Editing Baruch Spinoza (section)

=====Substance, attributes, and modes=====
{{Blockquote|Spinoza sets forth a vision of Being, illuminated by his awareness of God. They may seem strange at first sight. To the question "What is?" he replies: "Substance, its attributes, and modes".|[[Karl Jaspers]]{{sfn|Jaspers|1974|p=9}}}}

Following [[Maimonides]], Spinoza defined [[Substance theory|substance]] as "that which is in itself and is conceived through itself", meaning that it can be understood without any reference to anything external.<ref name=Scruton41>{{harvnb|Scruton|2002|page=41}}</ref> Being conceptually independent also means that the same thing is [[Ontology|ontologically]] independent, depending on nothing else for its existence and being the 'cause of itself' (''causa sui'').<ref name=Scruton41 /> A mode is something which cannot exist independently but rather must do so as part of something else on which it depends, including properties (for example color), relations (such as size) and individual things.<ref name=Scruton42>{{harvnb|Scruton|2002|page=42}}</ref> Modes can be further divided into 'finite' and 'infinite' ones, with the latter being evident in every finite mode (he gives examples of "motion" and "rest").{{sfn|Scruton|2002|page=43}} The traditional understanding of an [[Property (philosophy)|attribute]] in philosophy is similar to Spinoza's modes, though he uses that word differently.<ref name=Scruton42 /> To him, an attribute is "that which the intellect perceives as constituting the essence of substance", and there are possibly an infinite number of them.{{sfn|Scruton|2002|page=44}} It is the essential nature that is "attributed" to reality by intellect.{{sfn|Scruton|2002|page=45}}
[[File:Portrait of a man, thought to be Baruch de Spinoza, attributed to Barend Graat.jpg|thumb|180px|Probable portrait of Spinoza, by [[Barend Graat]], 1666]]

Spinoza defined [[God]] as "a substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence", and since "no cause or reason" can prevent such a being from existing, it must exist.{{sfn|Scruton|2002|page=45}} This is a form of the [[ontological argument]], which is claimed to prove the existence of God, but Spinoza went further in stating that it showed that only God exists.<ref name=Scruton38>{{harvnb|Scruton|2002|page=38}}</ref> Accordingly, he stated that "Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can exist or be conceived without God".<ref name=Scruton38 />{{sfn|Lin|2007|p=273}} This means that God is identical with the universe, an idea which he encapsulated in the phrase "''Deus sive Natura''" ('God or Nature'), which some have interpreted as [[atheism]] or [[pantheism]].{{sfn|Scruton|2002|page=51}} Though there are many more of them, God can be known by humans through either the attribute of extension or the attribute of thought.{{sfn|Scruton|2002|page=57}} Thought and extension represent giving complete accounts of the world in mental or physical terms.{{sfn|Scruton|2002|page=59}} To this end, he says that "the mind and the body are one and the same thing, which is conceived now under the attribute of thought, now under the attribute of extension".{{sfn|Scruton|2002|p=60}}

After stating his proof for God's existence, Spinoza addresses who "God" is. Spinoza believed that God is "the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator".<ref>Cannon, J. A. (2009, May 17). World in time of upheaval: Sources of enlightenment. Deseret News.</ref> Spinoza attempts to prove that God is just the substance of the universe by first stating that substances do not share attributes or essences and then demonstrating that God is a "substance" with an infinite number of attributes, thus the attributes possessed by any other substances must also be possessed by God. Therefore, God is just the sum of all the substances of the universe. God is the only substance in the universe, and everything is a part of God. This view was described by [[Charles Hartshorne]] as [[Classical Pantheism]].<ref name="auto4">Charles Hartshorne and William Reese, "Philosophers Speak of God", Humanity Books, 1953 ch. 4</ref>

Spinoza argues that "things could not have been produced by God in any other way or in any other order than is the case".<ref>Baruch Spinoza. ''Ethics'', in'' Spinoza: Complete Works'', trans. by Samuel Shirley and ed. by Michael L. Morgan (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2002), see Part I, Proposition 33.</ref> Therefore, concepts such as 'freedom' and 'chance' have little meaning.{{sfn|Scruton|2002|page=51}} This picture of Spinoza's determinism is illuminated in ''Ethics'': "the infant believes that it is by free will that it seeks the breast; the angry boy believes that by free will he wishes vengeance; the timid man thinks it is with free will he seeks flight; the drunkard believes that by a free command of his mind he speaks the things which when sober he wishes he had left unsaid. … All believe that they speak by a free command of the mind, whilst, in truth, they have no power to restrain the impulse which they have to speak."{{sfn|Curley|1996|p=73}} In his letter to G. H. Schuller (Letter 58), he wrote: "men are conscious of their desire and unaware of the causes by which [their desires] are determined."<ref>''Ethics'', Pt. I, Prop. XXXVI, Appendix: "[M]en think themselves free inasmuch as they are conscious of their volitions and desires, and never even dream, in their ignorance, of the causes which have disposed of them so to wish and desire."</ref> He also held that knowledge of true causes of passive emotion can transform it into an active emotion, thus anticipating one of the key ideas of [[Sigmund Freud]]'s [[psychoanalysis]].{{sfn|Scruton|2002|p=86}}

According to Eric Schliesser, Spinoza was skeptical regarding the possibility of knowledge of nature and as a consequence at odds with scientists such as Galileo and Huygens.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/9223/ |website=PhilSci-Archive |title = "Spinoza and the Philosophy of Science: Mathematics, Motion, and Being"|date = 9 July 2012}}</ref>