. Corresponding to
Spinoza's description of the whole in the first difference,
there is the following passage in Aristotle: "A whole (6\ov)
means . . . that which so contains the things it contains
that they form a unity," in the sense of "making up the
unity between them," as "the continuous and limited is a
whole, when there is a unity consisting of several parts pres-
ent in it." 3 Corresponding to Spinoza's description of the
universal in the second difference, there is Aristotle's state-
ment to the effect that the whole in the sense of the universal
is said of a thing which comprises parts which are of the same
kind and have common characteristics, " for universal (jca06-
Xoi>), and, in short, that which is denominated as being a
certain whole, are universal and a whole because they con-
tain many things, are predicated of particulars, and are all
one according to the predicate. Thus man, horse, and God
are all of them one, because they are all living things." 4
Inasmuch as the whole and the universal despite their being
both entia rationis are admitted by Spinoza to differ from
one another on two points, we may also argue on behalf of
Spinoza that this particular whole, namely God, though it
may be called an ens rationis like any universal, differs from
universals on still a third point, namely, that it is called an
ens rationis only in the sense that its real existence can be
discovered only by the mind, by the ontological proofs based
upon the adequacy of the idea of God in our mind. In truth,
1 Short Treatise, I, Second Dialogue, 9.
3 Ibid.
3 Metaphysics, V, 26, icxrjb, 27-28, 28-29, 32-33.
Ibid., 29-32.
328 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
however, God is an ens reale. Attributes, on the other hand,
have no reality apart from God; they are said to be perceived
by the intellect or the mind in the sense that they are in-
vented by the mind. 1 Or, to make use of a modern distinction,
God or substance or the whole is according to Spinoza a
concrete or real universal, whereas attributes are according
to him only abstract universals.
IV. GOD AS CONSCIOUS CAUSE
Among the different terms describing God's causality
which Spinoza has discussed, accepting some of them and
rejecting others, the term "conscious" is not mentioned by
him. We shall try to show that though Spinoza explicitly
denies that God acts by will and design, insisting that He
acts by the necessity of His own nature, he still admits that
God is a conscious cause. In Aristotle as well as among the
mediaeval philosophers, conscious causality by itself did not
imply will and design, nor did it exclude necessity. Thus
Aristotle's necessary activity of God, which was without
design, was still a conscious sort of activity. The contempla-
tion of himself is the activity which Aristotle ascribes to God. 2
This self-consciousness of God is furthermore described by
Aristotle as an act of pleasure, for " the act of contempla-
tion is what is most pleasant and best." 3 Still this con-
scious activity is a necessary sort of activity and is unac-
companied by will and design. Maimonides explains the
difference between unconscious necessary activity and con-
scious necessary activity as follows: A cause is said to act
by necessity and unconsciously when the effect follows from
it "in the same manner as the shadow is caused by a body,
or heat by fire, or light by the sun." A cause is said to act
1 Cf. above, pp. 146 ff. a Metaphysics, XII, 9, 1074!}, 33-35.
3 Ibid.) XII, 7, i072b, 24.
PROPS. 15-18] THE CAUSALITY OF GOD 329
by necessity but consciously when the effect is said to fol-
low from it in the same way as "when we say that the ex-
istence of the intellect necessarily implies the existence of
the intelligible object, for the former is the efficient cause of
the latter in so far as it is an intelligible object/' But
Maimonides goes further and explains that although Aristotle
admitted consciousness on the part of God, and ascribed to
Him a certain self-satisfaction with His activity, " we do not
call this design and it has nothing in common with design,"
inasmuch as "it is impossible for Him that He should wish
to be different/ 1 "For example, man is pleased, satisfied,
and delighted that he is endowed with eyes and hands, and
it is impossible that he should desire it to be otherwise, and
yet the eyes and hands which a man has are not the result of
his design, and it is not by his own determination that he
has certain properties and is able to perform certain actions/' 1
This would seem to be also the position of Spinoza. God
is a necessary cause acting without will and design but still
a conscious cause. Not only does Spinoza's theory of the
attribute of thought and his belief in the unity of nature
point to that conclusion, 2 but his description of the function
of that infinite mode of thinking as producing invariably
"an infinite or most perfect satisfaction " 3 is almost a verbal
reproduction of Aristotle's or Maimonides' characterization
of the consciousness of the activity of God. Indeed Spinoza
denies of God the emotions of joy and sorrow when he says
that "God is free from passions, nor is He affected with any
affect of joy or sorrow," 4 but this merely means that the con-
sciousness he ascribes to God must be unlike our own con-
sciousness a view which was commonly held by the
mediaevals. Indeed in the Cogitata Metaphysica he refers
1 More/i Nebukim, II, 20. a Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 13 ff. and p. 337.
* Short Treatise ', I, 9, 3. Ethics, V, Prop. 17. Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 283 ff.
330 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
to " personality" (personalitas) as a term which theologians
apply to God and dismisses it as something of which he is un-
able to form a clear and distinct concept. Still he makes it
quite clear that God knows himself and that His understand-
ing by which He knows himself does not differ from His will
and power by which He created the world, 1 that is to say,
God is conscious of himself, but His consciousness of himself
does not imply design and purpose.
1 Cogitata Mctaphysica y II, 8. In connection with this attempt to solve the prob-
lem of the consciousness of Spinoza's God, compare the discussions in the following
works: A. Trendelenburg, Historischc Beitrage zur Philosophic (1855), II, pp. 59 ff.;
C. Sigwart, Spinoza s neuendeckter Tractat von Go//, dcm Menschen und desen Gliick-
seligkcit ( 1 866) , pp. 94-95 ; M. Joel, Zur Genesis der Lehre Spinoza s (1871), pp. 13-17;
G. Busolt, Die Grundzuge der Erkenntnisztheorie und Metaphysik Spinozas ( 1 875), pp.
117 ff.; F. Pollock, Spinoza (1880), pp. 352 ff.; J. Martineau, A Study of Spinoza
(1882), pp. 334 ff.; E. E. Powell, Spinoza and Religion (1906), pp. 47 ff.; E. Lasbax,
La Hierarchic dans /'Univers chez Spinoza (1919), pp. 187 ff.; H. Hoffding, Spinozti
Ethica (1924), pp. 49- 50.
CHAPTER X
DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY
THE next group of propositions of Part I and the subsequent
parts of the Ethics are strewn with references to eternity
and duration. By way of general introduction we shall dis-
cuss here Spinoza's definitions of these two terms, and with
them also his definition of time.
I. THE STORY OF DURATION
When Spinoza's contemporary Locke discovered that there
is some reason in the general impression that duration, time,
and eternity " have something very abstruse in their nature,"
he suggested a way out of the difficulty by tracing them
right to " their originals," by which he meant, as he proceeded
to explain, "sensation and reflection," which to him were the
original sources of all our knowledge. 1 An equal abstruseness
confronts one in reading the variety of statements in which
Spinoza contrasts the terms duration, time, and eternity.
In our attempt to clear up this abstruseness, we may per-
haps equally follow Locke's advice to turn right to the origi-
nals of these terms not indeed to the originals in the sense
of what Spinoza considered as the sources of our knowl-
edge, but rather to the originals in the sense of the literary
sources on which Spinoza drew in his discussions of the
meaning of these terms. Here no less than in the other
problems which we have already examined Spinoza operated
with terms and ideas which had been long in vogue in the
philosophic literature with which he was acquainted, modi-
1 Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, II, 14, 2.
332 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
fying them whenever he had reason to do so and turning
them to new uses in his own particular scheme of reasoning.
The task which we have set ourselves in this chapter, there-
fore, is to analyze briefly the historical background of the
meaning of duration, time, and eternity, to show that there
are certain common principles underlying all the mediaeval
discussions on the meaning of these terms, however differ-
ently expressed they may be in language and phraseology,
to collect all the historical strands, and out of them to weave
together Spinoza's conception of duration, time, and eternity.
In Plotinus' elaborate discussion on time there is a his-
torical survey of all the views that make time dependent
upon motion. Among these he reproduces Aristotle's view on
time which in his paraphrase reads that " time is the number
or measure of motion/' f The original definition of time by
Aristotle, in its locus classicus, reads in full that "time is
this, the number of motion according to prior and posterior/ 12
The addition of the term "measure" by Plotinus may be ex-
plained on the ground that the term number in the definition
is, according to Aristotle himself, not to be taken in its ordi-
nary meaning, 3 and that the term measure is sometimes sub-
stituted by Aristotle for the term number. 4 Rejecting the
Aristotelian definition of time, Plotinus defines it as some-
thing independent of motion. Perhaps it will help us to
understand how time is conceived by him apart from mo-
tion if we recall that motion does not appear in the first
two of Plotinus' emanated stages of being, which in order of
priority are: (i) the Intelligence (VoOs), (2) the universal
soul 0/wxi) T P KOV/JLOV), and (3) the all-encircling celestial
sphere (7repi0opd). Motion appears only in the sphere, but
1 Enneads, III, vii, 8 (ed. Creuzer et Moser, Paris, 1855). For cd. Volkmann
(I-eipzig, 1883) raise chapter numbers by one in all subsequent references to Enneads.
a Physics, IV, u, 2190, 1-2. J Ibid., 4-9. Ibid., IV, 12, 22ib, 7.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 333
time appears, according to Plotinus, in the universal soul.
Repeating Plato's statement, which appears also in a modi-
fied form in Philo, that time is the image of eternity, 1 Ploti-
nus identifies time with the life of the universal soul 2 in
contradistinction to eternity, which is identified by him with
the life of the Intelligence. 3 Now, the life of the universal
soul has a certain kind of extension (idcrra(ns) 4 and succes-
sion (c(/>e?)s). s It is varied (aXAr?) 6 in its nature. It is a process
of transition from one act of thought (diavoia) to another, 7
the unity of which exists only by virtue of a certain kind of
continuity (cruj/exeta). 8 It is a continuous acquisition of ex-
istence (wpoo'KT&tJLei'oi' . . . kv TO; cli/cu). 9 All these character-
izations of the life of the universal soul are true also of time,
which is identical with that life. It is "the life (fany) of the
soul consisting in the movement by which she passes from
one state of life (0los) to another," I0 or, it is "the length of
the life" of the soul, "proceeding in equal and similar changes
advancing noiselessly," and "possessing a continuity of
energy" ((rvvex& T <> T W tvepydas exo^). 11
But this kind of time which proceeds "in equal and similar
changes advancing noiselessly" cannot by itself become fixed
and definite; it cannot be measured and divided into definite
portions. 12 For time to be measured and divided there must
be an external standard of measurement, which external
standard is the movement of the all-encircling sphere. "So
that if some one should say that the movement of the sphere,
1 fimacus jyD; Enneads y III, vii, Procemium; Philo, DC Eo> $uis Rcrum Divi-
urn llercs Sit, XXXIV, 165, and DC Mutationc Nominum, XLVII, 267.
F.nncads, III, vii, 10. J Ibid., III, vii, 2, end.
Ibid., Ill, vii, 10 (p. 177, 1. 29).
Ibid. (1. 25). 6 Ibid. (1. 28).
Ibid. (1. 27). Ibid. (1. 42).
Ibid. (1. 47). 10 IK*. (11. 32-33).
/to/., Ill, Vii, I I ( P . I78,11.3- 4 ).
Ibid. (11. 30-30.
334 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
after a certain manner, measures time as much as possible,
by its quantity indicating the corresponding quantity of time,
which cannot in any other way be grasped or conceived, he
indeed will not adduce an absurd explanation of time." l
The time which we use, then, in our daily course of life is
essentially the same as the time which is an image of eter-
nity; it differs from it not in kind but only in degree, in that
it is a certain definite portion of it, measured off by the move-
ment of the sphere. Thus, in opposition to Aristotle, Plotinus
maintains that time, i.e., the time which we use in our daily
course of life, is only measured or made manifest by motion,
but it is not generated by motion. 2 And in still another re-
spect Plotinus differs from Aristotle. According to Aristotle,
time is primarily defined as the measure of motion, though
he declares that in a secondary sense it may also be said that
time is measured by motion. 3 But according to Plotinus,
time is primarily measured by motion. "Hence some philoso-
phers have been induced to say that time is the measure of
motion instead of saying that it is measured by motion." 4
Finally, it is Plotinus* contention that inasmuch as time is
within the universal soul, the universe, which is said to move
within the universal soul, may on that account also be said
to move and to have its being within time. 5
What we get out of this analysis of Plotinus' discussion of
time is that there are two kinds of time. One is indefinite
time; the other is definite time. Both of these kinds of time
are genetically independent of motion. They are essentially
the same: the life of the world soul and an image of eternity.
But definite time has some connection with motion in so
' Ibid. (11. 48-52).
a ibid. (ii. 52-54).
3 Physics, IV, 12, 22ob, 14-16. Cf. Cre seas' Critique of Aristotle , p, 646, n. 22.
< Enneads, III, vii, 12 (p. 179, 11. 21-23).
Ibid., Ill, vii, 10 (p. 177, 11. 21-23); " (P- ! 7 8 , ! 26).
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 335
far as it is measured by it. The main contrasts between the
Aristotelian and the Plotinian definitions of definite time are
thus twofold: (i) according to Aristotle time is generated
by motion; according to Plotinus, time is only made mani-
fest by motion; (2) according to Aristotle, time is the meas-
ure of motion; according to Plotinus, time is measured by
motion.
Plotinus, as will have been noticed, uses the same term
time for both definite time and indefinite time. But an enig-
matic passage in the Encyclopaedia of the Il}wan al-afa, x
which we are going to show to contain a formulation of Plo-
tinus' definition of time, supplies us with a special term for
indefinite time.
The Ihwan al-afa enumerate four definitions of time.
Two of them, the second and third in their enumeration,
read as follows: "It is also said that time is the number of
the motions of the celestial sphere; or, it is said that time is
a duration which is numbered by the motions of the celestial
sphere/* 2 The first of these definitions is clearly the Aristo-
telian definition reproduced only in part, as in Plotinus, and
with the use only of the original term number. The second
definition, it will be noticed, is just the reverse of the first.
In the first, it is time which numbers motion; in the second,
it is motion which numbers time. The contrast, then, is just
1 The development of the conception of duration in Arabic and Hebrew philo-
sophic texts presented in the succeeding pages has already been discussed by me
on several occasions in the following places: "Note on Crescas' Definition of Time"
in the Jewish Quarterly Review, n. s., X (1919), pp. 1-17. This was revised,
amplified, and incorporated in the notes to Prop. XV in Crescas' Critique of Aristotle,
especially in note 9 on pp. 636-640 and in note 23 on pp. 651-658, and in the In-
troduction on pp. 93-98. It was also used by me in "Solomon Pappenheim on Time
and Space and His Relation to Locke and Kant" in Jewish Studies in Memory of
Israel Abraham (1927), pp. 426-440. The subject is presented here in revised, en-
larged, and new form.
3 Fr. Dieterici, Die Naturanschauung und Naturphilosophie der Araber, pp. 14-
15; Arabic text: Die Abhandlungen der Ichwdn Es-Safa, p. 35.
336 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
like the one made by Plotinus between his definition and that
of Aristotle. Again, like Plotinus this definition also implies
that there are two kinds of time, one indefinite and the other
definite, and that the indefinite time becomes definite by
the motion of the sphere. But more than Plotinus, this defi-
nition gives a special name to the indefinite time. It calls
it duration. If we assume then, as we are certainly justified
in doing, that the Ihwan al-afa's definition is a brief formu-
lation of Plotinus* lengthy discussion on time, then we may
restate Plotinus* conception of time as follows: The essence
of time is duration, which is independent of motion and
exists within the universal soul. Time is only a definite and
fixed portion of duration determined by motion.
If this is true, then we may consider Plotinus as the source
of a variety of definitions of time which occur alike in mediae-
val Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin sources as well as in modern
philosophy and in which the term duration, sometimes under
the guise of other terms, appears as something independent
of motion. Such definitions, of course, do not always repro-
duce Plotinus accurately or even follow him completely.
They are changed, modified, become combined with other
definitions, and completely lose their original form. But
they can always be traced, I believe, to Plotinus, and with a
little effort their variations from the original Plotinian defini-
tion can always be accounted for. I shall try to reproduce a
few examples of the variety of forms which this Plotinian
definition of time has assumed in Arabic, Hebrew, Latin, and
other philosophic writings down to the time of Spinoza.
We shall first deal with Arabic and Hebrew texts, and then
with texts in Latin and other languages.
In surveying the Arabic and Hebrew philosophic texts we
may discover three sets of definitions in which the influence
of Plotinus is recognizable or the term duration is made use
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 337
of. In the first set, the Plotinian conception of time, either
with the mention of the term duration or without it, is used,
as in the Ifrwan al-afa, in opposition to the Aristotelian def-
inition. In the second set, the Plotinian conception of time,
again either with the mention of the term duration or with-
out it, is used in combination with the Aristotelian defini-
tion, and as supplementary to it. In the third set, the
term duration is embodied within the phraseology of a cur-
rent definition of time which, not unlike that of Aristotle,
made time dependent upon notion.
Of the first set of definitions we have an example in
Saadia's reference to one who " imagines that time is external
to the sphere and that the world is within it." T From the
context it is unmistakably clear that the contention of this
definition is that time is by its nature independent of motion
and that it has been put forward in opposition to the defi-
nition of Aristotle. The statement that "time is external
to the sphere and the world is within it" is reminiscent of
similar statements made by Plotinus, namely, that " the
sphere exists and is moved within time" (tv xpbvq yap Kal
avrrj Kal ean Kal Kivelrai) 2 or that the activity of the soul
constitutes time and "the universe is within time" (6 de tv
A similar allusion to the Plotinian conception of time as
opposed to that of Aristotle is found in Altabrizi. He enumer-
ates four definitions of time. Three of these either identify
time with motion or make it belong to motion. But one of
these, the fourth one, states that time is neither a body nor
anything belonging to a body. 4 This, it seems to me, is
1 Etnunot we-De'of, I, 4.
3 Enneads, III, vii, n (p. 178, 11. 17-18).
* Ibid. (1. 26).
* Commentary on Maimonides* Twenty-five Propositions, Prop. 15. Cf. my
Crescas* Critique oj Aristotle^ pp. 635-636, 656.
338 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
merely another way of saying that time is neither motion
nor anything belonging to motion, for body is that which
alone has motion. To deny that time is dependent upon
motion is, therefore, merely to repeat Plotinus' contention
against Aristotle.
An echo of the Plotinian conception of time may be also
found in Crescas. Openly rejecting the Aristotelian defini-
tion, he defines time as "the measure of the duration of
motion or rest between two instants/' l He furthermore
indicates the significance of this definition as an attempt to
free time from motion when he says, again in opposition to
Aristotle, that as a result of his new definition, time exists
only in the soul. It may be remarked here that by "soul"
Crescas does not mean the universal soul of Plotinus, but
rather the human soul. But when Crescas further argues, as
a consequence of his definition of time, that there had ex-
isted time prior to the creation of the world, 2 the implica-
tion is that prior to the creation of the world time, or rather
duration, existed in the mind of God as did eternity accord-
ing to the views of Philo and Plotinus. Time in the created
world, however, is essentially not different from time or
duration before the creation of the world. It is not generated
by motion, but only measured by motion. Crescas could
thus repeat with Philo and Plotinus that time is an image of
eternity.
Of the second set of definitions we have a good example in
Maimonides. Though following Aristotle in saying that time
is an accident of motion 3 and hence could not have existed
prior to the creation of the world, Maimonides states that we
may have in our mind an idea of a certain duration which
1 Or /ldonai y I, ii, u. Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, pp. 289, 651-
658,93-98. 3 Ibid.
3 Moreh Nebukim^ II, Introduction, Prop. 15.
DBF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 339
existed prior to the creation of the world. He calls that dura-
tion a " supposition or imagination of time but not the reality
of time." x Maimonides' "supposition or imagination of
time" seems to be the same as Plotinus' " image of eternity,"
i.e., a duration which is independent of motion. But whereas
Plotinus 1 "image of eternity" is time itself and is essentially
of the same nature as eternity in so far as both are inde-
pendent of motion, Maimonides' "imagination of time" is
essentially different from time; it is only a pseudo-time, in-
asmuch as it is independent of motion, whereas time, prop-
erly so called, is generated by motion. The Plotinian time is
thus combined by Maimonides with the Aristotelian time and
made to supplement it.
The view of Maimonides is adopted by Albo, and is re-
stated by him in a new way. He says there are two kinds of
time. One is "unmeasured duration which is conceived only
in thought and which existed prior to the creation of the
world and will continue to exist after its passing away."
This he calls " absolute time," in which there is no distinction
of equal and unequal or of before and after, and which he
identifies with what Maimonides has described as an "imagi-
nation of time." The other kind of time is that which is
"numbered and measured by the motion of the sphere, to
which are applicable the distinctions of before and after,
of equal and unequal." 2 These two kinds of time, as I have
said in the case of Maimonides, are undoubtedly the result
of a combination of the Aristotelian time and the Plotinian
time.
Examples of the third set of definitions are to be found in
the works of several authors. Saadia has two versions of a
definition which belongs to this type: (i) "Time is nothing
' Ibid., II, 13.
, II, 1 8. Cf. my Cre seas' Critique of Aristotle t p. 658.
340 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
but the extension of the duration of bodies." x (2) "The es-
sence of time is the duration of these existent things." 2
Abraham bar Hiyya, in whose text there is a doubtful read-
ing of one word, gives a definition of time which like the defi-
nitions of Saadia reads either (i) "that time is nothing but
the extension of existent things" or (2) " that time is nothing
but a term signifying the duration of existent things." 3
Similarly Algazali gives a definition, evidently meant by
him to be a paraphrase of Aristotle's definition, which reads
that " time is a term signifying the duration of motion, that
is to say, the extension of motion/' 4 It will be noticed that
the common element in all these definitions is the use of the
terms extension and duration and that these terms exten-
sion and duration are used in connection with "bodies,"
or "existent things," or "motion," all of which means the
same thing, for by "existent things" here is meant "bodies,"
and "bodies" have "motion." All these definitions, despite
their use of the term duration, or extension, imply the de-
pendence of time upon motion, and may be traced, I believe,
to a definition the phrasing of which reads that time is the
extension (biaarrHJia) of motion, and which is attributed by
Plutarch and Stobaeus to Plato and by Simplicius to Zeno
and is included by Plotinus among the definitions which
make time dependent upon motion. 5
Throughout my discussion of Arabic and Hebrew texts I
have used the term duration. Now, this term, derived from
the Latin durare^ literally, " to be hardened," and hence, " to
continue, to last, to remain," has been used in the Middle
1 Emunot we-De'ot, II, u. a lbid. y I, 4.
* Hegyon ha-Nefesh y I, p. 2a.
Maka$id al-Fala sifah, II, iii (p. 192).
* Cf. De P/acitis, I, 21, and Eclogae, I, 8, in Diels, Doxographi Graeci, p. 318;
Simplicius on Categories in Zeller, Philosophic der Griechen y HI, i, p. 184, n. 6 (4th
edition); Enneads^ III, vii, 6.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 341
Ages in a certain technical sense in connection with time. In
Arabic and in Hebrew, no more than in Greek, however, is
there any term of the same derivative technical meaning
which is etymologically of the same origin. But the texts
which I have discussed contain three Arabic and eight He-
brew terms which, though etymologically unconnected with
the Latin duratio, can be shown from their context and im-
plications to have the same technical meaning as the Latin
duratio. These three Arabic and eight Hebrew terms can be
arranged etymologically in three groups. 1 (i) The terms in
the first group all go back to a root meaning "to stretch, to
extend," and are used in philosophic Arabic and Hebrew as
some of the equivalents of the Greek Stdcrrcuns, "extension,"
which, as we have seen, occurs in Plotinus as one of the char-
acteristics of indefinite time. (2) The term in the second
group comes from a root meaning " to join, to keep together,"
and is the equivalent of the Greek <7i>j>ex 6a > "continuity,"
which, again as we have seen, occurs in Plotinus as one of the
characteristics of indefinite time. (3) The terms in the third
group go back to roots meaning " to remain, to survive, to
exist," and are the equivalents, though not etymologically
of the same origin, of the Greek (rwexeia, and reflect the ex-
pressions of continuity and existence used by Plotinus in
connection with indefinite time. The importance of this
philological digression will come out in our discussion of
Latin texts which we now begin.
1 The three groups of terms are as follows:
I. <** (Ihwan al-Safa and Algazali), mD,ny (Hebrew translations of Algazali).
jloi^l (Maimonides), "]E?Dn (Samuel Ibn Tibbon's translation of Maimonides
and Albo), JTD'N (IJarizi's translation of Maimonides).
II. lii (Saadia), DVp, JTntttPn (Judah Ibn Tibbon's translation of Saadia),
(Abraham bar IJiyya).
in. ropmnn (Crescas).
Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, pp. 638, 639, 655, 656.
342 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
In Latin philosophic texts, as far as I have been able to
examine them, we find on the whole the conception of dura-
tion combined in a variety of manners with the Aristotelian
definition of time. A good example of it is to be found in
Augustine's treatment of time.
Augustine starts out by saying that time is that "by
which we measure the motion of bodies." x In this he is
certainly following the phraseology of Aristotle. But he
does not stop with this. He soon asks himself what time is
in itself. 2 In this again he is repeating a question raised by
Aristotle. He then proceeds to show that time cannot be
identical with the motion of a body, 4 in which again Aristotle
himself would agree with him, for to Aristotle time is only
an accident of motion but is not motion itself. 5 But still it
would seem that Augustine means to deny by his statement
more than the identification of motion and time. It would
seem that he means to make time more independent of mo-
tion than was done by Aristotle, though still not altogether
independent of motion as was done by Plotinus. That time
was not according to Augustine altogether independent of
motion and hence purely subjective in its nature is evidenced
by the fact that when he suggests that time is a certain
kind of "stretching out" (distentici) he immediately adds
that he does not know of what it is a stretching out and
marvels "if it be not of the mind itself." 6 His answer to
this is in the negative. It is not of the mind itself, he says
in effect, but it is rather in the mind. "In thee it is, O my
mind, that I measure my times." 7 Time indeed is the meas-
ure of motion, as said Aristotle, but it is not motion itself but
1 Confessions, XI, 23. 3 Ibid., XI, 23 and 26.
3 Physics ', IV, 10, 2i7b, 32. * Confessions, XI, 24.
s Physics, IV, 10, 21 8b, 9-18. 6 Confessions, XI, 26.
7 Ibid., XI, 27.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 343
only the memory of motion that time measures. "In thee,
I say, do I measure times. The impression which things make
in thee as they pass by doth still remain, even when the things
themselves are gone, and this impression it is which, being
still present, I measure." * Thus a connection of time with
motion is assumed by Augustine, but a connection not with
motion that is still present, but with the image of motion
which exists in the mind after the motion itself is gone. This
is far from the purely ideal conception of time which inter-
preters of Augustine generally attribute to him. It is cer-
tainly unlike the purely ideal conception of time which we
find in Plotinus and Crescas and in the pseudo-time or dura-
tion which according to Maimonides and Albo existed prior
to the creation of the world. It is nothing but a modification
of Aristotle's definition of time which must have been sug-
gested to Augustine by Aristotle's own contention that in
some respect time exists only in the soul. 2
For our immediate purpose, however, the chief importance
of Augustine's discussion of time consists in the term distentio
which he uses on several occasions in describing the nature
of time. 3 In this word distentio , it seems to me, we may
discern a technical term used as the equivalent of duratio.
The term distentio is the equivalent of the Greek 5cdcrraort,s,
and it will be recalled that terms meaning "stretching out"
traceable to the Greek SiAoracris were used in Arabic and
Hebrew texts for duration and that the term 5ta0Ta<ris
itself is used by Plotinus as one of the characteristics of his
indefinite time or duration.
The use of the concept of duration in connection with the
Aristotelian definition of time is to be found in the writings
' ibid.
3 Physics > IV, 14, iija, 16-23.
3 Confessions y XI, 23, end, and 26.
344 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
of almost all the leading scholastics. Confining ourselves
only to what is common to all of them, we may discern in
them the following general characteristics. Duration is as-
sumed by them as a genus of which time is a species, for they
speak of duration as being of three kinds, (a) eternity, (if)
aevum, and (c) time. 1 While time is generally defined after
Aristotle as being the measure of motion, duration is con-
ceived as something independent of motion. Two definitions
of duration may be discerned in their writings. One reads
that duration is the permanence or perseverance or continua-
tion of existence. 2 The other reads that it connotes a certain
succession. 3 Both these expressions, "permanence or perse-
verance or continuation of existence" and "succession," as
will be recalled, are used by Plotinus among his characteriza-
tions of his indefinite time, and the first of these expressions
is the underlying meaning of some of the terms used by Ara-
bic and Hebrew authors for the concept of duration. One
1 Cf. Suarez, Disputation* -s Metaphysicac, Disp. L, Sec. I II, i: "Primo, ac praeci-
pue dividitur duratio in creatam et increatam. Duratio incrcata est aeternitas
simpliciter dicta." . . . Sec. V, i: "Duratio igitur creata dividi potest primo in per-
manentem et successivam. . . . Dividitur ergo ulterius duratio creata permanens
in durationem immutabiliter natura sua permanentem, quae aevum appellatur, et
in earn quae licet permanens sit." . . . Sec. VIII, i: "Agimus ergo de duratione
habente continuam successionem, de qua Philosophi disputant cum Aristotele in
4. Phys. co quod tempus, Physicum motum consequi videatur." Cf. also Marc.
Anton. Galitius, Summa Totius Phtlosophiae Aristotelicae ad mentem S. Bonaven-
turae, Pars I, Lib. IV, Tract. II, Quaest. Ill: "Tres durationes communiter a Doc-
toribus assignari solere, omnibus in scholis versatis patentissimum esse opinor."
a Cf. Suarez, op. '/., Disp. L, Sec. I, I: "Dicitur enim durare res, quae in sua
existentia perseverat: unde duratio idem esse censetur, quod permanentia in
esse." Bonaventura, Commcntaria in Qiiatuor Libros Scntcntiarum, Lib. II, Dist.
XXXVII, Art. I, Quaest. II: "Continuatio in esse non est aliud quam duratio."
a Cf. Suarez, op. cit. t Disp. L, Sec. II, i: "Est ergo prima opinio Ochami, et Ga-
brielis supra dicentium, durationem distingui ab existentia, quia existentia significat
absolute, et simpliciter rem esse extra suas causas: duratio vero dicit existentiam
connotando successionem, cui vel coexistat, vel possit coexistere res, quae durare
dicitur: vel aliter, quod duratio dicat existentiam, quatenus apta est ad coexisten-
dum successions " Cf. also Lon Mahieu, Franfois Suarcz, p. 374.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 345
gets, however, the impression that these typical scholastics
did not consider duration as something purely subjective,
any more than Augustine did. Whatever they believed the
relation of duration to its object to be, they seem to have
attached to it some kind of objectivity. All their discussions
on that point would seem to be attempts at different inter-
pretations of Aristotle's statement that time, in so far as it
is the number of motion and not motion itself, is in the soul. 1
The scholastic distinction between duration and time ap-
pears also in the discussions of Descartes and Locke. Dura-
tion is defined by Descartes as a mode of consideration of
the perseverance in the existence of a thing. 2 Whether the
thing is moved or unmoved it has duration, and duration
of the same kind. Time, however, applies only to things in
motion, and is defined by him as the measure of motion. 3
Locke follows on the whole the same tradition, but instead
of defining duration, like Descartes, as the perseverance in
existence, he defines it as the distance (= extension, Std-
oracris) between any parts of that succession furnished to us
by the train of ideas which constantly succeed one another
in the understanding. 4 It will have been noticed that the
two characteristic expressions used by Descartes and Locke
in their definitions of duration, namely, "perseverance in
existence " and "succession/* correspond exactly to the two
definitions of duration which we find among the scholastics
and which can be traced to Plotinus. Furthermore, if we
substitute Plotinus' "soul" for Locke's "understanding,"
we shall find that Locke's characterization of duration is
reminiscent of Plotinus' characterization of indefinite time.
1 Physics, IV, 14, 22ja, 16-23.
' Principia Philosophiae, I, 55.
J Ibid., and I, 57.
4 Essay Concerning Human Understanding II, 14, 1-3.
346 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
This idea of succession which constitutes duration, continues
Locke, is not derived from motion. 1 Time, however, is con-
nected with motion, and is defined by him as duration
measured by motion. 2
The cumulative effect of all these definitions of time in
the Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, and Latin philosophic traditions,
from Plotinus down to Locke, stands out clearly in its main
outline. There is duration. This duration is not generated
by motion. It is something generated in the mind. In Ploti-
nus it is said to be in the universal soul. In Augustine it is
identified with memory or the impression of things gone that
remains in the mind. In Maimonides and Albo, who call it
either an imagination of time or absolute time, it is also said
to be something which is formed in our mind. In Crescas,
time is similarly said to be in the soul. In Locke it is said to
be in the human understanding, consisting of the train of
ideas within it. Furthermore, this duration exists apart
from the physical world. In Saadia it is said to be external
to, that is to say apart from, the sphere. In Altabrizi, it is
said not to belong to anything corporeal. In Maimonides,
Crescas, and Albo it is said to have existed prior to the creation
of the world. In Descartes and Locke it is said to apply to
things which have no motion. Finally, this duration is con-
sidered as something indefinite and indeterminate. Time is
generally taken to differ from duration. Though there is no
general agreement as to whether time is generated by mo-
tion or not, it is generally agreed that time applies to things
which have motion. It is considered as a definite portion of
motion, and this definiteness, it is generally admitted, is
attained by its being measured by motion.
1 Ibid., 6. 3 Ibid., 17 and 19.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 347
II. DURATION AND TIME IN SPINOZA
It is in this mould of thought that we must cast Spinoza's
expressions on duration and time. In presenting the sub-
ject, we shall first deal with those aspects of duration in
which it is contrasted with time, leaving for subsequent dis-
cussions all the other aspects of it in which it is contrasted
with eternity.
The fullest definition of duration is given by Spinoza in
the Cogitata Metaphysica. * "Duration," it reads, "is the
attribute under which we conceive the existence of created
things, in so far as they persevere in their own actuality."
Substantially it reechoes one of the two types of definitions
of duration which we have reproduced above from scholastic
authors and in which continuatio in esse y permanentia in esse,
and in sua existentia perseverat are the expressions indis-
criminately used.
The immediate literary source of Spinoza, however, would
seem to be found in the following statement of Descartes:
"We merely think that the duration of each thing is a mode
under which we shall conceive this thing, in so far as it per-
severes to exist."''
Still when we compare closely Spinoza's definition with
that of Descartes we shall notice three differences. First,
Descartes calls duration a "mode," whereas Spinoza calls
it an "attribute." Second, Descartes only says in so far as
it perseveres to "exist," whereas Spinoza uses first the term
"existence" like Descartes, but then adds the term "actual-
ity" in the statement "in so far as they persevere in their
own actuality/* Third, Descartes simply says "thing,"
whereas Spinoza speaks of "created" things. The question
1 Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 4.
2 Principia Philosophiae, I, 55.
348 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
before us is whether it was merely as a matter of free para-
phrasing that Spinoza happened to make these three verbal
changes or whether there was some well thought out reason
which led him to introduce them.
With respect to the substitution of the term attribute for
mode, we shall try to show that it was done by Spinoza at
the suggestion of Descartes himself.
While in his formal definition Descartes calls duration a
mode, elsewhere he refers to it indiscriminately as belonging
either to " modes of things" (rerum modos) or to "affections
of things" (rerum ajjectiones). 1 Modes and affections are used
by Descartes as interchangeable terms, both of them in con-
trast, on the one hand, to "things" and, on the other hand,
to "eternal truths which have no existence outside our
thought." 2 Now, according to Descartes, while the terms
modes, qualities (or affections), and attributes are on the
whole analogous in meaning, still they are used in different
senses when they are considered with reference to their ap-
plication to substance. 3 Consequently, though in his formal
definition of duration, as we have seen, he uses the term
"mode" and elsewhere he also refers to it as an "affection,"
he insists that the most proper term to be used in connec-
tion with it is "attribute." "And even in created things
that which never exists in them in any diverse way, like
existence and duration in the existing and enduring thing,
should be called not qualities or modes, but attributes." 4
1 My statement is based upon the following consideration. In Principia Philo-
sophiae, I, 48, Descartes divides all objects into A (i), things, or (2), affections of*
things, and B, eternal truths having no existence outside our thought. Then he
proceeds to say: "Of the things we consider as real, the most general are substance,
duration, order, number." I take it that of these four examples, the first, substance,
is an illustration of A (i), things, whereas the other three, duration, order, number,
are illustrations of A (2), affections of things. Later in 50, instead of "things and
affections of things," he uses the expression "things or modes of things."
' Ibid., I, 48. * Ibid., I, 56. Ibid.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 349
Spinoza thus had very good reason for substituting the
term "attribute" for "mode" in the definition of duration.
Still occasionally he slips back to the use of the term "affec-
tion," which to him as to Descartes is synonymous with
"mode." 1 Thus in the following passage he says: "For, as
was noted in the first Part of the discussion, duration is an
affection (ajfectio) of existence." 2
Similarly, Spinoza had a very good reason for introducing
the term "actuality" to explain the term "existence." The
term "existence," when used by Spinoza or his predecessors
in the definition of duration, was meant to emphasize two
things. In the first place, it was meant to emphasize that
it was existence and not motion that was required for the con-
ception of duration, inasmuch as duration was independent
of motion. This, as we have seen, is the common characteris-
tic of duration throughout the history of that term. Des-
cartes makes himself explicit on that point when he says,
"For we do not indeed apprehend that the duration of things
which are moved is different from that of things which are
not moved." 3 In the second place, it was meant to em-
phasize that there is no duration in beings which have no
existence, as, for instance, fictitious beings and beings of
reason. Suarez definitely excludes from duration "ficta"
and "entia rationes." 4 Now, the word "existence" by it-
self would perhaps have been sufficient as an emphasis of
the second point. Still, in order not to leave any room for
doubt, Spinoza adds the phrase "in so far as they persevere
in their own actuality ," that is to say, the existence must be
an actual existence and not one which is only in thought. It
is not impossible that in phrasing this definition Spinoza was
1 Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 193-194.
2 Cogitata Metaphysica, II, I (Opera, I, p. 250, 11. 13-14).
3 Principia Philosophiae, I, 57.
Suarez, op. cit., Disp. L, Sec. I, i.
350 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
directly influenced by Suarez, who insists that duration is to
be attributed to a thing which exists in actuality. 1 The same
idea that duration requires an actually existent object is ex-
pressed by Spinoza also in the following manner: " Duration
is an affection of existence, not of the essence of things." a
By " essence " he means the concept of a thing which may
or may not have existence outside our mind. In the same
vein he also says: "The duration of our body does not de-
pend upon its essence . . . nor upon the absolute nature
of God . . . but . . . the body is determined to existence
and action by causes. . . . The duration, therefore, of our
body depends upon the common order of nature and the
constitution of things." 3 The dependence of duration upon
actually existing things is clearly expressed in the following
passage: "Before creation no time and duration can be
imagined by us. ... Hence duration presupposes that things
either have been created before it or at least exist with it." 4
It may be recalled that Plotinus gives as one of the character-
istics of his indefinite time or duration that it is "a continuity
of energy." 5 " Energy " may mean there " actuality " as well
as " activity."
By the same token, the introduction by Spinoza of the
qualifying term "created" in the expression "of the existence
of created things" had a certain definite purpose. Indeed
Suarez uses it also in connection with duration. 6 But Spinoza
means by it something different. By the term "created"
Spinoza does not mean here the traditional conception of
1 Ibid.\ "Igitur in universum durare solum tribuitur rei actu existenti, et prout
existens est." Cf. Galitius, op. cit. t Pars I, Lib. IV, Tract. II, Quaest. I, 2: " Du-
ratio est pcrmanentia rei in suo esse actual!, quieto, et perfecto."
2 Cogitata Metaphysica, II, I.
3 Ethics, II, Prop. 30, Demonst. On essence and existence, see also below, p. 383.
4 Cogitata Mttaphysica, II, 10.
5 See above, p. 333.
6 See quotation above, p. 344, n. i.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 351
creation with its inevitable implication of coming into being
in time ex nihilo. What he means by it is that the things
conceived as having duration must have their existence de-
pendent upon a cause, irrespective of the question whether
they had a beginning in time or not. Or, as Spinoza himself
says, duration is to be attributed to things "only in so far as
their essence is to be distinguished from their existence/' '
that is to say, in so far as their existence is not necessary by
their own nature but must be brought about by a cause. If
this is the meaning of Spinoza's statement, we can find a his-
torical background for it. It corresponds to the contention of
Suarez that even if the angels or the heavens were assumed to
have been created by God from eternity, they would still have
duration, inasmuch as they would still have been called created
beings in so far as their existence is conditioned by a cause. 2
Spinoza's definition of duration as an attribute, or mode,
or affection of existence may bring up the question of the
relation of duration to existence. Are they identical, or is
there some difference between them? and if the latter, what
is the difference? To be sure, Spinoza does not raise this
question explicitly. But the question had been raised by
the scholastics, and Spinoza must have been conscious of
it, for some statements in his writings, as we shall try to
show, seem to aim at it. The question as to "how duration
is related to existence," as stated by Suarez, reads: "whether
it is something distinct from the thing itself, or whether it is
completely identical with it." 3 Three views are reported.
1 Cogitata Metaphysica, II, I. Cf. use of "created" below, p. 383, n. 5.
3 Op. cit., Disp. L, Sec. Ill, v: "Unde si Deus creasset angelum, ut coelum ab
aeterno, non esset in eo durationis principium, et nihilominus duratio eius creata
esset, et essentialiter differens ab aeternitate."
* Op. tit., Disp. L, Sec. I, i: "Hinc ergo nascitur difficultas, quomodo duratio
ad existentiam comparetur; an scilicet, sit aliquid distinctum ab ipsa re, aut prorsus
idem sit." Cf. Galitius, op. cit., Pars I, Lib. IV, Tract. II,Quaest. II: "An duratio
realiter differat ab existentia?"
352 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
According to some, duration and existence differ from each
other in re and realiter, that is to say, they are separable
and each of them can be conceived without the other. 1
Others, as Bonaventura, Banez, and other Thomists, con-
sider the difference between them as a modal difference, like
that which exists between a substance and a mode or be-
tween two modes. 2 Suarez, Scotus, Occam, and Biel, how-
ever, consider duration and existence as being inseparable
though distinct from each other, the distinction between
them being one of reason. 3 Similarly Descartes, after dis-
cussing the three kinds of distinction, the real, the modal,
and that of reason (ratione), the last of which he defines as
that "between substance and some one of its attributes
without which it is not possible that we should have a
distinct knowledge of it,'* 4 concludes that "because there is
no substance which does not cease to exist when it ceases to
endure, duration is only distinct from substance by reason." 5
Evidently drawing upon these discussions, Spinoza likewise
says: "From which it clearly follows that duration is dis-
tinguished from the whole existence of a thing only by reason.
For, however much duration you take away from any thing,
so much of its existence you detract from it." 6
In the light of this statement, when Spinoza chose to
define duration as an "attribute" of existence, he used the
term attribute in the strictly technical sense in which he
defines it in the Ethics^ namely, as a purely subjective aspect
of the thing of which it is used. This is an indirect cor-
roboration of our interpretation of Spinoza's attribute as
something purely subjective.
1 Suarez, op. /., Disp. L, Sec. II.
1 Cf. Leon Mahieu, Francois Suarez, pp. 372 f.; Galitius, he. cit.
3 Cf. Le"on Mahieu, pp. 373 f.
4 Principia Philosophiae, I, 60 and 62.
s Ibid., I, 62. 6 Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 4.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 353
In the passage just quoted, Spinoza, as will have been
noticed, uses the expression "the whole existence of a thing"
when he wishes to prove that duration differs from existence
only by reason. The expression "the whole of existence"
implies, of course, that there may be a part of existence and
hence a part of duration. This leads Spinoza in the passage
quoted to introduce his definition of time. It is possible, he
says, to take off a certain portion of the duration of a thing.
But "in order to determine this we compare it with the
duration of those things which have a fixed and determinate
motion, and this comparison is called time." * Or as he says
in another place: "No one doubts, too, that we imagine
time because we imagine some bodies to move with a velocity
less, or greater than, or equal to that of others." 2 Here then
we have a definition of time in terms of duration the like of
which we have already met in Plotinus, in the Arabic Ihwan
al-afa, in the Jewish Crescas, and in many scholastics.
Spinoza's contemporary Locke, as we have seen, restates it.
His immediate source, however, must again have been
Descartes in the following passage: "But in order to com-
prehend the duration of all things under the same measure,
we usually compare their duration with the duration of the
greatest and most regular motions, which are those that
create years and days, and these we term time." 3
Essentially, thus, time and duration, according to Spinoza,
are the same. Time is not a new attribute of things, it is
not different from the attribute of duration, nor does it add
anything to duration. It is only a definite portion of dura-
tion measured by motion. Thus Descartes: "Hence this
[time] adds nothing to the notion of duration, generally
taken, but a mode of thinking." 4 And so also Spinoza:
1 Ibid. * Ethics, II, Prop. 44, Schol.
3 Principia Philosophiae, I, 57. 4 Ibid.
354 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
" Therefore, time is not an affection of things but only a mode
of thought or, as we have said, a being of reason; it is a mode
of thought serving to explain duration/' l
Thus duration is a mode of existence, and time is a mode
of duration. It is analogous to the successive relations be-
tween time, motion, and body in Aristotle. Motion, accord-
ing to the mediaeval Aristotelian phraseology, is an accident
of body and time is an accident of motion. 2 Substitute the
terms duration and existence respectively for motion and
body and the term mode for accident and you get a perfect
analogy.
The upshot of all this discussion is this. Everything which
may be conceived of as existing or as not existing, depending
upon some cause for its existence, has existence superadded
to its essence. Such a thing is called by Spinoza a created
thing. Now, existence of a thing merely means the fact that
the concept which we form in our mind of a thing has an
object outside our mind to correspond to it. The concept is
the essence of the thing; the outside reality is the existence
of the thing. Now the mind in which the concept is formed
does not create the existence. The existence is given. But
when the mind comprehends that given existence, it compre-
hends it as something enduring, as something persevering
in its actuality, and it cannot perceive it otherwise. Exist-
ence does not appear to the mind as a point, but as some
sort of extension. This conception of the mind of the ex-
ternal existing object as something persevering in its own
actuality, or, in other words, this attribute under which we
conceive existence, is that which is called duration. Duration
thus refers only to things which have existence, and then only
to the existence of such things and not to their essence. "It
1 Cogitata MttapJtysica, I, 4.
Moreh Nfbukim, II, 13, First Theory.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 355
should be noted under duration, as it will be of use when
below we are discussing eternity, that it is conceived as
greater and less and as if it were composed of parts, and then
only as an attribute of existence and not of essence/' r Note
the expression "as if it were composed of parts/* for duration
according to Spinoza is a continuous quantity and does not
consist of discrete parts such as moments. 2 Or, again,
Spinoza speaks of duration as " existence considered in the
abstract, as if it were a certain kind of quantity." 3
If we were now to compare Spinoza's and Aristotle's
conceptions of time with respect to the problem of their
subjectivity and objectivity, we should find that there is
little difference. Both assume time to be partly real and
partly ideal. In so far as Aristotle's motion and Spinoza's
existence are outside the mind, the former's time and the
latter's duration are real. In so far as the measure of time
of Aristotle and the duration of Spinoza are conceptions of
the mind, they are both ideal. In fact the same dual nature
of time we shall find throughout the mediaeval definitions,
despite the controversies among their various proponents
on that point. None of the mediaevals believed in the abso-
lute ideality of time. Not even Augustine went as far as that.
The only place where we find a conception of absolutely
ideal time is where time can be conceived to exist in a mind
which has existence without a body and without a physical
world to draw its thoughts from, such as God and Plotinus'
universal soul. Of such a nature is the time of Plotinus,
the time of Crescas, in its existence prior to the creation of
the world, the imagination of time of Maimonides, and the
absolute time of Albo.
1 Cogitata Metaphysiea, I, 4.
1 Epistola 12.
* Ethics, II, Prop. 45, Schol.
356 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Exactly the same definitions of duration and time which
have been found in the Cogitata Metaphysica are to be found
in Spinoza's letter to Meyer. 1 Using there the term " modes "
as the equivalent of the expression " created things" in the
Cogitata Metaphysica, meaning thereby something whose es-
sence does not necessarily involve existence, he says that
duration is that by means of which " we can only explain
the existence of modes." He then goes on to say that from
the fact that we can determine duration, there arises time
for the purpose of determining duration, concluding that
time is merely a mode " of thinking or, rather, of imagining." 2
The additional phrase "or, rather, of imagining" is of no
special significance here. It is probably nothing but a reminis-
cent expression of Hobbes' statement that "time is a phan-
tasm of motion." 3 Hobbes himself meant by phantasm not
"imagination" as opposed to "thought," but rather imagi-
nation in the general sense of not being "the accident or
affection of any body" and of not being "in the things with-
out us, but only in the thought of the mind." 4 This is exactly
what Spinoza meant by suggesting "imagining" as an alter-
native for "thinking." It is not impossible, too, that the
use of the term "imagining" by Spinoza is a faint reminis-
cence of the Platonic and Plotinian saying that time is the
"image" of eternity.
Duration is thus assumed by Spinoza to have two char-
acteristics. First, the existence of an object which is said
to be conceived under the attribute of duration must be only
a possible existence, depending upon God as its efficient
cause, 5 which he describes in the Cogitata Metaphysica by
the term "created things" and in his letter to Meyer by the
1 Fpistola 12.
* Ibid. (Opera, IV, p. 57, 11. 7-8): "cogitandi, scu potius imaginandi Modos."
3 Element a Philosophiae, Pars II, Cap. VII, 3.
Ibid. s See below, Vol. II, pp. 80 ff.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 357
term "mode." This differentiates duration from eternity,
which we shall discuss later. Second, duration is to be con-
ceived as unlimited, unmeasured, and undetermined. This
differentiates duration from time. These two characteristics
of duration are contained in the term "indefinite" which
Spinoza uses in his definition of duration in the Ethics.
"Duration," he says, "is the indefinite continuation of ex-
istence." r Note incidentally his use of the term "continua-
tion," which, as will be recalled, like the terms "permanence"
and "perseverance," is used by the scholastics in their
definition of duration. In the explanation to this definition
in the Ethics Spinoza, it seems to me, is trying to bring out
the double meaning of the term "indefinite" as correspond-
ing to the two characteristics of duration. In so far as dura-
tion applies to existence which is not necessary by its own
nature, Spinoza says, "I call it indefinite because it cannot
be determined by the nature itself of the existing thing."
In so far as duration is unlimited and unmeasured and is, as
we have seen above, "the whole existence of a thing" and
not merely a portion of it, Spinoza says that he calls it in-
definite "because it cannot be determined ... by the effi-
cient cause, which necessarily posits the existence of the thing
but does not take it away." By the "efficient cause" he
means here God, who is described by him as " the efficient
cause of all things which can fall under the infinite intel-
lect." 3 The implication of the statement here that if dura-
tion were not indefinite God would have been taking away
(tollit) the existence of the thing can be explained by the
statement in the Cogitata Metaphysica that "however much
of duration you take away (detrahis), so much of its existence
do you take away from it." *
1 Ethics, II, Def. 5. J Ethics, I, Prop. 16, Corol. i.
* Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 4.
358 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Time, as we have seen, does not differ essentially from
duration; it is only a limited portion of duration. Spinoza
thus sometimes speaks of duration as "indefinite time"
(tempus indefinitutri), and contrasts it with "finite time"
(tempus finitum), "limited time" (tempus limitatum) y and
"definite time" (tempus definitum). 1 And, vice versa, he
speaks also of time as "determinate duration " (duratio
determinata)? It is for this reason that Spinoza sometimes
speaks of "duration or time" 3 as if the two terms meant
to him the same thing. In this indeed Spinoza is really
reverting to Plotinus' use of the term time and also to those
Jewish philosophers who used the term time for that motion-
free time which, as we have been trying to show, is known
in scholasticism under the name of duration.
III. ETERNITY
The term eternity started on its career in the history of
philosophy with two meanings. Like the twofold meanings
with which so many of our other philosophic terms have
started their historical careers, they may be designated
the Platonic and the Aristotelian. Briefly stated, the differ-
ence between these two meanings is as follows. To Plato
eternity is the antithesis of time and it means the exclusion
of any kind of temporal relations. To Aristotle eternity is
only endless time. The question before us is, how did it hap-
pen that eternity, which prior to Plato, for all we know, had
meant simply endless time, came to mean with Plato the
exclusion of time?
The answer to this question seems to be that the term
eternity has acquired its new meaning in Plato from the
nature of the eternal beings to which it was exclusively ap-
1 Ethics, III, Prop. 8 and Dcmonst. " Ethics, I, Prop. 21, Demonst.
J Ethics, I, Def. 8.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 359
plied by him. Beginning as an adjective of those eternal
beings, designating only one of their characteristics, namely,
that of ceaseless existence, it came to be used, as it so often
happens with terms, as a surrogate for those beings. Those
"eternal beings" became simply "the eternals" by the same
process that "port wine' 1 became simply "port." The ad-
jective eternal thus became with Plato a substantive, the
eternals. In this capacity of a substantive, the term eternal
was used by Plato not only in the sense of ceaseless exist-
ence but as inclusive of all the other properties which char-
acterized those beings for which the term eternal substituted.
The new and enlarged concept formed out of the term eter-
nity as a surrogate became in fact a sort of epitome of all the
characteristics by which the ceaseless existing beings were
differentiated from the other kinds of beings. In other
words, it epitomized to Plato all the essential differences be-
tween his world of ideas and his world of sense.
This process of investing the term eternity with all the
connotations of the eternal beings to which it happened to
be exclusively applied went on, as we shall try to show,
throughout the history of philosophy, and it is the tracing of
this process that constitutes the history of the term.
To Plato the differences between the world of ideas and
the world of sense may be summed up, for our present pur-
pose, under two headings. In the first place, the world of
ideas is beginningless, whereas the world of sense had a be-
ginning in an act of creation. In the second place, the world
of ideas is immovable, immutable, and indivisible, whereas
the world of sense is subject to motion, change, and division.
The ideas, therefore, which alone in the opinion of Plato were
eternal in the original sense of beginningless became the
Eternals, and the term eternity, because of its exclusive ap-
plication to the ideas, came to include in its meaning all the
360 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
other characteristics of the ideas. Eternity thus came to
stand in Plato for permanence, unity, immutability, identity,
and indivisibility. It was no longer infinite time, but rather
freedom from any sort of temporal relations, for time to
Plato, as later to Aristotle, was connected with motion. The
relation of time to eternity was conceived by him as that of
the world of sense to the world of ideas. Time was thus
described by him as the moving image of eternity. 1
To Aristotle, however, there was more than one kind of
beginningless being. The universe as a whole, the celestial
spheres, motion, the immaterial Intelligences, and the Im-
movable Mover were all eternal in the sense of having no
beginning and no end. Eternity, therefore, had with him as
many meanings as the number of beings to which it was ap-
plied. When applied to the universe or to the movable
spheres, eternity meant nothing but infinite time, and this
was inseparable from motion. For while indeed, argues
Aristotle, the object which has infinite motion cannot truly
be described as being in time, which in the strict technical
sense of the term means to be comprehended by time and
transcended by it, it is still described by him as being in
time in the less technical sense of being with time, that is to
say, of being when time is. 2 When, however, eternity is ap-
plied to immovable beings, as God or the Intelligence, it of
necessity means a negation of temporal relation, for there
can be no time when there is no motion. While Aristotle
himself does not say anything on this subject beyond the
statements that the universe, circular motion, the spheres,
and God are all eternal, this inference is certainly to be
derived from his statements.'
s, 37 D. a Physics, IV, 12, 22ia, 9-11.
* Cf. my Crejcas' Critique of Aristotle , pp. 287, 646, n. 21. Cf. also Aristotle's
discussion of the meaning of a.i&v in Df Caelo, I, 9, 2793, 22-33.
DBF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 361
To Plotinus as to Aristotle there is more than one kind of
being which has a beginningless existence, for the process
of emanation is continuous and therefore the sphere is as
eternal, in the sense of having no beginning, as the universal
soul, as the intelligible world, as the Intelligence, and as the
One or God. But unlike Aristotle he does not apply the
term eternity to all of these types of being. Rather like
Plato he applies it exclusively to what in his system corres-
ponds to the world of ideas in the system of Plato, to the
intelligible world, to the Intelligence and the One. Eternity
according to him is identical with God. 1 It is the life of the
Intelligence. It is "life consisting in rest, identity, uniform-
ity, and infinity/* 2 The universal soul, however, has no
eternity but time, or, as we have preferred to call it, indefi-
nite time or duration, whereas the sphere and everything that
is moved with it and through it has definite time. Though
time is endless to Plotinus, still it is not eternity, for eternity,
as in Plato, is essentially of a different nature than time and
is an exclusion of any kind of temporal relation.
Among Jewish and Arabic philosophers, the Aristotelian
and Plotinian Intelligences as well as the Plotinian universal
soul became the Intelligences, the number of which were
determined by the number of the celestial spheres and which
were identified with the angels of the Bible and functioned
as the cause of the motion of the celestial spheres. 3 But
with their rejection of the Plotinian emanation and their
acceptance in its place of the theory of creation, God be-
came the only being who had endless existence and thereby
He also became the exclusive possessor of the attribute of
eternity. Eternity could then have been used by them as a
1 Enneads, III, vii, 4 (cd. Creuzer ct Moser, Paris, 1855).
-' Ibid., 10 (p. 177, 11. 34-35).
Cf. above, p. 218.
362 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
surrogate to God and as an epitome of all His attributes.
Still the problem of creation was for them a vital subject of
discussion and in the course of that discussion they had to
deal with Aristotle's theory of the eternity of the world and
of motion, and this called for the use of the term eternal in
its Aristotelian sense of infinite time. Thus the term eternity
had to be used by them both with reference to God and with
reference to other beings which were supposed by Aristotle
to be of endless existence. The result was that the term
eternity had for them two meanings, again the Platonic
and the Aristotelian. On the one hand, it meant the exclu-
sion of time; on the other, it meant infinite time. Owing to
this double meaning of the term, Jewish philosophers always
took great pains to explain that when eternity is applied to
God it does not mean infinite time but rather freedom from
temporal relations.
We may illustrate this generalization by a brief analysis
of the discussion of the attribute of eternity which occurs
in the writings of some of the leading Jewish philosophers.
It usually takes the form of an explanation of the terms
"first" and "last," the use of which is the Biblical way of
expressing the eternity of God, 1 that is to say, eternity a pane
ante and a parte post. In their explanation of these Biblical
terms, Jewish philosophers endeavor to emphasize that these
two terms should not be taken literally to mean beginningless
and endless time but should be taken rather as implying
God's exclusion from any kind of temporal relation.
Both Bahya and Maimonides insist upon this point and
suggest that the term "first" should be taken as a negation
either of God's having anything prior to Him, as Bahya
expresses himself, 2 or of His having been created, as Mai-
1 Cf. Isaiah 44, 6. a Robot ha-Lcbabot, I, 6.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 363
monides puts it. 1 Similarly, Judah ha-Levi speaks of God as
transcending all relations of time and explains the terms
" first " and "last" not as affirmations of literal priority and
posteriority but rather as negations of God's having been
preceded by anything and of His ever coming to an end. 2
A most interesting passage for our purpose is that of Abra-
ham Ibn Daud where eternity is directly identified with
immovability and immutability. "When we ascribe to God
the attribute 'eternal/ we only mean thereby that He was
immovable, that He is immovable, and that He will be im-
movable. You already know that by motion we mean change
from one state to another." 3 Crescas, though on account of
his defining time as duration independent of motion he has
no objection to the use of divine attributes which imply dura-
tion, 4 follows Maimonides in interpreting the term "first" in
the sense of being "uncreated." s
The most interesting passage for our purpose, however, is
that of Albo. "First" and "last," he says, mean absolute
independence of any temporal relations. 6 Albo, as we have
already seen, distinguishes between two kinds of time: one,
absolute time or duration, which is infinite, and the other,
definite time, which is finite. Eternity as applied to God,
according to him, excludes duration as well as definite time. 7
The reason given by him why God alone of all beings is de-
scribed as eternal is that God alone of all beings has neces-
sary existence by virtue of His own nature, whereas all other
beings have only possible existence by their own nature. 8
1 March Nebukim, I, 57. a Cuzari, II, 1.
3 Emunah Ramah, II, iii (pp. 54-55).
Or Adonai^ I, iii, 3 (p. 236). Cf. my "Crescas on the Problem of Divine
Attributes" in the Jewish Quarterly Review^ New Series, VII (1916), pp. 181-182.
5 Or Adonai, I, iii, 3 (p. 24b). Cf. my "Crescas on the Problem of Divine Attri-
butes," p. 207, n. in. 6 '/0rfV0, II, 18.
' Ibid. 8 Ibid.
364 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Or to put it in other words, eternity is applied to God, ac-
cording to Albo, because in God essence and existence are
identical. 1 Eternity is, therefore, defined by Albo as iden-
tity, uniformity, and immutability, 2 terms which remind us
of those used by Plotinus as well as Plato in his characteriza-
tion of eternity.
The use of eternity as a description of necessary existence
per se y i.e., of the identity of essence and existence, may be
also found in Altabrizi. Among the four definitions of time
which he adduces there is one which reads that " time exists
in itself, is neither a body nor anything belonging to a body,
but is something which has necessary existence by virtue of
itself." 3 I have suggested elsewhere that the last statement
was taken from the Plotinian definition of eternity and was
misapplied by Altabrizi to time. 4
In exactly the same sense is the term eternity used in
mediaeval Latin philosophic texts. It is applied exclusively
to God and it is defined as the exclusion from any temporal
relations. If other beings are assumed to have an endless
existence, they are not described as eternal but by some
other term. If the same term eternal is applied also to other
beings, then the term when applied to God is said to have
a special meaning. In either way, eternal as applied to God
means more than the mere negation of beginning and end.
It means immovability and necessity of existence.
The contrast between eternity and time as that between
permanence and motion is suggested by Augustine when he
speaks of eternity as the "ever-fixed" (semper stantis) and
of time as the "never-fixed" (numquam stantis] , s or when
he says that "time does not exist without some kind of
1 Ibid. * ibid.
3 Altabrizi, Commentary on Maimonides* Twenty-five Propositions, Prop. 15.
Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle , p. 662, n. 29.
5 Confessions y XI, n.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 365
change caused by motion, while in eternity there is no
change." * Boethius expresses the distinction between eter-
nity and infinite time in the following statement: "Philoso-
phers say that ever (semper) may be applied to the life of the
heavens and other immortal bodies. But as applied to God
it has a different meaning/' 2 Though the world, according
to Aristotle, "never began nor were ever to end, and its
life did endure with infinite time, yet it is not such that it
ought to be called eternal/' 3 In order not to confuse eternity
with infinite time he suggests two different terms for them.
"Wherefore, if we will give things their right names, follow-
ing Plato, let us say that God is eternal and the world
perpetual." 4
The views of Augustine and Boethius are re-echoed
throughout the history of mediaeval philosophic writers.
Eternity and time are considered to be of essentially different
natures, and in order to take care of the duration of beings
which can be described by neither eternity nor time, the
term aevum is generally used. A list of scholastic views on
eternity is given by Suarez. 5 But for our present purpose
Suarez' own view on eternity is of significance, for, like Albo,
he identifies it with necessary existence per se. He argues
that eternity is not only a negation of God's having been
created, or of His having a beginning and end, or of His
being subject to motion and change, but that it has a positive
meaning in so far as it expresses the necessity of the existence
of God by His own essence, i.e., the identity of His essence
and existence. 6
1 DC Civitatc Dei, XI, 6.
2 De frinitatey IV, ed. Stewart and Rand, pp. 20-21.
3 Consolatio Philosophiae, V, 6, ed. Stewart and Rand, pp. 400-401.
* Ibid., pp. 402-403.
5 Disputationes Metaphysicac, Disp. L, Sec. III.
6 Ibid., Disp. L, Sec. Ill, x.
366 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
A similar definition also occurs in Abraham Herrera's
cabalistic work Puerto, del Cielo. The author quotes Plato,
Plotinus, Boethius, Torquato Tasso, and Ficino on the mean-
ing of eternity. He himself defines it as his contemporary
Suarez and as Albo do, as meaning existence which is neces-
sary by its own nature, or the identity of essence and exist-
ence, for, as he says, " every essence that is necessary and
per se is eternal/' 1
Whatever sources Spinoza had consulted about eternity he
must have received the following general impression. Eter-
nity as applied to God does not mean merely endless time.
It is used as an epitome of the main distinguishing character-
istics by which God is differentiated from other beings.
These distinguishing characteristics are summed up under
two headings, both going back to Aristotle. First, God is
immovable, whereas everything else is movable, and hence
eternity is said to mean immovability, immutability, per-
manence, indivisibility, and all the other negations that go
with it. Second, God has necessary existence, whereas other
beings have only possible existence. Accordingly eternity
is also said to mean, as in Albo, Suarez, and Herrera, the
necessary existence of God or, which is the same thing, the
identity of essence and existence in Him. Following these
traditional views on eternity, Spinoza gives his own defini-
tion of the term.
To begin with, eternity is not merely beginningless and
endless time or duration. "It cannot therefore be explained
by duration and time, even if duration be conceived without
beginning or end/' 2 Indeed, in common speech, we speak
of the eternity of the world when we mean its eternal dura-
tion in time, but this is an erroneous use of the term. It is
1 Sha'ar ha-Shamayim y III, 4.
* Ethics, I, Def. 8, Expl.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 367
only because of a defective terminology that "we say that
the world has existed from eternity." * As we have seen,
Boethius has already tried to remedy this defect by intro-
ducing the use of the term perpetual. An equally defective
use of the term eternity, says Spinoza, is when it is used with
reference to things which do not exist, as when we say "that
the essence of things is eternal, although we do not think of
the things as ever existing." 2 The reference in this passage
is undoubtedly to the use of the term eternal with reference
to the axiomatic truths which exist only as concepts of the
mind, as, for instance, in the expression "eternal truths"
used by Descartes. The particular Cartesian passage which
Spinoza had in mind is probably the following: "When we
apprehend that it is impossible that anything can be formed
of nothing, the proposition ex nihilo nihilfit is not to be con-
sidered as an existing thing, or the mode of a thing, but as a
certain eternal truth which has its seat in our mind, and is
a common notion or axiom." 3
Thus eternity, like duration and time, refers only to things
which exist, or, as Spinoza would call them, real beings. But
inasmuch as real beings are divided, according to Spinoza,
into those "whose essence involves existence," i.e., God or
Substance, and those "whose essence involves only a pos-
sible existence," 4 eternity, says Spinoza, applies only to the
first kind of real being. Accordingly Spinoza reverts to a
definition of eternity the like of which we have found in
Albo, Suarez, and Herrera. Now, in Spinoza's terminology
the expression essence involving existence has the same mean-
ing as causa sui or being causeless or infinite infinite in the
sense of undetermined by a cause. 5 Hence Spinoza defines
eternity as an "attribute under which we conceive the in-
1 Cogitata Mctaphysica, II, I. 2 Ibid. 3 Principia Philosophiae, I, 49.
Cogitata Mctaphysica, I, i. 5 Cf. above, pp. 127, 138.
368 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA CETHICS, i
finite existence of God." ' " Infinite " is used here in the
sense of causeless, in contrast to "created," which, as we have
seen, is used by him in his definition of duration in the sense
of "caused/* 2 Similarly in a letter to Meyer he says that
eternity is the only term which explains the existence of
substance, and hence it means "the infinite enjoyment of
existence, or (in awkward Latin) essendi." 3 Here, too, by in-
finite existence he means existence undetermined by a cause.
The expression existendi or essendi Jruitio undoubtedly re-
flects the expression plentitudo essendi which is used by
Suarez in his definition of eternity. * The same implication
is also to be found in his formal definition of eternity in the
Ethics, which reads as follows: "By eternity I understand
existence itself (ipsarn existentiarri), so far as it is conceived
necessarily to follow from the definition alone of the eternal
thing." 5 I take the ipsam in ipsam existentiam not only as
a reflexive and emphatic pronoun but in the sense of existen-
tiam per se or per essentiam, the equivalent of the expression
ipsius esse per essentiam which occurs in Suarez' definition
of eternity. 6
The existence of God to which alone, then, eternity ap-
plies differs from the existence of all other beings, according
to Spinoza, not only in that it is identical with His essence
but also in that it is known and demonstrated in a different
manner from that of the existence of other beings. There
are three ways in which the existence of a thing may be
known, according to Spinoza: the way of perception, the
1 Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 4. 2 Cf. above, p. 351.
J Epistola 12: "hoc est, infinitam existendi, sive, invita latinitate, essendi
fruitionem."
< Suarez, Disputationes Mctaphysicae y Disp. L, Sec. Ill, x: "Estenim aeternitas
duratio ipsius esse per essentiam: unde sicut ille esse est ipsa plentitudo essendi,
ita aeternitas est (ut ita dicam) ipsa plentitudo durandi."
s Ethics, I, Def. 8.
6 Cf. quotation in note 4 above.
DEF. 8] DURATION, TIME, AND ETERNITY 369
way of reason, and the way of intuition his well-known
three stages of knowledge. Now, in the case of all other
beings, their existence is known by the first two kinds of
knowledge, either by direct perception or by indirect proof
a posteriori. The existence of eternal truths, the axioms and
common notions, are perceived directly as intuitions, or what
Descartes would call innate ideas. 1 Spinoza thus says: " By
eternity I understand existence itself, so far as it is conceived
necessarily to follow from the definition alone of the eternal
thing, for such existence, like the essence of the thing, is
conceived as an eternal truth." 2 The comparison with
eternal truths is meant to bring out the fact that the exist-
ence of God which is identical with His essence is intuitively
known as the essence of the eternal truths. But there is a
difference between the eternal God and the eternal truths.
In the eternal God there are both essence and existence,
though the two are identical. In the eternal truths there is
only essence; there is no existence in them. 3
In Albo's discussion of the eternity of God, we have seen,
not only time but also duration is excluded as an admissible
attribute of God. In scholastic philosophy, however, the
admissibility of duration as a fitting attribute of God was a
mooted point. Suarez quotes Aureolus as being opposed to
the attribution of duration to God. He himself is in favor
of it. 4 Spinoza likewise raises the question in Cogitata Meta-
physica^ II, I, and like Albo and Aureolus he denies the appli-
cability of duration to God. The passage in which the dis-
cussion is contained, however, seems to refer to certain defi-
nite texts which at the present writing I am unable to
identify.
' Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. 155 ff. ' Ethics, I, Def. 8, and Expl.
3 Cf. above, p. 367, notes 1 and 3.
* Suarez, op. cit. t Disp. L, Sec. Ill, n.
CHAPTER XI
MODES
PROPOSITIONS XIX to XXXVI, despite their external ap-
pearance of disjointedness and incongruity, have in reality,
like all the other groups of propositions we have already
treated, a logical order of sequence. They fall into six groups,
dealing with the following topics: I. Eternity of God (Props.
XIX-XX). II. Infinite and Eternal Modes (Props. XXI-
XXIII). III. The Nature of Modes in General (Props.
XXIV-XXVII). IV. Finite Modes (Props. XXVIII-
XXIX). V. Intellect, Will, and Power (Props. XXX-
XXXV). VI. Purposelessness (Prop. XXXVI and Appen-
dix). All these six topics may be subsumed under one
general topic which, like that of the preceding group of
propositions (Props. XV- XVIII), is the causality of God,
Propositions XIX-XXIX dealing with the effects of God's
causality, that is to say, modes, and Propositions XXX-
XXXVI and Appendix dealing with the necessary and pur-
poseless nature of God's causality. Furthermore, not only
are the propositions under each of these topics logically co-
herent in themselves, but there is also a logical transition
from one topic to another.
The subject of Propositions XIX-XXIX is the description
of the modal system of the universe. Having already dealt
with the nature of God and His attributes, His existence and
His causality, Spinoza now undertakes to present a complete
and systematic view of his conception of the modes. If we
may use here Spinoza's own expressions which we have
already discussed previously but which in the Ethics are not
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 371
introduced by Spinoza until later in the course of the propo-
sitions under consideration, we may say that the Ethics so
far has dealt with natura naturans\ from now on it will deal
with natura naturata. In our chapter on Extension and
Thought we have already discussed quite fully Spinoza's
system of modes as they are treated by him in his writings
outside the Ethics. That chapter may serve us now as a
general introduction to the subject. In this chapter we shall
draw upon it only in so far as it will be necessary for us to
explain the order and the meaning of the propositions before
us, but we shall give fuller consideration to those phases
of the problem which appear for the first time in these
propositions.
To describe the modal system of the universe or, in simpler
language, the world as it is seen, perceived, and thought
of by us, the most natural method for Spinoza would have
been to start with that which we ordinarily think of as directly
known to us, namely, individual things, and work up gradu-
ally to that which we ordinarily think of as known to us only
indirectly. He could have done so without the sacrifice of
the use of his own terminology. He could have started with
an enumeration and classification of individual things or
finite modes and then reduced them to two classes, extended
things and thinking things. He could have then considered
the totality of these individual things as constituting the
infinite physical universe and called it by his own expression
" the face of the whole universe " and described it in his own
way as a mediate infinite and eternal mode. He could have
then explained the behavior of the finite modes within the
totality of the universe on the basis of two principles, motion-
and-rest, on the one hand, and understanding, on the other,
and described these again in his own way as immediate in-
finite and eternal modes. Then he could have gone further
372 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
and shown how these two activities are the expressions of
two aspects of a single self-subsistent whole transcending the
aggregate totality of the individual modes and called that
transcendent whole substance and the two aspects, of which
motion-and-rest and understanding are expressions, the
attributes of extension and thought. To have done so
Spinoza would have followed the a posteriori method used by
Aristotle and by his adherents in the Middle Ages. But
Spinoza considered himself bound by the self-imposed a
priori reasoning of his geometrical method. Substance is
more immediately known to us, according to him, than the
individual things, and the source of knowledge by which it
is known to us is the most reliable. From the definition of
substance the nature of the entire universe follows by neces-
sity as the properties of a triangle follow from the definition
of a triangle. Spinoza, therefore, preferred to start with
substance or God and to work gradually downward to in-
dividual things. Spinoza is reported to have remarked to
Tschirnhaus that while most philosophers begin with crea-
tures he began with God l a remark which, it must be said,
describes only his method of exposition but not necessarily
the manner in which he has arrived at his scheme.
But departing though he did from most philosophers,
Spinoza was not altogether without a model.
His model is the theory of emanation. This theory of
emanation with its initial monism is not only taken by him
as a model for his own system in preference to the dualism
which is implied in the Aristotelian theory of the eternal
co-existence of the universe with God, but, as we have seen
on several occasions, it is also used by him as the main target
1 See K. I. Gerhardt, "Leibniz und Spinoza," in Sitzungsberic hte der koniglich
prcussischcn Akademie der Wissemchajten zu Berlin, 1889, p. 1077. Cf. below,
Vol. II, p. 4.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 373
of his criticism. There are, of course, fundamental differ-
ences between the prototype and the copy, chief among
which is the nature of God, which is pure thought according
to the emanationists but is both thought and extension
according to Spinoza. Barring this fundamental difference
between them, the respective schemes in both systems are
parallel to each other. There is God as the starting point of
both systems. The two immediate infinite and eternal modes
in Spinoza, namely, the absolutely infinite intellect and mo-
tion-and-rest, correspond respectively to the Intelligences and
the circular motion of the spheres in emanation. Spinoza's
"face of the whole universe" corresponds to the outermost
celestial sphere which encloses the totality of the physical
universe according to the emanationists, with the difference
that the former was considered as infinite whereas the latter
was considered as finite. And then, within the universes of
both these systems there are individual things.
Another important element of emanation retained by
Spinoza is its terminology. When choosing his terms care-
fully, he always speaks of things as following (sequi) from the
nature of God or from His attributes. This reflects the terms
"proceeding" 1 and "following by necessity" 2 which are
generally used in Hebrew philosophic literature in connec-
tion with the process of emanation. Even when he uses some
other term, such as that God "acts" (agit) 3 or "to be pro-
duced" (product) by God, 4 it is to be understood in the sense
that it follows by necessity from the nature of God. The
term cause which Spinoza applies to God is likewise to be
understood in the logical and geometrical sense, that is to
1 N2T. Cf. Emunah Ramah, II, iv, 3.
J 3"nrV, fjL. Cf. March Nebukim, II, 22.
a Ethics, I, Prop. 17; IV, Praef.
Ibid., I, Prop. 28, Schol.
374 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETJHCS, i
say, in the sense in which the premise of a syllogism is said
to be the cause of its conclusion and the definition of a
triangle is said to be the cause of its properties. The term
"cause" (causa) to Spinoza means the same as the term
"reason* 1 (ratio), which two terms are sometimes connected
by him by the co-ordinating conjunction "or/' I so that the
causality he affirms of God is not meant to be understood as
implying temporal sequence. 2 In this respect, indeed, his
conception of God's causality corresponds exactly to that
of the emanationists as it is characterized by Maimonides
in the following passage: "It is clear that when Aristotle
says that the first Intelligence necessarily follows from God,
that the second necessarily follows from the first, and the
third from the second ... he does not mean that one thing
was first in existence and then out of it came the second as
a necessary result. ... By the expression 'it necessarily
follows' he merely refers to the causal relation; he means to
say that the first Intelligence is the cause of the existence
of the second, the second of the third, and so on . . .; but
none of these things preceded another, or has been in exist-
ence, according to him, without the existence of that other.
It is as if one should say, for example, that from the primary
qualities there follow by necessity roughness, smoothness,
hardness, softness, porosity, and solidity, in which case no
person would doubt that though ... the secondary quali-
ties follow necessarily from the four primary qualities, it is
impossible that there should exist a body which, having the
primary qualities, should be denuded of the secondary ones." 3
The same idea, it may be added, is reflected in Spinoza's use
1 Ibid., I, Prop, n, Demonst. 2 (Opera, II, p. 52, 1. 31 et pass.}; IV, Praef.
(Opera, II, p. 206, 1. 26).
a Cf. Joachim, A Study of the Ethics of Spinoza, p. 54, n.
3 Moreh Nebukim, II, 21.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 375
of the expression prior in nature l or prior in causality 2 which
he applies to God.
But whatever the differences between his God and the God
of tradition, Spinoza seems to say at the beginning of this
new chapter in the Ethics that his God does not differ from
the traditional God in the matter of eternity. "God is
eternal," or, since God's attributes are nothing but certain
aspects of His essence, "all His attributes are eternal/' 3
Now, eternity in the history of philosophy, as we have shown,
meant three things. In the first place, it meant necessary
existence per se y or the identity of essence and existence. In
the second place, it meant immutability. Then, in the third
place, it meant, at least in Spinoza's assertions that the eter-
nal existence of God is an eternal truth, to be immediately
known as an intuition. 4 In the first two propositions of this
new chapter in the Ethics, therefore, Spinoza reiterates these
three implications of the term eternity. In the first place,
it means necessary existence per se y or the identity of essence
and existence, "for God is substance, which necessarily
exists, that is to say a substance to whose nature it pertains
to exist," 5 and furthermore, "the existence of God and His
essence are one and the same thing." 6 In the second place,
eternity means immutability, hence "it follows that God is
immutable, or (which is the same thing) all His attributes
are immutable." 7 In the third place, the eternal existence
of God may be called an eternal truth in so far as it is immedi-
ately known as an intuition, for "the existence of God, like
His essence, is an eternal truth." 8 It is in this respect only,
1 Ethics, I, Prop. i. Cf. above, p. 77.
2 Ibid., I, Prop. 17, Schol. (Opera, II, p. 63, 1. 7): "prior causalitate."
* Ibid., I, Prop. 19. Cf. above, p. 369.
s Ethics, I, Prop. 19, Demonst.
6 Ibid., I, Prop. 20. ^ Ibid., Corel. 2.
8 Ibid., I, Prop. 19, Schol.; Prop. 20, Corol. I.
376 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
and not in respect of lack of reality, that Spinoza calls the
existence of God an eternal truth. l
Again, preserving the vocabulary of emanation, Spinoza
speaks of his modes as things which follow from God. But
inasmuch as unlike the emanationists Spinoza does not take
God to be pure thought but rather as possessing an infinite
number of attributes of which the two known ones are
thought and extension, he does not speak of a single mode
following from God but rather of various modes following
respectively from the various attributes. Still like the emana-
tionists he insists that each mode following from an attribute
must be similar to the attribute from which it follows in
certain essential characteristics. These essential character-
istics he sums up in two terms, eternal and infinite. By the
term eternal in its application to modes, however, he does not
mean eternity in all the three senses which it has in its appli-
cation to God. For one thing, it cannot mean necessary exist-
ence per se or the identity of essence and existence, for the
modes have no necessary existence per se and their existence
is not identical with their essence. For another thing, it
cannot mean the immediate perception of the modes as an
eternal truth, for they are known only through their cause.
" Eternal " in this case means only to be immutable, or to exist
forever, as Spinoza directly expresses himself in Proposition
XXI, or to have indeterminate existence or duration, as he
indirectly expresses himself in the Demonstration of Proposi-
tion XXI where he describes the opposite of it to have "de-
terminate existence or duration/' Similarly by the term
infinite which he applies to this mode he does not mean in-
finity in the sense of causelessness, for the modes have God
as their cause. "Infinite" in this case means to be the most
perfect, the most complete and the greatest of its kind, that
1 Cf. above, pp. 367, 369.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 377
is to say, that which cannot be limited by another thing of
the same nature, or what Spinoza elsewhere describes as the
"infinite in its own kind." x That this is what Spinoza means
by the term infinite as applied to modes may be gathered
from the first part of the Demonstration of Proposition XXI.
It is in the light of these remarks, therefore, that we may
understand the full meaning of Proposition XXI: "All
things which follow from the absolute nature of any attribute
of God must forever exist, and must be in finite ; that is to
say, through that same attribute they are eternal and in-
finite." What he means to say is this: They are eternal only
in the sense of existing forever or of being immutable, and
they are also infinite only in the sense of being unlimited by
another thing of the same attribute.
It is true, of course, that since by eternal and infinite when
applied to the immediate modes Spinoza does not mean the
same as when these terms are applied to God, he could just
as well have said in Proposition XXI that all things which
follow from the absolute nature of any attribute of God
cannot be eternal and infinite. But he chose to phrase his
proposition in positive terms evidently because he wanted
to emphasize the ever-existence and the infinite perfection of
these immediate modes, for it is in these respects that he will
want later to differentiate them from individual things or finite
modes. Another plausible reason for his choosing to phrase the
proposition in positive terms is that by affirming that the modes
are infinite in perfection he indirectly hit at the mediaevals
who contended that " the existence of an infinite effect is im-
possible, for, were it to exist, it would be like its cause." *
The Demonstration of Proposition XXI follows Spinoza's
favorite method of demonstration by proving the impossibil-
1 Ibid., I, Def. 6, Expl. Cf. above, p. 136.
2 Abraham Herrera, Sha'ar ha-Shamayim> V, 12.
378 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
ity of the opposite/ namely, the impossibility " that in some
attribute of God something which \sfinite and has a determi-
nate existence or duration follows from the absolute nature
of that attribute/* For the purpose of his discussion he takes
up the mode of the attribute of thought, which he designates
here by the name of the "idea of God" (idea Dei) but by
which he means the same as by what he describes elsewhere
as the "absolutely infinite intellect," 2 and asks the reader
to observe that the same reasoning is true of the other im-
mediate modes, such, for instance, as motion-and-rest in the
attribute of extension. But note how carefully this demon-
stration is constructed. It falls into two parts, corresponding
to the two terms used in the proposition, namely, infinite
and eternal. In the first part he tries to show that the im-
mediate modes cannot be finite. In the second part he tries
to show that they cannot have a "determinate duration."
The immediate modes which in Proposition XXI Spinoza
has shown to be eternal and infinite are designated by him
n Proposition XXII as the modification (modificatio} by
which attributes are modified, and he tries to show also that
the mediate mode, which he elsewhere designates by the
name of the "face of the whole universe," 3 must likewise
be eternal and infinite, in the particular sense, of course, in
which, as we have seen, he uses these terms with reference to
modes. But instead of the term eternal which we should
expect here he uses now the expression to exist necessarily
(necessario existere), by which, however, he means the same
thing. Evidence that by the expression to exist necessarily
in this proposition he means the same as by the term eternal
in the preceding proposition may be found in the following
passage in the demonstration of the next proposition: "If
1 Cf. above, pp. 97, 183. 2 Cf. above, pp. 238 ff.
* Cf. above, p. 344.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 379
a mode, therefore, be conceived to exist necessarily and to be
infinite, its necessary existence and infinitude must be con-
cluded from some attribute of God or perceived through it,
in so far as it is conceived to express infinitude and necessity
of existence, that is to say, eternity." x In the light of these
remarks, we may now read Proposition XXII: " Whatever
follows from any attribute of God, in so far as it is modified
by a modification which through the same attribute exists
necessarily and infinitely, must also exist necessarily and
infinitely." What he means to say is this: The modes which
follow from the immediate modes must be eternal and in-
finite like the immediate modes themselves. Thus there are
two kinds of eternal and infinite modes, namely, immediate
and mediate.
In our discussion of the preceding two propositions, for
the sake of clearness and in view of the fact that we have
already given a complete discussion of the subject in a pre-
vious chapter, we have used the terms immediate modes and
mediate modes. Spinoza himself, however, has so far used
neither of these terms. In fact, in none of the propositions
proper of the Ethics has he so far used the term mode. He
has always spoken generally of things following from God or
from the nature of any of God's attributes, though the term
affection (ajfectio) in the sense of mode has been used by him
in a proposition. 2 To introduce the term mode and to distin-
guish among modes which are infinite and eternal between
those which are immediate and those which are mediate is the
purpose of Proposition XXIII. In this proposition, dealing
again with the infinite and eternal modes and using again the
term "to exist necessarily" for "eternal," he introduces for
the first time the term "mode": "Every mode which exists
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 23, Demonst.
a Ibid., I, Prop, i; cf. Prop. 4,
Demonst,
380 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
necessarily and infinitely must necessarily follow either from
the absolute nature of some attribute of God, or from some
attribute modified by a modification which exists neces-
sarily and infinitely/' which the Demonstration explains
to mean "either immediately or mediately" and refers in
connection with the former to Proposition XXI and in con-
nection with the latter to Proposition XXII. These two
references make it clear that Proposition XXI deals with
immediate infinite and eternal modes whereas Proposition
XXII deals with mediate infinite and eternal modes.
Thus in these three propositions we have an outline of
Spinoza's theory of infinite and eternal modes and of their
classification into immediate and mediate. But the names of
these modes are not given by him. He mentions here the
name of only one of these immediate infinite and eternal
modes, and this, too, only indirectly, namely, the idea of God
in thought. Another name for this immediate infinite and
eternal mode as well as all the names of the other infinite
and eternal modes is supplied by Spinoza, as we have already
seen, in one of his letters. 1
In our statement that the term eternal when applied to
modes does not mean the same as the term eternal when ap-
plied to God, especially in so far as in the later case the term
means the necessary existence per se or the identity of es-
sence and existence, we have anticipated Propositions
XXIV-XXVII. It is evidently because in the preceding
propositions Spinoza has given no hint of this changed mean-
ing of the term except only, as we have suggested, indirectly
when he speaks in Proposition XXI of existing forever as
an alternative of eternal, or when he speaks in the Demon-
stration of the same proposition of "determinate existence
or duration" as the opposite of eternity, that he now feels
1 Cf. above, p. 216. Cf. pp. 238, 242, 244.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 381
that an explanation of the term eternal as applied to modes
is due. And so immediately after he has completed his out-
line of his theory of the infinite and eternal modes he pro-
ceeds to say that these modes, though called eternal, have
no necessity at all of their own nature but that in every-
thing they are and in everything they do they are to be con-
sidered as having been determined by God as their cause.
Now, the causality of God, it may be recalled, has been
described by Spinoza by seven characteristic terms, among
which he mentions the following three, namely, that God
is (i) an efficient cause, (2) an immanent cause, and (3) a
free cause. 1 As distinguished from God in these three re-
spects the modes are now shown by Spinoza in Proposi-
tions XXIV, XXV, and XXVI to be dependent upon Him
as their efficient cause, their immanent cause, and their
free cause.
In the first place, he says in Proposition XXIV, God is the
efficient cause of the modes. But before we go further with
the proposition, we must point out the relation between
Spinoza's use of the term efficient cause and the use of the
same term by the mediaevals. In Maimonides, for instance,
the term efficient cause means primarily the cause that
brings things into being, and is distinguished by him from
the term formal cause which means the cause that preserves
the existence of things after their having come into being.
God is, however, according to him both the efficient and the
formal cause of the universe, inasmuch as God is both the
cause of the commencement of the existence of things and the
cause of the continuance of the existence of things. Thus ar-
guing against those who maintained that the world could con-
tinue to exist even without God once it had been produced by
God, he says that " they would be right, if God were only the
1 Cf. above, pp. 304 ff.
382 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
efficient cause and if the continuance of the existence of the
produced thing were not dependent upon Him. . . . God,
however, is himself the form of the universe, as we have
already shown, and it is He who causes its continuance and
permanence." x The same idea that God is both the cause of
the creation and the cause of the permanence of the universe
runs throughout scholastic philosophy, though a different
terminology is used. In Thomas Aquinas the cause of the
permanence of the universe is called causa essendi, whereas
the cause of the creation of the universe is called causa
fiendi* In Duns Scotus both these causes, which he calls
causa conservans and causa produc en s respectively, are said to
be subdivisions of the efficient cause. 3 Similarly Descartes
speaks of God not only as the cause of the creation of the
world but also as the cause of its conservation. 4
Reflecting this historical background and using, like Duns
Scotus, the term efficient cause to include both the cause of
creation and the cause of conservation, Spinoza says that
modes are dependent upon God as their efficient cause, for
inasmuch as "the essence of things produced by God does
not involve existence," 5 "God is the cause not only of the
commencement of the existence of things, but also of their
continuance in existence." 6 In the course of his discussion
Spinoza refers to the scholastic expression causa essendi,
mentioned by us before, as a description of the continuance
of the existence of things. Essendi, in the scholastic use of
the term, means existendi, as has been pointed out by Spinoza
himself in a letter to Meyer, 7 and is therefore to be translated
1 Moreh Nebukim, I, 69.
2 Summa ^heologica, Pars I, Quaest. 104, Art. I, Conclusio and ad 2.
3 In Octo Libros Physicorum Aristotelis Quaestiones, Lib. II, Quaest. 8, No. 5.
Mcditationes, III (Oeuvres, VII, p. 49, 11. 12 ff.).
* Ethics, I, Prop. 24. 6 Ibid., Corol.
7 Epistola 12 (Opera, IV, p. 55, 1. 3). Cf. above, p. 108, n. 4, and p. 141, n. 4.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 383
by "existence" rather than by "essence/* though the latter
resembles it more closely etymologically.
In the second place, Spinoza wants to say, the modes are
dependent upon God as their immanent cause. He does not,
however, say so in these very words. What he says reads
that "God is the efficient cause not only of the existence of
things, but also of their essence/* x But we shall try to show
how in Spinoza's mind to say that God is the cause of the
essence of things was the equivalent of saying that God is
the immanent cause of things.
The essence of things in Aristotle and throughout the sub-
sequent history of philosophy meant the concept of things
as it is formed by its definition. Thus the essence of man is
animality and rationality, inasmuch as man is defined as a
rational animal. But animality, which is the genus of man,
is considered by Aristotle as the cause of man, and that kind
of cause, as we have shown, is called an immanent cause in
the sense that the effect resides in it. 2 Consequently, if the
Aristotelian theory of definition is followed, namely, that a
thing is defined by its genus, it may be said that the genus
is the cause of the essence of the species, or, to express it
differently, the essence of the species is dependent upon the
genus as its immanent cause. Now, Spinoza rejects this
Aristotelian theory of definition, "although," he says, "all
the logicians admit this," 3 and sets up in its place a new
theory according to which modes or things "which do not
exist through themselves" 4 or which are "created" 5 are
to be defined "only through the attributes whose modes
they are, and through which, as their genus, they must be
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 25. 3 Cf. above, pp. 323 ff.
3 Short treatise, I, 7, 9.
< Ibid., 10.
s Tractates de Intellects Emendation e , 96 (Opera, II, p. 35, 1. 12). Cf. above,
PP- 35<>-35
384 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
understood/' r or, as he sometimes says, through their
" proximate " 2 or " efficient " 3 cause. According to this
theory, man is not defined as a rational animal but rather
as a combination of the modes of God's attributes of exten-
sion and thought, or, as Spinoza himself says, " the essence of
man consists of certain modifications of the attributes of
God." 4 Still, while Spinoza differs from his predecessors as
to the nature of a definition, he does not differ from them as
to the meaning of the term essence. The essence of a thing
is still to him the concept of a thing attained by what he con-
siders to be the definition of a thing, namely, the attributes
of which the thing is a mode, for "a definition, if it is to be
perfect," he says, "must explain the innermost essence of a
thing." 5 But the attributes are said by Spinoza himself to
be related to the definiendum as its genus and consequently
as its immanent cause. 6 Spinoza is thus enabled to speak of
the attributes or of substance or of God, just as his predeces-
sors speak of the genus, as the cause of the essence of the
definiendum y or, rather, as the immanent cause of the
definiendum. But still, unlike the Aristotelian definition
which merely states what a thing is but does not affirm that
it exists, 7 Spinoza's theory of definition maintains that a
definition affirms what a thing is as well as that it exists, for
"given the definition of a thing, there should be no possibil-
ity of questioning whether it exists." 8 Though he says else-
where that " the essence of things produced by God does not
involve existence," 9 he does not mean that there is a possi-
1 Short Treatise, I, 7, 10.
Tractatus de Intellectus Emendations ', 96 (Opera , II, p. 35, 1. 13).
Epistola 60 (Opera , IV, p. 270, 1. 22).
Ethics, II, Prop. 10, Corol.
Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione, 95 (Opera, II, p. 34, 1. 29).
Cf. above, pp. 324, 328. 7 Cf. above, p. 124.
Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione, 97 (Opera, II, p. 35, 11. 31-32).
9 Ettiics, I, Prop. 24.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 385
bility of questioning whether they exist; he only means that
their existence is not determined by their own nature but by
their cause. Consequently, unlike the genus in the Aristote-
lian definition, the attributes, or substance, or God, or the
proximate or the efficient cause in Spinoza's definition are the
causes of both the existence and the essence of the thing
defined. Hence in wishing to say that the modes are depend-
ent upon God as their efficient cause Spinoza says in Proposi-
tion XXV that "God is the efficient cause not only of the
existence of things, but also of their essence."
In the third place, says Spinoza, modes are dependent
upon God as their only free cause. We already know that
by the term free cause Spinoza means that "which exists
from the necessity of its own nature alone, and is determined
to action by itself alone," J and that when he speaks of God
as being the only free cause 2 he means that God alone
"acts from the laws of His own nature only, and is com-
pelled by no one." 3 The modes, on the other hand, not being
free, are determined in their action by some cause. This
conclusion with regard to modes is summed up by Spinoza
in two statements in Proposition XXVI, first, in a positive
statement, "a thing which has been determined to any
action was necessarily so determined by God," and second,
in a negative statement, "that which has not been thus
determined by God cannot determine itself to action."
Now this proposition, both in its positive and in its nega-
tive statements, would on the whole have been admitted by
the mediaeval Jewish theologians and philosophers. In the
Talmudic literature there occur such sayings as "every-
thing is in the control of God," 4 "everything is foreseen," s
' Ibid., I, Def. 7. * Ibid., I, Prop. 17, Corol. 2.
J Ibid. y I, Prop. 17.
Eerakot 33 b, and parallels.
ty III, 15.
386 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
and " no one on earth bruises his finger, unless it is decreed in
heaven." x In the philosophic literature it is generally main-
tained that everything has a cause which ultimately goes
back to God as the first cause. Thus Judah ha-Levi sums
up the position of Jewish philosophers by saying that what-
ever one may think of freedom of the will, it is generally ad-
mitted that nothing happens which does not come either
directly or indirectly under the decree or determination of
God. 2 Similarly Maimonides maintains "that God is the
efficient cause of the particular events that take place in the
world, just as He is the efficient cause of the universe as a
whole as it now exists." 3 But still, while they would have
admitted both these parts of the proposition, they would
have insisted that man has freedom of the will. The Tal-
mudic statement that "everything is in the control of God"
adds "except the fear of God," 4 and the statement that
"everything is foreseen" adds "yet freedom of choice is
given." s Similarly in the philosophic literature the principle
of freedom of the will is maintained. Now this freedom of the
will, according to its protagonists, does not exclude the om-
niscience and hence the foreknowledge of God. How these
two can be reconciled constitutes the problem of the free-
dom of the will. Various solutions of this problem are offered.
It is sometimes said that while God has foreknowledge of
man's choice it does not determine that choice, for God's
knowledge is not causative. 6 Or it is admitted that God has
no foreknowledge of man's choice, but it is argued that such
a lack of foreknowledge is no defect in God. 7 Sometimes it
is argued that while indeed both the principle of man's
1 Hullin jb. a Cuzari t V, 20.
3 Moreh Nebukim, I, 69. 4 Berakot 3jb.
& Abot> HI, 15.
6 Emunot wf-De'of, IV, 4; Cuzari, V, 20.
7 Emunah Ramah, II, vi, 2 (p. 96).
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 387
freedom and the principle of God's foreknowledge are to be
admitted, there is no contradiction between them, for God's
knowledge is a homonymous term and is absolutely unlike
human knowledge. 1 Now, all these, Spinoza must have
argued in his mind, are a sort of specious reasoning and
special pleading which do not really remove the essential
difficulty. To say that God's knowledge is not causative or
that God has no foreknowledge is to deny God's omnipotence
and omniscience, and to say that God's knowledge is differ-
ent from ours is tantamount to an admission that the prob-
lem is unsolvable. If God's omnipotence and omniscience
are to be maintained, then God must be the cause of every
future event and He must also have foreknowledge of that
event. If despite this it is maintained that man has freedom
of the will, then it means that man can render indeterminate
that which has been determined by God. It is this pointed
argument against the mediaeval position on the freedom of
the human will that Spinoza had in mind when he said in
Proposition XXVII that " a thing which has been determined
by God to any action cannot render itself indeterminate."
Spinoza has thus explained the two sets of infinite and
eternal modes, those which immediately follow from the
attributes of God and those which follow from His attributes
in so far as they are modified already by the immediate
modes. But the world which Spinoza has undertaken to
describe does not consist wholly of infinite and eternal modes.
The modes which come directly under our observation are
what Spinoza calls individual things (res singulares)^ and
these are neither infinite in the perfection of their nature nor
eternal in the duration of their existence. They are rather
imperfect and transient things. Consequently, after having
shown in Proposition XXV that God is the efficient cause not
1 Moreh Nebukim, III, ao.
388 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
only of the existence of the infinite and eternal modes but
also of their essence, he derives therefrom in the Corollary
of the same proposition that "individual things are nothing
but affections or modes of God's attributes, expressing those
attributes in a certain and determinate manner." The impli-
cation of this statement is that God is also the cause of the
existence and of the essence of finite modes. When in the
next proposition he states in a general way that God is the
cause of the action of a thing, he similarly means to assert
that God is the cause of the action of the infinite and eternal
modes as well as of the finite and transient modes. Thus
individual things, like the infinite and eternal modes, follow
from God and are determined by God in their existence,
essence, and action.
But if individual things follow from God, then, since God
is infinite, where does their finiteness come from? It will be
recalled that both in his criticism of the emanationist ex-
planation of the rise of matter out of an immaterial God l
and in his own argument for the infinity and eternity of
the immediate and mediate modes 2 Spinoza insisted upon
strict adherence to the principle of necessary causality,
namely, that the effect must be like the cause, so that cause
and effect are mutually implicative concepts and one can
be known by the other. 3 How then on the basis of this
principle can Spinoza assert that finite things follow from
the infinite God? Spinoza is thus now confronted with the
same problem as the emanationists when these latter found
themselves called upon to explain the rise of matter the
problem which Spinoza thought he had solved for good
when he endowed God with the attribute of extension. The
1 Cf. above, Chapter IV.
Cf. above, pp. 377~378.
3 Ethics, I, Def. 4. Cf. above, p. 90.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 389
problem now returns to him not in the form of how material
things arose from an immaterial cause but rather in the form
of how finite things arose from an infinite cause.
That Spinoza was conscious of this problem is quite evi-
dent. In the Second Dialogue in the Short Treatise he puts
it in the mouth of Erasmus, who asks, if " the effect of the
inner cause cannot perish so long as its cause lasts; . . . how
then can God be the cause of all things, seeing that many
things perish?" The same problem is again stated by him,
not indeed directly in the form of a question but rather
indirectly in the form of a positive statement, in the Demon-
stration of Proposition XXVIII in Ethics ^ I: "That which is
finite and which has a determinate existence could not be
produced by the absolute nature of any attribute of God,
for whatever follows from the absolute nature of any attri-
bute of God is infinite and eternal." In both these places
the same solution for the problem is offered. In the Second
Dialogue of the Short Treatise^ Erasmus, speaking for Spi-
noza, says that "God is really a cause of the effects which
He has produced immediately, without any other condi-
tions except His attributes alone; and that these cannot
perish so long as their cause endures; but that you cannot
call God an inner cause of the effects whose existence does
not depend on Him immediately, but which have come into
being through some other thing, except in so far as their
causes do not operate, and cannot operate, without God,
nor also outside Him, and that for this reason also, since
they are not produced immediately by God, they can perish."
The same explanation is given by Spinoza himself in Short
Treatise, I, 8, where he says that the individual things are
produced by the "general mode," which expression is used
by him there to include both the immediate and mediate
infinite modes, though he mentions there only the immedi-
390 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
ate modes. 1 Similarly in the Scholium to Proposition XXVIII
of Ethics, I, Spinoza maintains that God is the absolutely
proximate cause (causa absolute proximo) of the immediate
infinite modes, that He is only the proximate cause in its
own kind (causa proxima in suo genere) of the mediate in-
finite modes, but that in distinction to these, though not in
the literal sense of the term, He is the remote cause (causa
remota) of the individual things. 2 In addition to all this, he
also says in Proposition XXVIII as follows: "An individual
thing, or a thing which is finite and which has a determinate
existence, cannot exist nor be determined to action unless
it be determined to existence and action by another cause
which is also finite and has a determinate existence, and
again, this cause cannot exist nor be determined to action
unless by another cause which is also finite and determined
to existence and action, and so on ad infinitum" Taking all
these passages together we may restate Spinoza's explana-
tion of the rise of finite things as follows: Finite things fol-
low directly from finite causes. These finite causes are infinite
in number and form an infinite series of causes and effects.
This infinite series of finite causes follows from the mediate
infinite mode. This mediate infinite mode follows from the
immediate infinite modes, which, in their turn, follow
directly from God.
1 Cf. above, pp. 216, 249.
3 From the reading of the opening lines of the Scholium as given in Gebhardt's
edition (Opera, II, p. 70, 11. 2-4; cf. editor's discussion on p. 352), it is clear that
"quaedam a Deo immediate produci debuerunt" (1. 2) refers to the immediate
infinite modes and that "et alia mediantibus his primis" (11. 3-4) refers to the
mediate infinite modes. When, therefore, Spinoza says later "that of things im-
mediately produced by God He is the proximate cause absolutely, and not in their
own kind" (11. 5-7), it may be inferred that of the mediate infinite modes God is
the proximate cause in their own kind. The distinction between these two senses
of proximate cause is found in Heereboord's Mclttcmata Philosophica, Disputationes
ex Philosophia Selectae t Vol. II, Disp. XXII. Cf. also above, p. 308.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 391
The analogy between this explanation of the rise of finite
things in the system of Spinoza and the explanation for the
rise of material things in the system of emanation is quite
complete. Just as the emanationists speak of material things
as " proceeding " or as "following by necessity " from God,
so also Spinoza speaks of finite things as "following" from
God. 1 Just as the emanationists start out with the principle
that "the direct emanation from God must be one simple
Intelligence, and nothing else," 2 so also Spinoza starts out
with the principle that "whatever follows from the absolute
nature of any attribute of God is infinite and eternal." 3
Just as the emanationists account for the rise of material
things by interposing immaterial Intelligences between God
and matter, so also Spinoza accounts for the rise of finite
things by interposing infinite modes between God and finite
modes. Finally, just as the emanationists arrange all the
material things, from the celestial spheres to the lowest of
sublunar existences, in a series of causes and effects, so also
Spinoza arranges all the finite modes in a series of causes
and effects. The only difference between them is that accord-
ing to the emanationists, who follow Aristotle in his denial
of an infinite series of causes and effects, 4 this series is finite,
whereas according to Spinoza, who, by his own statement, 5
admits with Crescas the possibility of an infinite series of
causes and effects, 6 this series is infinite. The gist of both
these explanations is that material things and finite things
which cannot be conceived to follow directly from God can
be conceived to follow indirectly from Him if we only inter-
1 Cf. above, p. 373. a Moreh Nebukim, II, 22.
* Ethics, I, Prop. 28, Demonst.
< Metaphysics, II, I, 993a, 30 ff.
5 Epistola 12. Cf. above, pp. 195 ff.
6 Cf. my Crescas' Critique of Aristotle, pp. 68-69; 225-229; 490, n. 13; 496,
392 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
pose between these material or finite things and God a buffer
of intermediate causes.
But still it is hard to see how a buffer of intermediate
causes can solve the problem. For, truly speaking, any ex-
planation offered in solution of the problem of the rise of
finitude in Spinoza or of the rise of matter in emanation must
not only show that finitude or matter does not come directly
from the infinite or the immaterial cause but it must also
show how either one of these can come at all, seeing that
all things, according to both these systems, must ultimately
be traced to the infinite or the immaterial God as their prime
cause. This is the very reasoning employed by Maimonides
in rejecting necessary emanation, 1 and this is also the very
reasoning by which Spinoza was forced to the conclusion
that God is material. 2 The absence of any attempt on the
part of Spinoza to explain his position on this point, or, as
it may be phrased, the absence of any explicit statement of
a principle of individuation (principium individuationis] in
the philosophy of Spinoza, makes one wonder whether this
failure of his to offer any explanation was not due to the
fact that he did not think it was necessary for him to do so.
He may have felt quite justified in dispensing with such an
explanation for either one of the following two reasons
either because he relied upon his readers to be able to find
among the several solutions evolved in the course of the his-
tory of philosophy by the various monistic systems, in ex-
planation of their common difficulty as to how the many
arose from the one, a solution which would apply to his own
particular problem as to how the finite arose from the infinite,
or because he relied upon them to discover for themselves
some essential difference between his own particular kind of
1 Moreh Ncbukim, II, 12. Cf. above, p. 106.
Cf. above, Chapter IV.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 393
monism and the other kinds of monism by which the former
was rendered immune to the difficulty which required a
special principle of individuation for its solution. We shall,
therefore, first canvass the various solutions of the common
difficulty of monistic systems to see if any of them could be
used by Spinoza, and then, in the event of our failure to
find any solution which could be suitably used by him, we
shall try to see if there is not something about Spinoza's con-
ception of God which disposes of that common difficulty of
monistic systems without any recourse to a special principle
of individuation.
One of the explanations of the origin of the many which
is common to monistic systems in the history of philosophy
is to regard the many as unreal and as having only an illusory
existence. In European philosophy this tendency appears
with the Eleatics and recurs under different forms in the
various idealistic systems. Some interpreters of Spinoza
take his finite modes to be of a similar nature. But passages x
in which Spinoza couples " affections" with "substance" as
the two things which exist outside the mind, in contrast to
attributes which he uses as an alternative term for substance,
clearly indicate that he considered the modes as something
having reality outside the mind like substance itself, and as
being unlike the attributes, which he considered only as as-
pects under which substance appears to our mind. The only
difference that Spinoza finds between the reality of substance
and the reality of modes is that the former is due to the
necessity of its own nature whereas the latter is due to the
existence of substance. The finite modes are no less real to
him than the infinite and eternal modes.
Another explanation which occurs in the history of philoso-
phy in answer to the problem of how the many arose from
1 Ethics, I, Prop. 4, Demonst.; Prop. 28, Demonst.
394 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
the one or the individual from the general consists in an
attempt to accredit all these to matter. According to this
explanation, all that is necessary is to account for the origin
of matter, but once matter is accounted for, either by the
theory of its co-eternal existence with God or by the process
of emanation or by the belief in a special act of creation ex
nihihy there is a ready explanation for all the change, corrup-
tibility, divisibility, individuality, and in fact for all the
changing phenomena of the visible world. It is thus that
mediaeval philosophers speak for Aristotle and for them-
selves of matter as the principle of individuation. Spinoza,
however, could not offer matter as his principle of finitude,
for if matter is taken as a principle of individuation it is only
because it is considered as something which by its very nature
is potential, passive, imperfect, and is consequently the cause
of divisibility and corruptibility. But Spinoza's matter,
being extension and an infinite attribute of God, is none of
these, 1 and cannot therefore out of its own nature become
the principle of finitude.
Still another explanation occurs in the history of philoso-
phy which has a direct bearing upon Spinoza's problem here,
for the problem which the explanation was meant to solve
is formulated as here by Spinoza in terms of the rise of the
finite from the infinite. This explanation may be designated
by the Cabalistic Hebrew term Zimzum,* i.e., contraction.
The theory of Zimzum has a long history and is susceptible
of various philosophic rationalizations, but we shall quote
here a brief statement of its original and unadulterated
meaning from Abraham Herrera's Puerto, del Cielo. Starting
with the statement that "from an infinite power, it would
seem, an infinite effect would necessarily have to follow/'
Herrera proceeds to say with the Cabalists that "in a certain
1 Cf. above pp. 237, 257.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 395
manner God had contracted His active force and power in
order to produce finite effects/* x It must have been with
reference to this problem of the rise of the finite from the
infinite that Solomon Maimon made in one of his works the
cryptic remark that the view of Spinoza "agrees with the
opinion of the Cabalists on the subject of Zimzum. 1 ' 2 In his
autobiography, Solomon Maimon similarly calls attention to
the analogy between Spinoza and the Cabalistic principle of
Zimzum in the following passage: "In fact, the Cabala is
nothing but an expanded Spinozism, in which not only is the
origin of the world explained by the contraction (Einschrdn-
kung Zimzum) of the divine being, but also the origin of ev-
ery kind of being, and its relation to the rest, are derived from
a special (besonderri) attribute of God." 3 However, Spinoza
could have made no use of this theory of contraction in the
solution of his problem of the rise of the finite from the in-
finite, for Zimzum as a solution of the problem implies that
the infinite cause is an intelligent agent, and it is in this sense
that it is generally used among the Cabalists, but to Spinoza,
who insists upon the necessary nature of the divine causality,
such an assumption is entirely inadmissible. To quote again
from Herrera: "The second reason on account of which it
is possible for us to maintain that the Infinite had in some
manner contracted and limited himself in order to enable
himself to produce finite and limited emanations is that the
act of contraction is an act by means of His intelligence and
His will." 4
Finally, among the various formulations of the theory of
1 Sha'ar ha-Shamayim^ V, 12.
a Cf. Solomon Maimon's Hebrew commentary Gib'at ha-Moreh on Morch
Nfbtikim^ I, 74.
3 Salomon Maimon' s Lcbcnsgeschichte von ihm sclbst beschricben, Part I, Ch. XIV
(1792), p. 146. English translation by J. C. Murray, Boston, 1888.
* Sha'ar ha-Shamayim t V, 12.
396 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
emanation which are advanced as explanations of the prob-
lem of the origin of matter there is one which, by analogy
with one of the present-day solutions of the problem of the
origin of life known as "emergent evolution," we may call
"emergent emanation/' 1 It assumes indeed, as do all theories
of emanation, that God is immaterial and that matter does
not therefore arise directly from God. Still it does not arise
from anything external to God. Nor does it arise by the will
of God. It arises because in the process of emanation a new
cause inevitably makes its appearance. This new cause does
not proceed from God nor does it come from without, but
is the necessary concomitant of a new relation which, not
present in God, appears in the first Intelligence by the very
nature of its being an emanation and hence, unlike God,
having only possible existence. This theory says in effect that
matter is not the resultant of spiritual causes, but rather an
emergent, arising as something unpredictable out of a new
relation which makes its appearance in the emanated Intelli-
gence. Now such an unpredictable new relation appears also
in Spinoza's immediate infinite modes, and it appears in them
by the very circumstance that their existence is dependent
upon God as their cause, and hence, unlike God, they have
only possible existence. Out of this new relation or condition,
not present in God but present in the immediate infinite
modes, Spinoza might say, there arise the finite modes.
Logically this would be a tenable explanation. But if we
assume this explanation to have been satisfactory to Spinoza
to account for the rise of finite modes from an infinite God,
why should he not have accepted it also as satisfactory to
account for the rise of material things from an immaterial
1 Cf. my paper "The Problem of the Origin of Matter in Mediaeval Jewish
Philosophy and its Analogy to the Modern Problem of the Origin of Life" in Pro-
ceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Philosophy (1926), pp. 602 ff.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 397
God? What then becomes of his main argument against the
immateriality of God? If Spinoza did refuse to accept this
sort of reasoning as an explanation of the rise of matter
out of an immaterial cause, we must assume that he would
also refuse to accept it as an explanation of the rise of finite
modes out of an infinite cause.
Inasmuch as none of these historical solutions could be
fittingly used by Spinoza, let us now look for some difference
between Spinoza and the emanationists a difference that
would be sufficiently valid to dispose of the difficulty with
which we are now contending.
Such a difference can be found if we only free Spinoza from
the encumbrance of the traditional terminology which he
affects, for, in truth, while he uses emanationist terms he
does not mean by them exactly what the emanationists mean.
When the emanationists speak of things as " proceeding "
from God or as " following by necessity" from God, 1 they
really mean that there is an actual egression of something
from within God which on its departure from God assumes
a nature unlike that of God. Though that departure is not
in time nor in space, still logically the world follows from God
in some order of succession and is outside of God. The In-
telligences are thus conceived as proceeding from God and
the spheres as proceeding from the Intelligences, and within
the spheres appears matter which is not contained in God.
In such a conception of succession, the appearance of mat-
ter, indeed, has to be accounted for. When Spinoza, however,
describes the modes as following (sequi) from God or as being
produced (froduci) by God, or when he speaks of God as act-
ing (agif) or as a cause, all these expressions, as we have
shown above, 2 mean nothing but that the modes are con-
tained in the substance as the conclusion of a syllogism is
1 Cf. above, p. 373. 9 Cf. above, p. 373.
398 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
contained in its premises and as the properties of a triangle
are contained in its definition. 1 There is no such thing as
the procession of the finite from the infinite in Spinoza. God
or substance is to him an infinite logical crust which holds
together the crumbs of the infinite number of the finite
modes, and that crust is never broken through to allow the
crumbs to escape or to emanate. Infinite substance by its
very nature contains within itself immediate infinite modes,
and the immediate infinite modes contain within themselves
mediate infinite modes, and the mediate infinite modes con-
tain within themselves the infinite number of finite modes,
which last are arranged as a series of causes and effects. In
such a conception of an all-containing substance there can be
no question as to how the finite came into existence out of an
infinite any more than there can be a question as to how sub-
stance came into existence. Substance is causa sui y and its
nature is such that it involves within itself three orders of
modes immediate infinite, mediate infinite, and finite.
The question as to how things come into existence can logi-
cally appear only within the finite modes, and the answer to
this, as given by Spinoza, is that each finite mode comes into
existence by another finite mode, and so on to infinity, but
the entire infinite series is ultimately contained in God, who
is causa sui, through the mediate and immediate infinite
modes. Things are finite by the very fact that they are parts
of a whole which is infinite.
Spinoza has thus proved that both the infinite modes and
the individual things are determined by God in three re-
spects, viz., in their existence, in their essence, and in their
action. As a result of this he concludes in Proposition XXIX
that "in nature there is nothing contingent, but all things
are determined from the necessity of the divine nature to
1 Cf. Ethics, I, Prop. 17, Schol., and above, p. 90.
PROPS. 19-29] MODES 399
exist and act in a certain manner." Three statements are
contained in this proposition. In the first place, it denies
contingency, or, as he calls it elsewhere, the existence of
"accidental things," which are defined by him as those
things which have "no cause" 1 or of which, through "a
deficiency in our knowledge . . . the order of causes is con-
cealed from us." * Accidental things are similarly defined
by Aristotle as those things which have no determinate
cause. 3 In the second place, since there are no accidental
things in nature but everything in nature is determined in
its existence and action by a cause, there is no freedom in
nature, if by freedom is meant, as it is defined by Spinoza,
that which exists and acts by its own nature and without
any other cause. 4 In the third place, all the causes in nature
are traceable to one cause, which is the necessity of the divine
nature. This concludes Spinoza's treatment of the modes.
Taking now all the modes together, the finite as well as the
infinite, he contrasts them with substance and attributes,
calling the former natura naturata and the latter natura
naturans. 3 Similarly in the Short 'Treatise he makes the same
classification at the beginning of his treatment of the modes. 6
But we have already discussed this matter quite fully in the
chapter on Extension and Thought. 7
1 Short Treatise -, I, 6, 2. Cf. above, p. 318.
2 Ethics , I, Prop. 33, Schol. i. Cf. Cogitata Metaphysica, I, 3, and above, p. 189.
3 Metaphysics, V, 30, 10253, 24.
* Cf. Ethics, I, Def. 7.
5 Ibid., I, Prop. 29, Schol. Cf. above, p. 390, n. i.
6 Short Treatise, I, 8.
7 Cf. above, pp. 253 ff.
CHAPTER XII
NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS
I. INTELLECT, WILL, AND POWER
THE statement in Proposition XXIX that there is noth-
ing contingent in nature, that everything is determined by
a cause, and that the causes are traceable to God reflects on
the whole the mediaeval philosophic position. When Crescas
raises the question whether pure possibility exists in nature,
he sums up the case for the negative by the statement that
"in the case of all things that are subject to generation and
corruption, their existence is necessarily preceded by four
causes . . . and when we inquire again into the existence of
these causes, it is also found that they must necessarily be
preceded by other causes . . . and when we look for other
causes for these causes, the same conclusion follows, until
the series of causes terminate at the Prime Being who is
necessary of existence." x Similarly Maimonides states that
"when we have found for any existing thing those four
causes which are in immediate connection with it, we find
for them again causes, and for these again other causes, and
so on until we arrive at the first causes/' and then finally
at God. 2 But the mediaevals, after having asserted the ex-
istence of this causal nexus, try to break the nexus at two
points, by introducing a certain kind of design in the causal-
ity of God and a certain amount of freedom in the action of
man. Spinoza will therefore now try to eliminate both de-
sign in God and freedom in man and will insist upon an un-
1 Or Adonai> II, v, 2. Cf, above, p. 309.
a Moreh Nebukim, I, 69.
PROPS. 30-36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 401
interrupted sequence of causal continuity. Here in the last
seven propositions and Appendix of the First Part of the
Ethics^ which deals with God, he tries primarily to eliminate
design in God; later in the last two propositions of the
Second Part, which deals with man, he tries to eliminate
freedom in man.
The design in God's actions, especially in the act of crea-
tion, is expressed by the mediaevals in terms of certain
attributes which they find to be implied in the divine act of
creation. Thus Saadia derives from the fact of creation that
God has life, power, and knowledge. 1 Judah ha-Levi derives
from the same fact that God has knowledge, power, life, and
will. 2 Maimonides insists that creation must be an act of
will and design, 3 which, according to his own statements,
imply also life, knowledge, and power. 4 These four attri-
butes then are what according to the mediaevals raise the
actions of God above a mere mechanical process and make
His causality the result of will, intelligence, and purpose.
In desiring to show that the causality of God is a neces-
sary process Spinoza subjects these attributes to a critical
examination with a view to finding out what they may
actually mean when applied to God. He does this in two
ways. First, he tries to prove that on the showing of the
understanding of the meaning of the attributes of intellect,
life, and power by the mediaevals themselves God's action
must be a necessary action. This method of attack he has fol-
lowed above in the Scholium to Proposition XVII. Second,
unfolding his own conception of these attributes of intellect,
will, and power, he again tries to show that God's action is a
necessary action. This is what he is proposing to do now in
Propositions XXX-XXXIV before us.
1 Emunot we-De'ot y II, 4. 3 Cuzari, V, 18, 7-9.
J Morth Nebukim^ II, 19 and 21. 4 7*V/., II, 19; I, 53.
402 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
In both these places, it will be noticed, Spinoza deals only
with three out of the four attributes enumerated by the me-
diaevals, mentioning only intellect, will, and power, but
leaving out life. The reason for his not mentioning life may
perhaps be found in the fact that Spinoza defines life as " the
power (vim) through which things persevere in their exist-
ence," and "moreover, the power by which God perseveres
in His existence is nothing else than His essence." r Now,
the "ability to exist" is defined by Spinoza himself as
"power" (potentia)* Consequently, life (vita) y according
to Spinoza, is power (potentid). It may therefore be con-
cluded that the omission of the attribute of life by Spinoza
in the propositions before us is due to the fact that he has
included it under the attribute of power.
In his first kind of argument in the Scholium to Propo-
sition XVII, as we have already seen, Spinoza has arrived
at the conclusion that, from the point of view of those who
believe that intellect, will, and power pertain to the nature
of God, it would have to follow that "God's intellect, will,
and power are one and the same thing." On the whole, this
represents exactly the views of Saadia, Maimonides, and the
other Jewish philosophers, all of whom maintain that these
attributes are one and the same in God. To quote a short
passage from Maimonides: "You must know that wisdom
[i.e., intellect] and life [and for that matter also will and
power] in reference to God are not different from each other." 3
Similar statements as to the identity of intellect, will, and
power in God are made by Spinoza in his Cogitata Meta-
physicaf and there, too, he is merely repeating the common
mediaeval view. In the Scholium to Proposition XVII,
1 Cogitata Metaphysica, II, 6. a Ethics, I, Prop, n, Demonst. 3.
3 Moreh Nebukim, I, 53. Cf. quotations from Saadia and Albo above, p. 155.
* Cogitata Metaphysica, II, 7, note, and 8.
PROPS. 30^36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 403
therefore, he tries to establish the necessity of God's causality
by arguing from this commonly accepted mediaeval view and
contending that if intellect and will pertain to the essence
of God and are one, then these attributes must be homony-
mous terms, and hence meaningless terms, and consequently
to say that God acts by intelligence and will is tantamount
to saying that God acts by necessity. 1
But here in these Propositions XXX-XXXI V Spinoza tries
to establish this necessary causality of God not by arguing
from the generally accepted mediaeval view but by arguing
against it. In the first place, he seems to say, the three
attributes by which the mediaevals try to characterize the
causality of God are not of the same order. Indeed, "the
power of God is His essence itself," 2 but as for intellect and
will, they do not pertain to the essence of God. Intellect
and will, which are the same, 3 are nothing but modes of
God. What kind of mode the intellect, or, rather, the ab-
solutely infinite intellect, is, has already been explained by
Spinoza. It is the immediate mode of thought correspond-
ing to motion ar\d rest, which are the immediate mode of
extension. 4 So is also will an immediate mode of thought.
Consequently, "will and intellect are related to the nature
of God as motion and rest/' s except that will and intellect
are the immediate mode of the attribute of thought whereas
motion and rest are the immediate mode of the attribute of
extension. Now, the attribute of thought in its self-conscious
activity has as the direct object of its knowledge the essence
of God himself and through God's essence also the modes. 6
1 Cf. above, p. 317. Cf. also Bruno, De I' infinite untvcrso et Mondi, Dial. I,
p. 316, 11. 21-31 (ed. Lagarde). a Ethics, I, Prop. 34. Cf. Prop. 17, Schol.
* Ethics, II, Prop. 49, Corol.; Tractatus 'Theologico-Politicus, Ch. 4 (Opera, III,
p. 62, 11. 28-29). -i Cf. above, p. 216.
s Ethics, I, Prop. 32, Corol. 2.
6 Cf. below, Vol. II, p. 17.
404 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
The intellect, however, not pertaining to the essence of God
and being only a mode of thought, cannot have the essence of
God as the object of its knowledge. But still, the object of
its knowledge must be something that exists outside the in-
tellect itself. Since, however, outside the intellect there is
nothing but God or (which is the same thing by Def. IV)
His attributes and their modes, 1 and since furthermore the
intellect cannot comprehend the essence of God himself,
the object of its knowledge must be the attributes of God
and their affections, not only the attribute of thought, of
which it is itself a mode, and the modes of thought, but also
the attribute and modes of extension. 2 This is what is meant
by Proposition XXX: "The actual intellect, whether finite
or infinite/' that is to say, whether the human intellect or
the absolutely infinite intellect, "must comprehend the at-
tributes of God and the affections of God, and nothing else/'
The terms "actual intellect'* (intellectus actu) and "poten-
tial intellect" (intellectus potentid) used by Spinoza in this
proposition are a mediaeval heritage, and are to be found in
Arabic, Hebrew, 3 and Latin philosophy, but ultimately go
back to Aristotle's vovs tvtpydq. (or e^reXexti^t) and vovs dvva-
neLy and these are to be distinguished from the terms " active
intellect" (intellectus agens) and "passive intellect" (intel-
lectus passivus) which go back to the Greek *>oDs 7rou)Ti/c6s
and vovs 7ra0r;Tt/c6s. 4 The terms "actual" and "potential"
describe two states of the intellect, one before the act of
thinking, when the intellect is a mere capacity, and the other
1 Ethics y I, Prop. 4, Demonst. 3 Cf. above, pp. 142 f.
* The Hebrew and Arabic terms are: (i) ^yisn ^OPH, J*AJU JiJl;
(2) ran fen f -JiJU jaJl.
4 The corresponding Hebrew and Arabic terms are: (i) 7yi3n 7DBH,
JUJl jsJl; ( 2 ) 7y>n 7Dtpn, J.AJLJI
Cf. below, Vol. II, p. 14.
PROPS. 30-36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 405
in the act of thinking, when the intellect is an actuality. The
nature of these two states of the intellect is discussed by
Aristotle in De Anima^ III, 4, the most pregnant passage in
which is the following: "The intellect is in a manner poten-
tially all objects of thought, but is actually none of them until
it thinks/* ' An elaborate discussion of this distinction is also
to be found in Maimonides in a chapter which has been
drawn upon by Spinoza on several occasions. 2 But, as
Spinoza himself says, he uses the expression " actual intellect "
not because he agrees with Aristotle and the mediaevals that
there is a "potential intellect" but rather for the purpose of
emphasizing the fact that the intellect is to him always that
which Aristotle and the mediaevals would describe as actual,
" that is to say, the act of understanding itself (ipsa scilicet
intellectione) ." 3
Furthermore, says Spinoza, since intellect and will are
modes whereas power is identical with the essence of God,
intellect and will belong to natura naturata^ whereas power,
by implication, may be said to belong to natura naturans*
Hence the significance of Proposition XXXI, that "the
actual intellect, whether it be finite or infinite, together with
will, desire, love, etc., must be referred to the natura naturata
and not to the natura naturans" The mention of desire and
love in this proposition together with will and intellect is in
accordance with Spinoza's habit of referring to desire and
love as modes either of will 4 or of thought. 5 Will and intel-
lect, it may be recalled, are considered by Spinoza as modes
of thought and as identical with each other.
Spinoza's denial of will as pertaining to the essence of God
and his relegation of it to the realm of modes leads him
1 De Anima, III, 4, 429!), 30-31.
2 Moreh Nebukim, I, 68. Cf. above, pp. 238-239; below, Vol. II. pp. 24, 45.
* Ethics, I, Prop. 31, Schol.
* Short Treatise, II, 2, 4, and 16, 8. s Ethics, II, Ax. 3.
406 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, 1
directly to a denial of the mediaeval attribution of freedom
of the will to God. As a prelude to what the mediaevals
meant by attributing freedom of will to God, we may first
make clear what they meant by will and by freedom of the
will in general. The best definition of will for our present
purpose is that given by Maimonides. "The true essence of
the will is the ability to will and not to will.'' * Practically
the same definition is also given by Descartes: "The faculty
of will consists alone in our having the power of choosing to
do a thing or choosing not to do it (that is, to affirm or deny,
to pursue or to shun it)." 2 Spinoza, as we shall show on a
later occasion, reproduces this definition when he says that
"by will I understand a faculty of affirming or denying/' 3
The implication of this definition is that there is no will unless
there is that possibility of choice between willing and not
willing. An eternal and immutable will, therefore, is a con-
tradiction in terms, according to Maimonides. 4 As a result
of this definition, no act of the will can be an eternal and im-
mutable act; it must have a beginning and end or it must
be an intermittent act. Now, proceed the mediaevals, if
the changes which by definition must occur in any act of the
will are brought about by external causes the will is said to
be not free. But if they are brought about without any ex-
ternal causes but by the very nature of the will itself, then
the will is called free. "Free will/' says Judah ha-Levi, "qua
free will, has no compulsory cause." s Similarly Crescas de-
fines absolutely free will as the ability " to will and not to will
without an external cause/' 6 These definitions, in fact, cor-
1 Moreh Nebukim, II, 18, Second Method.
3 Meditationes, IV (Ocuvrc, VII, p. 57, 11. 21-23).
a Ethics, II, Prop. 48, Schol.; Short Treatise, II, 16, 2. Cf. below, Vol. II,
p. 167.
* Moreh Nebukim, II, 21.
s Cuzari, V, 20.
6 Or Adonai, II, v, 3 (p. 4 8b).
PROPS. 30-36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 407
respond to Spinoza's own definition of freedom. 1 But while
in nature in general, it is admitted by the mediaevals, there
is no such free will, and while in the case of man the question
of freedom constitutes one of their major problems of philos-
ophy, with reference to God, they all maintain that He acts
from the freedom of His will. Says again Maimonides: "If
this will pertained to a material thing, so that the object
sought after by means of that will was something outside the
thing, there would then be a will which would change accord-
ing to obstacles and newly arising circumstances. But the
will of an immaterial being, which in no sense has for its
object any other thing, is unchangeable, and the fact that
it now wills one thing and tomorrow it wills another thing
does not constitute a change in the essence of the being nor
does it lead to the assumption of the existence of another
cause [external to it]." 2 As against this the position taken
by Spinoza may be summed up as follows: Granted that God
is free, that freedom cannot be called freedom of the will; for
will, he maintains, cannot pertain to the essence of God.
The argument for the inadmissibility of will in God is
given in Proposition XXXII. Will, says Spinoza, cannot
pertain to the essence of God. It is only an infinite mode,
identical with the infinite intellect, following immediately
from the attribute of thought. Being a mode of thought, it
is determined by thought as its cause, just as the finite will
of any individual being is determined by a series of causes,
which series is infinite, according to Spinoza himself, or
finite, according to the mediaevals. 3 Having a cause, will
can no longer be called free. Hence, "the will cannot be
called a free cause, but can only be called necessary." 4
1 Ethics, I, Def. 7. Cf. above, p. 311. a Moreh Nebukim, II, 18.
* Cf. above, p. 196.
* Ethics, I, Prop. 32, and Demonst.
4 o8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
Furthermore, it follows "that God does not act from free-
dom of the will," x for will does not pertain to His essence
but is only a mode which by its very nature must have
a cause and cannot therefore be free. To say that God acts
from freedom of will has no more meaning than to say that
God acts from freedom of motion, since both are modes
respectively of the attributes of thought and extension. 2
One of the implications of the mediaeval view that God
acts from freedom of will is that the world could have been
produced by God in another manner and in another order
than that in which it has been produced. A brief statement
of this view is to be found in Herrera's Puerto, del Cielo.
In his fourth argument in proof that God acts from freedom
of the will he says that "such free action was the beginning
of all the things which were produced and caused by God
when it was so decreed by His will, and by the same token
God could have omitted to bring them into existence or
He could have brought other things into existence, and
even now after having brought these things into existence,
He can still change them, destroy them, and then bring
them back into existence, all according to His free choice
and will/' 3
But perhaps still more pertinent for our present purpose
are the statements made by Maimonides, in which he con-
trasts Aristotle's theory of necessity with his own theory of
creation by will and design, for in these statements we shall
find the background not only of the view which Spinoza re-
jects but also the view which he adopts as his own. Re-
stating Aristotle's view, Maimonides says that "it is the view
of Aristotle that this universe proceeded from the Creator by
way of necessity, that God is the cause and the world is the
1 Ibid., Corol. i. * Ibid., Corel. 2.
* Sha'ar ha-Shamayim y III, 6.
PROPS. 3036] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 409
effect, and that this effect is a necessary one; and just as it
cannot be explained why God exists or how He exists in this
particular manner, namely, being one and incorporeal, so
it cannot be asked concerning the whole universe why it
exists or how it exists in this particular manner. For it is
necessary that the whole, i.e., the cause as well as the effect,
should exist in this particular manner; it is impossible for
them not to exist, or to be different from what they actually
are. This leads to the conclusion that the nature of every-
thing remains constant, and that nothing changes its nature
in any way/' l As against this Maimonides maintains as
his own view that "we who believe in creation must admit
that God could have created the universe in a different man-
ner as regards the causes and effects contained in it." 2 Or
again: "We, however, hold that all things in the universe
are the result of design, and not merely of necessity. It is
possible that He who designed them may change them and
conceive another design. Not every design, however, is
subject to change, for there are things which are impossible
by their nature and cannot be altered, as will be explained/* 3
The exceptions referred to here by Maimonides are those
things which he himself and other mediaevals consider as
impossible on account of their involving a contradiction in
their definition, such as, e.g., a square the triangle of which
is equal to its side. 4
With this as his background Spinoza formulates his own
view in Proposition XXXIII, aligning himself with Aristotle
as against Maimonides: "Things could have been produced
by God in no other manner and in no other order than that
in which they have been produced/* Direct references to
controversies on this point are made by him in his Short
1 Moreh Nebukim, II, 19. a Ibid. y III, 13.
3 Ibid., II, 19. Cf. 17. Cf. above, p. 312, n, 5.
4 io THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
freatise. 1 In the Short Treatise -, furthermore, there is a passage
parallel to the demonstration of this proposition. 2 Here in
the Ethics the most important part of the discussion is given
in two Scholia. In the first Scholium Spinoza explains the
meaning of the terms "necessary/* " impossible/' "possible/'
and " contingent/' which we have already discussed on several
occasions. 3 But the introduction of these terms right after
the proposition, which is undoubtedly directed against the
passage we have quoted above from Maimonides, is signifi-
cant, for in that passage of Maimonides, as we have seen,
reference is also made to the nature of the impossible.
Spinoza seems to challenge Maimonides as follows: You say
that while indeed in nature there are certain things which
are impossible, there is nothing in it which is absolutely
necessary, but everything in it is possible or contingent, inas-
much as everything in nature, according to you, can be
changed or come into existence without any previous cause
but by the mere will of God. As against you I say that in
nature there are only things impossible and things necessary,
but nothing that is absolutely possible or contingent.
The second Scholium falls into three parts, as follows:
(i) From the beginning of the Scholium to "Neither is
there any need that I should here repeat those things which
are said in the Scholium to Proposition XVII" (Opera, II,
p. 74, 1. 2o-p. 75, 1. 3). (2) From " But for the sake of those
who differ from me*' to "and hence . . . God's intellect
and will . . . must have been different, which is absurd"
(Opera, II, p. 75, 1. 3~p. 76, 1. 3). (3) From "Since, there-
fore, things could have been produced by God in no other
manner or order" to the end of the Scholium (Opera, II,
p. 76, 1. 4-1. 34).
1 Short Treatise, I, 4, 3 and 7 (Opera, I, p. 37, 11. 16 ff., p. 38, 11. 30 ff.).
a Ibid., 7 (p. 38, 11. 33 ff.). 3 Cf. above, pp. 188 ff.
PROPS. 30-36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 411
In the first part Spinoza deals with a problem which he
has already dealt with before in the Scholium to Proposi-
tion XVII, but he restates it here in a different form. On
the previous occasion the problem was presented by him in
the form of a question as to whether God has produced all
the things which are actually in His intellect. Here the
problem is presented by him in the form of a question as to
whether God has produced all the things in as high a degree
of perfection as they are actually in His intellect. In a some-
what similar way the problem is stated in the Cogitata Meta-
physica: "If God created a duration so great that no greater
could be given He necessarily diminished His own power." '
Both these phases of the problem, however, are combined by
him into one in the Short Treatise when he says: "But now,
again, there is the controversy whether, namely, of all that is
in His idea, and which He can realize so perfectly, whether, I
say, He could omit to realize anything, and whether such an
omission would be a perfection in Him/' 2 In the passage
from Herrera, which I have quoted as the literary back-
ground of Spinoza's discussion in the Scholium to Proposition
XVII, 3 it may also be noticed that the two phases of the prob-
lem are combined. Not only does Herrera say that only a
limited number of those things which are in the intellect of
God have been produced by Him, but he also maintains that
this limited number of things produced are not of the highest
degree of perfection, for God, according to him, can still pro-
duce things of higher perfection. In his argument in the first
part of the Scholium here Spinoza repeats in the main the
arguments employed by him in the first part of the Scholium
to Proposition XVII; he only changes the term omnipotence
for perfection. His opponents say, he argues here, that if the
1 Cogitata Metaphysica, II, 10. 2 Short Treatise, I, 4, 3.
* Cf. above, pp. 314 ff.
4 I2 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
things produced by God are of the highest perfection, then
God could no longer produce things which are more perfect,
and if He could not do so, it would be an imperfection in Him.
As against this Spinoza contends, in effect, that, quite the
contrary, it is the perfection of God that must lead one to
say that the things already produced by Him are of the high-
est perfection, for if He could have produced more perfect
things and did not produce them, then His failure to produce
them would have to be accounted for by some imperfection in
His nature, the imperfection either of incompetency or of
ill-will. A similar argument is put in the mouth of Aristotle
by Maimonides in the following passage: "For, according
to this theory, God, whom every thinking person recognizes
to be endowed with all the kinds of perfections, is in such a
relation to the existing beings that He cannot change in them
anything. . . . Aristotle says that God does not try to
make any change, and that it is impossible that He should
will anything to be otherwise from what it is. If it were pos-
sible, it would not constitute in Him greater perfection; it
might, on the contrary, from some point of view, be an
imperfection." '
In the second part of the Scholium here Spinoza takes up
again the main proposition, namely, "that things could be
created in no other mode or order by Him," and tries to prove
it against his opponents from their own admission "that
will pertains to God's essence." Now, the main point in this
premise admitted by his opponents, if we take Maimonides
as its chief exponent, is that while the will of God is co-
eternal with God, the world is not eternal, for will by its
very nature means the ability to will to do a thing at one
time and not to will to do it at another time, 2 and to adopt
1 Moreh Nebukim^ II, 22. Cf. Bruno, De I'infnito univcrso et Mondi t Dial. I,
p. 317, 11. I ff. (cd. Lagardc). 3 Ibid., II, 18.
PROPS. 30-36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 413
one course or the other by an act of decree or decision; but,
they contend, inasmuch as in the case of God the decree or
decision is entirely independent of anything external to Him,
it does not produce any change in His essence. As against
this Spinoza raises the following question: This decree
(decretumY of God to make things in the manner and order
in which they are, when did it take place? There are three
possible assumptions: (i) It could have taken place shortly
before the things were produced by God. (2) It could have
co-existed with God from eternity, without any possibility
of its being changed even by the will of God. (3) It could
have co-existed with God from eternity, but with the possi-
bility of its being subject to change by the will of God prior
to His having produced the things. Spinoza, in the course
of his discussion, examines all these three assumptions and
tries to show either that they are untenable or that they
prove just the opposite of what his opponents have set out
to prove.
To begin with, the first assumption is untenable even ac-
cording to the mediaevals themselves, for, according to
Maimonides and others, prior to creation there was no time;
what there was then may be called an "imagination of time"
or, if you choose, eternity, in which there is no before nor
after. 2 Spinoza thus says: "But since in eternity there is
no when nor before nor after, it follows . . . that . . . God
had not existed before His decrees, and could never exist
without them." 3
Then, proceeds Spinoza, if the second assumption be
true, it will prove his own contention against his opponents.
1 Hebrew and Arabic equivalent: n"VH J-Vi, U**. (Cnzari, V, 19; March
Nebukim, III, 17).
J ' I^ariniy II, 18. Cf. above, p. 339.
J Ethics, I, Prop. 33, Schol. 2 (Opera, II, p. 75, 11. 12-15).
4 i4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
If things have come into existence exactly in the manner in
which it had been decreed by God from eternity and if God
could not have changed that decree, then " things could have
been produced by God in no other manner and in no other
order than that in which they have been produced/' 1 This
second assumption, it may be remarked, seems to reflect the
following statement in Heereboord: " What God does in time
He has decreed from eternity." 2 But Spinoza seems to differ
from Heereboord as to the meaning of this statement. Ac-
cording to Heereboord, this statement does not mean that
"God accomplishes things in time in the order in which He
has decreed them from eternity"; 3 it only means that "God
produces in time the things which He has decreed from
eternity and He produces them as He has decreed to produce
them." 4 According to Spinoza, the order as well as the na-
ture of things has been decreed from eternity. In Proposition
XXXIII he speaks of the unchangeability of the manner
(modus) and order (ordo) in which things have been produced,
and in Scholium II, evidently in direct opposition to Heere-
boord, he speaks of both the nature of things (rerum naturd)
and their order (ordo) 5 as having been decreed by God from
eternity.
There is nothing left therefore for his opponents but to
adopt the third assumption, namely, that God himself could
have changed His eternal decree prior to the creation of
the world so that the world could have been created other-
wise than the way it had been decreed from eternity. As
1 Ibid., II, Prop. 33.
2 Meletemata Philosophica, Disptitationcs ex Philosophia ^e/ectaf, Vol. II, Disp.
XXIV, ix: "Uti quid Deus facit in tempore, ita ab aeterno decrevit."
J Ibid.-. "Quo ordine res Deus decrevit ab aeterno, eo in tempore exequitur."
4 Ibid.: "Quas res decrevit ab aeterno et quales decrevit faccre, eas et tales
in tempore facit."
3 Optra, II, p. 75, II. 16-17, 20.
PROPS. 30-36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 415
against this, Spinoza raises four objections, which, it must
be said, have not passed unnoticed by the mediaevals them-
selves.
First, it implies that prior to creation there could have
been a change in God's will and hence also in His intellect
with which His will is identical. Maimonides himself has
discussed this problem and admits that such a change in
God's will is possible inasmuch as it is not determined by
any external cause. 1
Second, if such a change in God's will was possible before
creation, why should it not be possible now after creation?
Here, too, Maimonides would say that if God willed it and
if it served any purpose He could change the order of nature
even after its creation, except in things which are impossible
by their own nature and would involve a contradiction in
their definition. 2
Third, Maimonides as well as all other philosophers agrees
" that God is an intellect which always is in action, and that
there is in Him no potentiality at all." 3 But to say that
God changes His will or intellect implies a change from po-
tentiality to actuality, which is contrary to their own prem-
ise. This argument, too, has been discussed by Maimonides,
who tries to show that in an incorporeal agent a change
from non-action to action does not imply a transition from
potentiality to actuality. "The active intellect may be
taken as an illustration. ... It is an evident fact that
the active intellect does not act continually . . . and yet
Aristotle does not say that the active intellect is changeable,
or passes from a state of potentiality to that of actuality,
although it produces at one time something which it has not
1 Moreh Ncbukim, II, 18. Cf. above, pp. 101 ff.
3 Ibid., It, 19; III, 25. Cf. above, p. 312.
' Ibid., I, 68. Cf. above, p. 239.
4 l 6 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
produced before." x In fact, Spinoza himself makes use of
this statement of Maimonides in the Short Treatise. "Fur-
thermore, of such an agent who acts in himself it can never
be said that he has the imperfection of a patient, because he
is not affected by another; such, for instance, is the case
with the intellect/' 2
Fourth, Maimonides and all the other mediaevals admit
that God's will and intellect are identical with His essence. 3
To say therefore that His will could change would imply
that His essence could also change. This, too, is answered
by Maimonides. "Similarly it has been shown by us that
if a being [like God] acted at one time and did not act at
another, this would not involve a change in the being itself." 4
In the third part of the Scholium Spinoza combines all
the three phases of the problem and asserts (i) that "things
could have been produced by God in no other manner or
order," (2) that God created "all things which are in His
intellect," and (3) that the things created were created "with
the same perfection as that in which they exist in His intel-
lect." All these three principles are included in what Spinoza
calls necessity, by which he means that things cannot be
otherwise than what they are, that they cannot be more
than they are, and that they cannot be more perfect than
they are. The mediaeval views which are in opposition to
this conception of necessity are divided by Spinoza into two
classes. The first class is characterized by him as the view
which makes everything dependent upon " the will of God
alone" (Dei tantum voluntas) or upon "a certain indifferent
God's will" (indiferens quaedam Dei voluntas) or upon God's
"good pleasure" (ipsius beneplacitum). According to this
1 Ibid., II, 1 8, First Method.
1 Short Treatise, I, 2, 24 (Opera, I, p. 26, 11. 23-26).
3 Moreh Ncbukim, I, 53 and 68. Cf. above, pp. 155, 317, 402.
* Ibid., II, 1 8, Second Method.
PROPS. 30-36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 417
view not only are things in themselves neither perfect nor
imperfect, but they are also neither good nor evil. They are
so only by the will of God alone, and therefore if God had
willed He could have made them otherwise. The second class
is characterized by him as the view of those "who affirm that
God does everything for the sake of the good/ 1 Spinoza's
characterization of these two mediaeval views reflects again
Maimonides' discussion of the difference between the view
of the Mohammedan Ashariya and his own view. According
to the Ashariya everything is the result of God's will alone;
according to Maimonides, it is the result of both will and
wisdom. The essential difference between these two views
is the question whether the things created by God and the
commandments revealed by Him are the work of an arbitrary
will of whether they are created and revealed for the sake of
some purpose. 1 "Purpose" is another word used by Mai-
monides for what Spinoza calls here "the good/' for, as says
Maimonides, "we call 'good' that which is in accordance
with the object we seek." 2 Similarly Heereboord says that
"the good is the formal reason of the final cause." 3 All
these go back to Aristotle's definition of the good as " that
which all things aim at." 4
In Maimonides' own words the Asharian view is de-
scribed as the view of those thinkers "who assume that
God does not produce one thing for the sake of another, that
there are no causes and effects, but that all His actions are
the direct result of the will of God, and no purpose can be
found for them, nor can it be asked why He has made this
and not that; for He does what pleases Him, and it is not
to be considered as the result of some kind of wisdom." s
* Ibid., Ill, 25 and 26. * Ibid., Ill, 13.
* Meletemata Philosophica, Disputationes ex Philosophia Stlectae, Vol. II, Disp.
XXIII, ii: "Bonitas ergo formalis ratio est causae finalis."
* Nicomachean Ethics, I, I, iO94a, 3. * Moreh Nebukim, III, 25.
41 8 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
His own view is described by him as follows: "The things
which God wills to do are necessarily done; there is nothing
that could prevent the realization of His will. God, how-
ever, wills only that which is possible; not indeed everything
that is possible, but only such things as His wisdom decrees
upon." l "The only question to be asked," says Maimonides
in another place, "is this: What is the cause of this design?
The answer to this question is that all this has been made for
a purpose which is unknown to us." 2
In criticizing both these views, Spinoza dismisses the first
one by summarizing his previous contention that a change
in God's will is unthinkable. Still, though he is opposed to
this view, he considers it nevertheless "at a less distance
from the truth" than the second view, which he proceeds to
refute in the following statement. "For these seem to place
something outside of God which is independent of Him, to
which He looks while He is at work as to a model, or at
which He aims as if at a certain mark. This is indeed noth-
ing else than to subject God to fate, the most absurd thing
which can be affirmed of Him. . . . Therefore it is not
worth while that I should waste time in refuting this ab-
surdity."
There is more hidden away in this statement than what
it seems to convey to the mind of the casual reader. We may
try to unfold all its implications by making Spinoza address
Maimonides directly and speak out all that was in the back
of his mind when he gave utterance to this statement.
Spinoza seems to address Maimonides as follows:
You say that things do not depend upon an arbitrary will
of God but upon a rational will, which you call wisdom, so
that everything created by God has a purpose. God, then,
is guided by a purpose or by His Wisdom, the nature of
1 Ibid. * Ibid., II, 19.
PROPS. 30-36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 419
which you say is unknown to us, but which you maintain is
not external to Him. It is well for you to seek refuge out of
the difficulties into which your own philosophy so often
leads you by pleading ignorance. But those predecessors of
yours, the rabbis, aye, and the philosophers, too, whose tra-
ditional teachings, from which you refuse to depart, are re-
sponsible for all your philosophical difficulties, did confess
to know what that divine Wisdom was and the purpose for
which all things were created. They say that the Wisdom,
which speaks in person in the eight chapter of the Book of
Proverbs, is the Torah, or the Law of Moses, and it is the
Torah which is regarded by them as the purpose for which
the world was created. 1 Furthermore, this Torah, though
not considered in Judaism to be eternal, existed, according to
its beliefs, before the creation of the world, and it is said that
God consulted it as to the creation of the world, 2 and that it
served Him as a sort of model according to which the world
was created; as the rabbis say: "God looked into the Torah
and created the world. " 3 Not only your rabbis but also
your philosopher Philo speaks of Wisdom and of the Logos
in the same way as the rabbis speak of the Torah, namely,
as divine instruments of creation. 4 Of course, you yourself
do not take these statements literally. You insist upon
identifying Wisdom with the essence of God. But it is these
traditional utterances about Wisdom in the sense of the
Torah that really lie behind your statements that things
were created for some unknown purpose and by some un-
Or Adonai y II, vi, 4, quoting as proof-text the rabbinic dictum mill
D'DP 1D"pri3 N7 (Pesahim 68b), which he evidently takes to mean "but for
the Torah, heaven and earth would not have come into existence." The dictum,
however, may mean "but for the Torah, heaven and earth would not continue to
exist." * Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer, Ch. 3.
3 Genesis Kabbah, I, i, and parallels.
4 De Eo: Quis Rerum Divinarum Herts Sit y XLI, 199; De Cherubim et Flam-
meo Gladio y XXXV, ii4.fi. Cf. Drummond, Philo Judaeus, II, pp. 205-206.
4 20 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
known divine wisdom. Stripped of this metaphysical garb
with which you have clothed these ancient utterances, your
own statements "seem to place something outside of God
which is independent of Him, to which He looks while He
is at work as to a model, or at which He aims as if at a
certain mark/*
But furthermore, Spinoza seems to say to Maimonides,
if the Torah is that which God consulted and by which God
was guided in creating things, then your God is governed
by a Torah or Wisdom or Logos just as some philosophers,
say the Stoics, maintain that the world is governed by fate
(fatum, 17 cijuapjLte^r/). "This indeed is nothing else than
to subject God to fate." This by itself makes Spinoza's
statement intelligible enough. But there may be even more
than that in it. The Stoics speak of fate as the Logos of
the universe. 1 Similarly Philo refers to the Logos as that
"which most men call fortune (rux??)," 2 fortune probably
being here an interchangeable term with fate. 3 What Spinoza
therefore would seem to say to Maimonides is this: Since
the Stoic and the Philonic Logos, which is sometimes used
as the equivalent of Wisdom or your Torah, is called fate,
when God is said to be ruled by the Torah or Wisdom or the
Logos, He is really said to be ruled by fate. In fact Campa-
nella combines the terms " wisdom " and " fate " when he
speaks of the maintenance of things by the power of God or
necessity, by His wisdom or fate (faturri), and finally by His
love or ordinance. 4
1 Cf. Zeller, Philosophic der Griechen, III, I, p. 161, n, 2 (4th ed.). English
translation: Stoics , Epicureans, and Sceptics, p. 161, n. 3.
a $uod Deus $it Immutabilis, XXXVI, 176.
3 Cf. Francis Bacon, De Augmentis Scientiarum, III, 4 (Works > London, 1857,
Vol. I, p. 569): "quas uno nomine Fatum aut Fortunam vocabant."
4 Reproduced by Erdmann, Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie, I, 246.
4, based upon Campanella's Philosophia Universality VI, Proem.
PROPS. 30-36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 421
Now Spinoza would not shrink from the use of the term
"fate " in its strictly Stoic sense of a universal and inscruta-
ble law that governs all things. In fact in Short Treatise^ I,
6, he practically uses the term "fate" when he describes the
contents of the chapter in which he denies the existence of any
accidental things by the title "On Divine Predestination."
But what he insists upon saying here is that while all things
and all actions, in so far as they follow with inevitable neces-
sity from the nature of God, may be said in a certain sense to
have a fatalistic necessity, God himself must be conceived
as absolutely free and as not being subject to any fate. This
distinction evidently was difficult to be grasped by his cor-
respondents, and on several occasions in letters to Ostens
and Oldenburg Spinoza felt called upon to explain himself.
To quote a few characteristic passages from these letters:
"The basis of his argument is this, that he thinks that I take
away God's liberty, and subject Him to fate. This is en-
tirely false. For I assert that all things follow with inevi-
table necessity from the nature of God, just as all assert that
it follows from the nature of God that He understands him-
self." * Again: "I want to explain here briefly in what sense
I maintain the fatalistic necessity of all things and of all
actions. For I do in no way subject God to fate, but I con-
ceive that evervthing follows with inevitable necessity from
the nature of God, just as all conceive that it follows from
the nature of God himself that He should understand him-
self." *
Unlike intellect and will, which do not pertain to God,
power, as we have already pointed out, is admitted by
Spinoza to pertain to the essence of God and to be identical
with His essence. Hence Proposition XXXIV: "The power
of God is His essence itself." Power, as we have elsewhere
1 Epistola 43. a Epistola 75.
422 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
remarked, means to Spinoza the ability to exist and the
ability to bring things into existence. 1 Hence Spinoza defines
God's power here in the demonstration of the proposition
as that "by which He himself and all things are and act/'
From this definition of power and from its identity with the
essence of God Spinoza tries to solve again the problem which
he has discussed in Scholium II to Proposition XVII and
in the third part of the Scholium to Proposition XXXIII,
namely, whether God created all things which are in His
intellect. His answer is in the affirmative. Hence Proposi-
tion XXXV: "Whatever we conceive to be in God's power
necessarily exists." In the Short ^Treatise he expresses the
same view by saying: "We deny that God cannot omit to
do what He does." 2
II. FINAL CAUSES
It may be recalled that the mediaevals apply the term
"cause" to God in three out of its four Aristotelian senses.
God is to them the efficient, formal, and final cause, but not
the material cause, of the world. 3 In opposition to them,
Spinoza made God also the material cause of the world, and
by further reducing the formal to the efficient cause, he has
throughout his discussion of the causality of God, from
Proposition XV to XXXV, elaborated in great detail his
conception of the efficient causation of God. In the course
of his discussion he has also refuted the views of those who,
having denied the principle of causality altogether, attrib-
uted the succession and change of things either to chance 4
or to the direct intervention of God's arbitrary will. 5 The
latter view, which is discussed by him in the last part of
1 Cf. above, pp. 204-205. a Short treatise, I, 4, I.
3 Cf. above, p. 302. * Cf. above, p. 318.
s Cf. above, pp. 416 ff.
PROPS. 30-36] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 423
Scholium II to Proposition XXXIII, led him to touch upon
the problem of final causation, without, however, going into
a full discussion of the problem. Now, at the conclusion of
the first Part of the Ethics, Spinoza wanted to come out with
a formal denial of the mediaeval view as to the existence of
final causes in nature. 1 But following his general custom in
the propositions of the Ethics, instead of directly opposing
the mediaevals, he states his own position in positive terms,
but in such a manner as to contain an indirect denial of the
commonly accepted belief in final causes.
The oppositional views in the history of philosophy to
final causes may be summed up under two headings. First,
the view that everything is the result of the arbitrary will of
God, which, as we have seen, Maimonides attributes to the
Mohammedan Ashariya. Second, the view that everything
is the result of chance and accident, which, again, Maimon-
ides attributes to the Epicureans. 2 Spinoza, as we have seen,
has discussed both these views and rejected them. 3 The
method by which he now tries in Proposition XXXVI to
reject final causes altogether is by reducing every final cause
to an efficient cause. When two events constantly and re-
peatedly succeed one another, he seems to say, it is not to
be explained in terms of final causes, namely, that the first
event aims at, or is made to serve, the second event as its
purpose, but it is to be explained rather solely in terms of
efficient causes, namely, that the second event follows by
necessity from the nature of the first event, for "nothing
exists from whose nature an effect does not follow/' This
method of eliminating final causes by reducing them to
1 On the general problem of final causes in the philosophy of Spinoza, see Peter
Brunner, Probleme der 'Tcleologic bei Maimonides y Thomas von Aquin und Spinoza
(Heidelberg, 1928).
a Moreh Nebukim, II, 13. Cf. above, p. 318.
* Cf. above, pp. 416 ff.
4 2 4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
efficient causes is already indicated in the Cogitata Meta-
physica: "Second, I say that in creation no causes concur
except the efficient one. I might have said that creation
negates or excludes all causes except the efficient." x A still
clearer statement to the same effect occurs in the Preface
to Ethics, IV: "A final cause, as it is called, is nothing,
therefore, but human desire. . . . Therefore, having a
house to live in, in so far as it is considered a final cause, is
merely this particular desire, which is really an efficient
cause/' 2 This in fact is nothing but a logical corollary from
Aristotle's own denial of design and purpose in God's causal-
ity, which Spinoza seems to be stressing in this proposition
against Aristotle. For Aristotle, though he denies design
and purpose in the causality of God, still maintains that
there are final causes in nature, a logical inconsistency which
Maimonides makes much of in his defence of the belief in
creation. 3 Thus both Maimonides and Spinoza see the in-
consistency in Aristotle's attempt to uphold the existence of
final causes in nature while denying at the same time the
existence of design in God, but as they are in disagreement
as to which of these two premises is correct, they arrive at
two diametrically opposite conclusions. Maimonides starts
with the Aristotelian premise that there are final causes in
nature and therefore argues, as against Aristotle, that there
must be design in the causality of God. Spinoza, on the other
hand, starts with the Aristotelian premise that there is no
design in the causality of God and therefore argues, also
against Aristotle, that there cannot be final causes in nature.
This denial of final causes by Spinoza re-echoes, on the
whole, Francis Bacon's condemnation of the search of final
1 Cogitata Metaphysica y II, 10.
2 Opera, II, p. 207, 11. 2-4 and 9-11.
3 Moreh Nebukim, II, 20 ff.
APPENDIX] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 425
causes in the realm of physics. 1 But unlike Bacon, who ad-
mits that final causes are " true and worthy to be inquired in
metaphysical speculations'* 2 and that they are perfectly com-
patible with efficient or physical causes, "except that one
declares an intention, the other a consequence only," 3 Spi-
noza eliminates them even from metaphysical speculations.
If this is the meaning of the last proposition, then the
Appendix to Part I, which deals exclusively with the problem
of final causes, is, with the exception of the introductory
paragraph, really a scholium to the last proposition of
Part I. In the Appendix, Spinoza starts out with a restate-
ment of that " which men commonly suppose" with regard to
final causes. The passage which follows falls into two parts
and betrays the influence of two different sources. The first
part restates the view of those who hold "that all things in
nature, like men, work for (propter) some end; and indeed
it is thought to be certain that God himself directs all
things to some sure end (ad cerium aliquem finem)" The
immediate source of this view is the following passage in
Heereboord: "All natural things work for (propter) some end,
or, rather, they work to some end, since they are directed
by God to an end pre-determined for each thing (ad finem
singulis praefixum)." 4 The second part of the passage adds
" for it is said that God has made all things for man, and man
that he may worship God." The immediate source of this
statement seems to be a combination of the following pas-
sages in Saadia and Maimonides. Saadia's passage reads
as follows: "Should it occur to one to ask for what reason
1 Df Augmentis Scientiarum, III, 4.
Ibid., Ill, 4 (Works, London, 1857, Vol. I, p. 570; Vol. IV, p. 364).
Ibid.
4 Melctemata Philosophica^ Disputationcs ex Philosophia Selectae, Vol. II, Disp.
XXIV, II, i: "Res omnes naturales agunt propter finem, aut potius agunturad
finem, quatenus a Deo diriguntur ad finem singulis praefixum."
426 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
did God create all these things, three answers may be given.
. . . The third answer is that He created the beings for their
own benefit so that He might direct them in that benefit and
they might worship Him/' l In another place Saadia states
that " although we observe that the created beings are many
. . . the end of all of them is man/'- 1 Maimonides' passage,
in which there seems to be an allusion to the statements
quoted from Saadia, reads as follows: "But of those who
accept our theory that the whole universe has been created
from nothing, some hold that the inquiry after the purpose
of creation is necessary, and assume that the universe was
only created for the sake of man's existence, that he might
worship God." 3 It must, however, be remarked that, con-
trary to what may be inferred from Spinoza's statement
here, neither Saadia nor Maimonides is in the least dog-
matic about this view. Maimonides definitely rejects the
view that the universe exists for man's sake and that man
exists for the purpose of worshipping God, and gives as his
own view that "we must in continuing the inquiry as to the
purpose of creation at last arrive at the answer that it was
the will of God or that His wisdom decreed it." 4 Even Saadia
gives as his first answer to the question as to the purpose of
creation the view " that God created things for no purpose at
all ... for God is above any consideration of external
purpose." 5
Spinoza's own discussion of the problem is divided by
himself into three parts. First, how man came to the idea
of final causes. Second, arguments against the existence of
final causes. Third, certain erroneous conceptions to which
the idea of final causes gave rise.
1 Emunot wf-De'ot, I, 4. a Ibid.> IV, Introduction.
J March Nebuktm, III, 13. Ibid.
* Emunot we-De'ot, I, 4.
APPENDIX] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 427
In his account of the origin of the belief in final causes
and his explanation of the question "why all are so naturally
inclined to embrace it," Spinoza does nothing more than
transform the reasons which his predecessors had used as
arguments for the existence of final causes into motives for
their belief in final causes. He seems to say to them: Your
so-called arguments for the existence of final causes are
nothing but the expressions of your desires and wishes
which you put in the form of logical arguments. Or to
put it in other words, Spinoza tries to show that what the
mediaevals call reasons are only different forms of rationali-
zation.
Take the conception of final causes in human actions,
Spinoza seems to argue, and you will find that even there,
where final causes are generally assumed to exist beyond
any shadow of a doubt, their existence may be questioned.
For what basis is there for this general belief that man does
everything for an end, if not the belief that man is free to
choose from two alternatives that which is profitable to him.
Let us then consider what is meant by this freedom of choice.
The best description, Spinoza would seem to argue, is to be
found in Saadia, who says that it is a matter of common ob-
servation that "man feels that he can speak or remain silent,
seize or set loose, and all this without being conscious of any
force that could restrain him from carrying out his desire. " r
Freedom then is that feeling of being able to choose without
being conscious of any compulsion to make the choice.
This choice, furthermore, is supposed to be made in considera-
tion of a certain end which man has in view, and it is this
supposition of an end which is generally taken to establish
the existence of final causes in human action. But, says
Spinoza, is it not possible that the consciousness of freedom
1 ibid., IV, 4 .
428 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
is only a delusion based upon the ignorance of the true
causes that really determine one's action, and therefore the
belief that one acts for a certain purpose or final cause is
also a delusion based upon an ignorance of the real causes,
which are always efficient causes, that really necessitate one's
action? "It will be sufficient/' says Spinoza, "if I take here
as an axiom that which no one ought to dispute, namely,
that man is born ignorant of the causes of things, and that he
has a desire, of which he is conscious, to seek that which is
profitable to him. From this it follows, firstly, that he thinks
himself free . . . and, secondly, it follows that man does
everything for an end."
It must, however, be remarked that Spinoza had been
anticipated by Crescas in the suggestion that the conscious-
ness of freedom may be a delusion. In discussing the argu-
ment for freedom from the fact that man is not conscious
of any compulsion in making a decision, Crescas says that
"though man, in making a choice, is unconscious of any
compulsion and restraint, it is quite possible that, were it
not for some cause that compels him to choose one of the
alternatives, he would desire both alternatives alike." x
Spinoza continues with the same method of argument
with which he had started. Taking the traditional philo-
sophic evidences for design in nature from which the mediae-
vals tried to prove creation and the existence of an intelligent
deity, he transforms them into psychological motives which
have induced man to attribute the delusions of his own free-
dom and of the purposiveness of his own actions to nature
and God. The traditional philosophic view is summed up
by Maimonides in the following passage: "Aristotle repeat-
edly says that nature produces nothing in vain, 2 that is to
1 Or Adonai, II, v, 3.
3 Dt Caelo, I, 4, 2713, 33; De Anima, III, 9, 432*), 21.
APPENDIX] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 429
say, every natural action must necessarily have a certain
object. Thus, Aristotle says that plants were created for
the sake of animals; and similarly he shows in the case of
some other things that one exists for the sake of the other.
This is still more obvious in the case of the organs of animals.
Know that the existence of such a final cause in the various
parts of nature has compelled philosophers to assume the
existence of a primal cause apart from nature, namely, that
which Aristotle calls the intelligent or divine principle, which
divine principle creates one thing for the purpose of another.
And know also that to those who acknowledge the truth,
the greatest of all arguments for the creation of the world is
that which has been demonstrated with regard to natural
things, namely, that every one of them has a certain purpose
and that one thing exists for the sake of another." J All this,
says Spinoza, is simply a projection of man's own purposes
into the actions of other human beings and into nature, for
"by his own mind he necessarily judges that of another "
and thus also "it comes to pass that all natural objects are
considered as means for obtaining what is profitable."
Furthermore, since man has falsely considered these things
as means to some end, he thought "it was impossible to
believe that they had created themselves," and so again by
an analogy of his own experience he inferred "that some
ruler or rulers of nature exist, endowed with human liberty,
who have taken care of all things for him, and have made all
things for his use." The allusions in this passage to the pas-
sages quoted from Maimonides are quite apparent. Spinoza
finally concludes his argument with a condemnation of the
Aristotelian principle quoted by Maimonides, namely, that
"nature does nothing in vain," as an attempt to show "that
nature, the gods, and man are alike mad."
x Moreh Ncbukim, III, 13.
430 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
One would naturally expect that in discussing design in
nature Spinoza would resuscitate the old problem of evil
which philosophers before him had found at variance with
the assumption of design and providence in nature. Spinoza
introduces this problem with an enumeration of the so-called
physical evils which are similarly discussed by Maimonides
in connection with the problem of final causes and design, 1
and in connection with the problem of divine knowledge. 2
The evils which Spinoza happens to mention, " storms,
earthquakes, diseases/' are reminiscent of the list of evils
mentioned by Gersonides, in which are included evils which
arise "from the mixture [i.e., diseases] . . . earthquakes,
storm, and lightning/' 3 But when Spinoza pretends to re-
produce the mediaeval explanation of evil by saying that
"it was affirmed that these things happened because the
gods were angry either because of wrongs which had been in-
flicted on them by man, or because of sins committed in the
method of worshipping them," he does not do justice to
their case. Maimonides, Gersonides, and others had more
subtle solutions for the problem of evil.
This explanation that physical evil is a divine retribution
for moral evil or sin, which Spinoza rightly or wrongly re-
produces as the only or the chief explanation that had been
advanced for the problem, leads him to revive the old ques-
tion, already raised in the Bible, especially in the Book of
Job, and repeated throughout the history of Jewish religious
literature as well as in the literature of other religions,
namely, that our observation does not confirm the belief
that physical evil is proportionate to moral evil, for "experi-
ence/* says Spinoza, "daily contradicted this, and showed
1 Ibid., Ill, 12. ' Ibid., Ill, 16, end.
^ Milhamot Adonai, IV, 3 (pp. 160-161); Introduction to his Commentary
on Job.
APPENDIX] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 431
by an infinity of examples that both the beneficial and the
injurious were indiscriminately bestowed on the pious and
the impious." Parallel passages in which the problem is
stated in similar terms can be picked up at random in almost
any mediaeval work dealing with this problem. But I shall
quote here only the following passage from Crescas: "The
great difficulty which cannot be solved completely ... is
the ill-order which is believed to exist in the world from
the fact of our observation that many worthy people are
like the dust at the feet of unworthy ones, and, in general,
the question why there is a righteous man who fares badly
and a wicked man who fares well, a question by which proph-
ets and philosophers have been perplexed unto this day." r
Many solutions are offered for this problem. Maimonides,
for instance, enumerates four theories, the Aristotelian, the
Scriptural or his own, the Mutazilite, and the Asharian, and
finds that Job and his three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite,
Bildad the Shuite, and Zophar the Naamathite, are respec-
tively the spokesmen of these four views. 2 Spinoza seems
to sum up all the solutions of the problem in the following
general statement: "Hence it was looked upon as indispu-
table that the judgments of the gods far surpass our com-
prehension." It is quite possible that this is all that the
various solutions ultimately amount to. Strictly speaking,
however, the solution mentioned here by Spinoza as typical
of all the solutions would, according to Maimonides, repre-
sent only the view of Zophar the Naamathite or of the
Ashariya.
In the second part of the Appendix we may discern four
arguments against final causes.
1 Or Adonaiy II, ii, i (p. 35b). Cf. Moreh Nebukim y III, 19; Milhamot Adonai y
IV, 2 (p. I 5 6).
3 Moreh Nebukim^ III, 17 and 23.
43* THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
The first two arguments seem to be directed against two
statements made by Heereboord. First, "the end is prior in
intention to the means." * Second, "God . . . works in
a most eminent way for an end, not one which is outside
himself . . . God has done all things for His own sake
. . . not that He stood in need of those things which He
made . . . which view the scholastics explain in the fol-
lowing manner: God has done all things for an end, not
of want but of assimilation/' that is to say "in order to
benefit other things which are outside himself," 2 by assimi-
lating them to himself, i.e., by making them like himself.
Now, in the Cogitata Metaphysica> where Spinoza does not
choose to enter into controversy with those "who ask
whether God had not determined for himself beforehand
an end for the sake of which He had created the world," he
is quite willing to say that "a created object is one which
presupposes for its existence nothing except God," and to
supplement this statement by the explanation that "if God
had predetermined for himself some end, it evidently was
not independent of God, for there is nothing apart from
God by which He was influenced to action." 3 But here in
the Ethics he rejects any conception of end, even if it be
nothing apart from God himself. Heereboord's first state-
ment which declares the priority of the end to the means
is characterized by Spinoza as one which "altogether turns
nature upside down," for it makes the things which are im-
1 Meletemata Philosophica^ Disputationts ex Philosophia Selectae y Vol. II, Disp.
XXIV, vni: "Finis est prior in intentione quam media."
3 Ibid., Disp. XXIV, vi-vn: "Deus . . . modo eminentissimo agit propter
finem, non qui extra se sit. . . . Deus omnia fecit propter se . . . non quod istis,
quae fecit, indigeret . . . quod Scholastici enunciarunt hoc modo; Deus omnia
fecit propter finem, non indigentiae, sed assimilationis, . . . ut bene aliis faciat,
quae sunt extra se, rebus." Cf. Baensch's note to this passage in his translation
of the Ethics.
* Cogitata Mttaphysica, II, 10.
APPENDIX] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 433
mediately produced by God to exist for the sake of things
produced by Him last. The second statement is simply
dismissed by him as a verbal quibble and he insists that "if
God works to obtain an end, He necessarily seeks something
of which He stands in need/' and thus "this doctrine does
away with God's perfection."
The third argument deals with the scholastic theory of
the concurrence of God (concur sus Dei), of which there is an
elaborate discussion in Heereboord. 1 This theory, which is
repeatedly stated by Descartes in several different connec-
tions, 2 is explained in Spinoza's restatement of Descartes
to mean that "each single moment God continually creates
things as if anew," from which it follows "that things in
themselves have no power to do anything or to determine
themselves to any action." 3 A similar explanation of Des-
cartes' principle is given by Blyenbergh in a letter to Spinoza:
"Following your assertion, creation and preservation are
one and the same thing, and God makes not things only,
but also the motions and modes of things, to continue in
their own state, that is, concurs in them." From this Blyen-
bergh infers "that nothing can happen against the will of
God." 4 Here in the Ethics he illustrates the theory of con-
currence by the following example: "For, by way of ex-
ample, if a stone has fallen from some roof on somebody's
head and killed him, they will demonstrate in this manner
that the stone has fallen in order to kill the man. For if it
did not fall for that purpose by the will of God, how could
so many circumstances concur through chance (and a num-
1 Meletemata Philosophica> Disputationes ex Philosophia Sclcctae^ Vol. I, Disps.
VI1-XII.
a Principia Philosophiac, II, 36. For other references to Descartes and parallel
passages in scholastic authors, see Gilson, Index Schofastico-Carttsicn, 81, and cf.
IIO-II2.
J Cogitata Mctaphysica, II, 11. * Epistola 20.
434 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
her often simultaneously do concur)?" 1 He concludes by
characterizing the exponents of this view in the following
words: "And so they all fly to God, the refuge for igno-
rance/' a A similar description of the Asharian view that
every occurrence is determined by the direct intervention
of God's absolute will is given by Maimonides in the follow-
ing passages: "For example, when a storm or gale blows, it
causes undoubtedly some leaves of a tree to drop, breaks off
some branches of another tree, tears away a stone from a
heap of stones, raises dust over herbs and spoils them, and
stirs up the sea so that a ship goes down with the whole or
part of her contents." 3 Now the Mohammedan Ashariya
"admit that Aristotle is correct in assuming one and the same
cause [the wind] for the fall of leaves [from the tree] and for
the death of a man [drowned in the sea]. But they hold at
the same time that the wind did not blow by chance; it is
God that caused it to move; it is not therefore the wind
that caused the leaves to fall; each leaf fell according to
the divine decree; it is God who caused it to fall at a certain
time and in a certain place; it could not have fallen before
or after that time or in another place, as this had previously
been decreed." 4
The fourth argument 5 is directed against the alleged evi-
dence of design that may be discerned in the structure of the
human body. Cicero makes use of this sort of evidence.
"But we may yet more easily comprehend that the world
was given by the immortal gods to men, if we examine
thoroughly into the structure of the body and the form and
perfection of human nature." 6 Among the several examples
1 Opera, II, p. 80, 1. 35~p. 81, 1. 2. a Ibid., p. 81, 11. 10-11.
3 Moreh Nebukim, III, 17, Second Theory.
Ibid., Third Theory.
s Opera, II, p. 81, 11. n ff.
6 De Natura Deorum, II, 54, 133.
APPENDIX] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 435
which indicate design in the structure of the human body
he mentions the delicate structure of the eye, which he de-
scribes in some detail. 1 The same evidence is used also by
Maimonides. Like Cicero, he illustrates it by a description
of the structure of the eye, and then concludes: "In short,
considering the humor of the eye, its membranes and nerves,
with their well-known functions, and their adaptation to the
purpose of sight, can any intelligent person imagine that all
this is due to chance? Certainly not . . . but is according
to our view the result of the action of an intelligent being/' 2
Spinoza's answer to this alleged evidence of design is that
it is based on ignorance, for "when they behold the structure
of the human body, they are amazed; and because they are
ignorant of the causes of such art, they conclude that the
body was made not by mechanical but by divine or super-
natural art/' Note the difference between Maimonides'
passage and Spinoza's passage in the choice of an oppositional
term to "intelligent being" or "divine art." In Maimonides
the oppositional term is "chance," i.e., without any cause;
in Spinoza it is "mechanical art," i.e., necessary efficient
causation. Maimonides, however, was not ignorant of "me-
chanical art" as a possible alternative for "chance" in op-
position to "intelligent being," for between his premise that
the structure of the eye could not be the work of chance and
his conclusion that it must be the work of an intelligent
agent he inserts the statements that " this is an artistic organ-
ization " and that " nature has no intelligence and no organiz-
ing faculty, as has been accepted by all philosophers," and
it is in consequence of this that we must assume that it is
the work of an intelligent agent. In short, Maimonides
maintains that the artistic organization of the structure of
' Ibid., II, 57, 142.
a Moreh Nebukim, III, 19.
436 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
the eye eliminates not only the assumption of " chance "
but also the assumption of a "mechanical art/' and points
to a "divine art" as its only possible explanation.
In the third part of the Appendix Spinoza shows how from
the conception of final causes and from the belief that all
things are made for man there has been formed the concep-
tion of good, evil, order, confusion, heat, cold, beauty, and
deformity. Here, too, Spinoza is transforming a statement
used by those who believe in the existence of final causes
into an argument against them. The statement which must
have given rise to Spinoza's argument here is found in Heere-
boord. He says: "The end produces the means; not only
does it produce them, but it also endows them with goodness,
measure, and order/' l In his criticism of this statement
Spinoza is trying to establish the principle that good and
evil in all their variety of forms are only relative to man
"they do not reveal the nature of anything in itself, but only
the constitution of the imagination." This is not an espe-
cially new view. Maimonides has fully developed it, and the
following are a few characteristic expressions used by him:
"Evils are evils only in relation to a certain thing. . . . All
evils are privations. ... It cannot be said of God that He
directly creates evil. . . . His works are all perfectly good." 2
In letters to Blyenbergh Spinoza uses almost the same ex-
pressions as Maimonides: "But I for my part cannot admit
that sin and evil are something positive . . . for the evil in
it [Adam's disobedience] was no more than a privation of a
more perfect state which Adam had to lose through that
action." 3 "I think that I have sufficiently shown that that
which gives its form to evil, error, or crimes does not con-
1 Meletemata Philosophica, Disputationes ex Philosophia Selectae^ Vol. II, Disp.
XXIII, vn: "Finis causat media, nee causat solummodo, sed dat illis bonitatem,
mensuram, et ordinem." a March Nebukim, III, 10.
a Epistola 19 (Opera, IV, p. 88, 11. 10-11; p. 91, 11. 4-6).
APPENDIX] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 437
sist in anything which expresses essence, and that there-
fore it cannot be said that God is the cause thereof/' l Simi-
larly in Cogitata Metaphysica he repeats the words of Mai-
monides in saying that "a thing considered in itself is called
neither good nor evil, but only in respect to another being,
which it helps to acquire what is desired, or the contrary/' 2
The direct influence of Maimonides upon Spinoza's treat-
ment of evil is evident beyond any doubt in Short 'Treatise,
I, 4. Spinoza raises there the question how it is possible for
a perfect God to permit confusion to be seen everywhere in
nature. The term "confusion" reflects the expression "ab-
sence of order" used by Maimonides 3 and its similar ex-
pression "ill-order" which occurs frequently in Gersonides
and Crescas. 4 Spinoza denies that there is real confusion in
nature. What we call confusion is simply a deviation from
certain general ideas which we have set up as exemplars of
perfection. He then dismisses the existence of general ideas,
referring in the course of his discussion to those who say
that "God has no knowledge of particular and transient
things, but only of the general, which in their opinion are
imperishable," and concludes that "God then is the cause
of, and providence over, particular things only." Now,
Maimonides, in a similar way, after discussing the problem
whether Providence extends only to the species or also to
the individuals, 5 proceeds to say that "species and other
general ideas are only things of reason, whilst everything
that exists outside the mind is an individual object, or an
aggregate of individual objects. This being granted, it must
be further admitted that the divine influence, which exists
1 Epistola 23. a Cogitata Metaphysica , I, 6.
3 MorehNebukim,ll\ y 19: 1HD Tiyn, fUi^ 1 ^ac.
* Milhamot Adonai> IV, 2 (p. 156); Or Adonai y II, ii, 2 (p. 35b): "ttlDH JJV1.
s March Nebukim, III, 17.
438 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
in union with the human species, that is, the human intel-
lect, is that which exists in union with the individual intel-
lects, that is to say, that which emanates in Reuben, Simeon,
Levi, and Judah." x More especially, Spinoza's reference to
" those who follow Aristotle/' who "say that these things
are not real things, only things of reason/' would seem to
draw upon Maimonides* statement "that species and other
general ideas are only things of reason."
This conception of the relativity of good and evil is ex-
pressed by Spinoza in the Short Treatise by the statement
that they are "entities of reason" (entia rationis) as opposed
to "real entities" (entia rea/ia), for among the entities of
reason, he says, are included all relations, and "good and
evil are only relations." 2 Here in the Ethics^ however,
Spinoza goes still further and calls good and evil "entities
(entia) not of the reason (rationis) but of the imagination
(imaginationis) "
The Appendix is concluded by Spinoza with the question
"'why God has not created all men in such a manner that
they might be controlled by the dictates of reason alone." 3
The question is an old one. Judah ha-Levi, for instance, puts
it in this way: "Would it not have been better or more com-
mensurate with divine wisdom, if all mankind had been
guided in the true path?" 4 Descartes, too, has raised it.
"And, finally, I must also not complain that God concurs
with me in forming the acts of the will, that is the judgment
in which I go astray." 5 But "I nevertheless perceive that
God could easily have created me so that I never could err,
although I still remained free and endowed with a limited
1 Ibid.
2 Short Treatise ', I, 10. Cf. above, pp. 161-162.
3 Opera, II, p. 83, 11. 26-27.
* Cuzari, I, 102.
s Mcditationes, IV (Ocuvrcs, VII, p. 60, 11. 26-28).
APPENDIX] NECESSITY AND PURPOSELESSNESS 439
knowledge/' x Spinoza has raised the same question also
in the Short Treatise: "Against all this others object: how
is it possible that God, who is said to be supremely perfect,
and the sole cause, disposer, and provider of all, nevertheless
permits such confusion to be seen everywhere in nature?
Also, why has He not made man so as not to be able to sin ? " 2
The question was also addressed to Spinoza in a letter by
Blyenbergh. 3
Two answers to this question given by Descartes are made
use of by Spinoza.
First, Descartes denies that acts of error and sin have any
positive existence with reference to God, for " these acts are
entirely true and good, inasmuch as they depend on God." 4
This answer is followed by Spinoza in the Short Treatise,
in his letter to Blyenbergh, 5 and in the Second Part of the
Ethics. 6 To quote the Short Treatise: " As regards the other
[objection], why God has not made mankind so that they
should not sin, to this it may serve [as an answer], that what-
ever is said about sin is only said with reference to us." 7
Second, Descartes maintains that error and sin were made
possible by God for the special purpose of adding to the per-
fection of the universe as a whole. " And it is easy for me to
understand that, in so far as I consider myself alone, and
as if there were only myself in the world, I should have been
much more perfect than I am, if God had created me so that
I could never err. Nevertheless I cannot deny that in some
sense it is a greater perfection in the whole universe that cer-
ibid. (p. 61,11.9-11).
Short Treatise, I, 6, 6.
Epistola 22 (Opera, IV, p. 142, 11. 26 ff.).
Meditationes, IV (Oeuvres, VII, p. 60, 11. 28-29).
Epistola 23 (Opera, IV, p. 147, 11. i ff.).
Props. 33 and 35. Cf. below, Vol. II, pp. in ff.
7 Short Treatise, I, 6, 8.
440 THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, i
tain parts should not be exempt from error as others are than
that all parts should be exactly similar." ' This answer in
the form in which it is given by Descartes is not reproduced
by Spinoza, and he did not reproduce it for the self-evident
reason that he did not believe that anything was created by
God for any purpose, even for the perfection of the universe
as a whole. But there is in Spinoza an answer which upon a
close examination appears to be only a revised form of this
answer of Descartes. Error and sin exist in the world, he
argues in effect, not because they are to contribute to the
perfection of the whole universe but because their exclusion
from the world would be contradictory to the conception of
God as infinitely great and powerful. Given a God whose
greatness and power are infinite, he seems to argue, such a
God must be able to produce by the necessity of His nature
everything conceivable, and that includes also sin. This is
the meaning of the following concluding passage in the
Appendix: "I give but one answer: Because to Him ma-
terial was not wanting for the creation of everything, from
the highest down to the very lowest grade of perfection; or>
to speak more properly, because the laws of His nature were
so ample that they sufficed for the production of everything
which can be conceived by an infinite intellect. " 2
1 Meditationes, IV (Oeuvres, VII, p. 61, 11. 17-23).
' Opera, II, p. 83, 11. 27-32.
