Spinoza Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by faminconnue

- substances are indepe­ndent of one another
- substances can have nothing to do with one another
- existence is an attribute
- there is only one substance: God
- this substance his infinitely many attributes
-> the mind and body are the attributes we know

For Spinoza, God is the only real substance: monism
-> mind and body are not actually substa­nces, but only modes and hence do not interact (there thus is no mind/body problem)

According to him, Descartes' methodical doubt is unnece­ssary, because you can learn about the truth by thinking the truth
-> why look for something that you apparently already possess?

God's essence is the same as that of nature

There is only one substance (namely God) that has infinite attributes and these attributes have infinite modes. This substance only affects itself
-> "God is the immanent, not the transi­tive, cause of all things­"

According to Spinoza, Man is special because he can use reason, a reflection of which is found in his physical body and he can understand God from thought. Everything is a necessary mechanism

God is:
- the only substance
- indivi­sible
- eternal
- self-c­aused
- something with infinite attributes with infinite modes
God is not:
- beneficent (as he does not act according to reasons or purpose)
- guaran­teeing that we are not misled: reason does
- good: ethics are dependent on the conatus

a substance cannot come from another substance (P6)
-> since they're no shared attrib­utes, they have nothing in common; and that which has nothing in common can't cause on another

it's in the nature of the substance that it exists (P7)
-> existing cannot be determined by another substance, only by itself. and existence can only be an attribute
-> so, existence is an attribute of a substance and so it exists necess­arily
Because existence is an attribute of substance there can only be one existing substance (God)

According to Spinoza, there is no mind and body problem (contrary to Descar­tes).
The mind and body are indivi­sible attrib­utes* of God (not of substa­nces), since there is only one substance there is no problem of intera­ction.

According to Spinoza, everything that has a substance is always limited by one another
omnis determ­inatio est negation
-> in short, every determ­ination is negati­on/­lim­itation of God and thus a non-being

For Spinoza, geometry is the method­olo­gical model on which he bases his philosophy
-> specif­ically: Euclid's elements

starting from defini­tions and axioms he tries to prove certain propos­itions

the difference between axioms and defini­tions: defini­tions don’t give new inform­ation and just state what is already (widely) known, while an axiom is something that is so possible that it is suppos­ed/­assumed to be true but is not so necess­arily

Substance: is that which is in itself and can be conceived through itself and not through something else (def. 3)
-> can only be understood by itself; they are indepe­ndent of one another, they have nothing to do with one another
-> a substance has many/i­nfinite of attrib­utes, but we humans partake only two of them (extension and thought);
the only substance is God, who is infinite and oversh­adows the attribute

Attribute: is what is conceived as the essence of a substance (def. 4)
-> a necessary essence of the substance
-> substance has many (infinite) attrib­utes, but we humans partake only two of them (extension and thought).
The substance = God, who is infinite and oversh­adows the attributes (monist)

Mode: is the affection of substance, that which is in something else and conceived through something else (def. 5)
-> something which the substance is affected with but could be different/ is contingent

example: Socrates has a pot-belly
- substance: Socrates
- attribute: being human
- mode: having a pot-belly

prepar­atory work
- P1: substance is by nature prior to its affections
-> a mode can only exist in something else
- P2: two substances having different attributes have nothing in common
-> otherwise unders­tanding the one substance requires the other and would thus it would not be a substance
- P3: when things have nothing in common, one cannot be the cause of the other

uncoupled substances
- P4: two or more distinct things are distin­guished by attributes or modes
-> these are things the unders­tanding can separate and everything is either in itself or something else
- P5: in the universe, there cannot be two or more substances of the same nature or attribute
-> if there are two substances with the same attribute, we cannot use this to distin­guish them
-> modes can only differ­entiate depending on substances (P1)