Spinoza's Concept on one Substance

Spinoza's concept on One Substance

Introduction to Philosophy

This research paper will explain what a substance is. It also describes the Spinoza's argument that there is only one substance through arguing the existence of God. Finally it will discuss the similarities of Spinoza and Leibniz dealing with the concept of substance.

Although Spinoza is considered one of the most important philosophers and certainly the most radical of the early modern period, I personally never knew about his philosophy until recently.[Nadler, 2011] Currently taking a Philosophy class, we read and discussed Spinoza's reasoning a couple of weeks ago. Rather than the popular Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes, I decided to do this research paper on Burach Spinoza instead.

Burach Spinoza worked and retired as a lens maker. Not only did it bring home "the bacon," it was the practical aspect of his theoretical knowledge of optics. [Hakim, 2006: p.271] Closer to his retirement, he was the center of active philosophy. [Hakim, 2006: p.271] He wasn't the center of active philosophy because of the publication of his works, but because of his privately circulated papers. [Hakim, 2006: p.271] His main interest is "the conduct of human life," which was entitled his major work. [Hakim, 2006: p.271] Over all the works that Spinoza has done, my main interest was his conception of one substance. Spinoza's understanding of substance differs from Descartes in two aspects. In Descartes case, he thinks that there are two main types of substance, three if you include God. Those types include the mind and the body. On the other hand Burach thinks that there is only one kind. Also, Spinoza believes that there are only one particular substance rather than many. Spinoza's statement of the definition of substance states, "By substance, I understand that which exists in itself, and is conceived by itself, i.e., that which does not need the conception of any other thing in order to be conceived." [Weber, 1908] In his works, Spinoza interchangeably uses substance, nature or God. [Hakim, 2006: p.271] Burach makes a huge point that God is the only substance in all existence. His philosophical vision is of reality as a whole, as one; if one reality is given, only one substance is given. [Hakim, 2006: p.271] Therefore, if there is only one substance, everything is one with substance, or one with nature or one with God. [Hakim, 2006: p.271] Substance has to be infinite which holds infinite attributes; for anything less than infinite would mean that it could not be "formed independently of any other conception" The substance infinite attributes each express eternal and infinite essentiality. [Hakim, 2006: p.271] Spinoza argued that there is only one substance through arguing the existence of God