more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
In nature only one substance exists, and it is absolutely infinite.
Gist of Idea
In nature there is just one infinite substance
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], I Pr 10)
Book Ref
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics', ed/tr. White,WH/Stirling,AH [Wordsworth 2001], p.10
A Reaction
This seems to render the concept of 'substance' redundant, since all the interest is now in the attributes (or whatever) of this one substance, and we must work to discount the appearance of there being numerous substances (e.g. you and me).
Related Idea
Idea 17176 The more reality a thing has, the more attributes it has [Spinoza]
| 1494 | Thales said water is the first principle, perhaps from observing that food is moist [Thales, by Aristotle] |
| 22745 | Pherecydes said the first principle and element is earth [Pherecydes, by Sext.Empiricus] |
| 1497 | For Anaximenes nature is air, which takes different forms by rarefaction and condensation [Anaximenes, by Simplicius] |
| 614 | Heraclitus said sometimes everything becomes fire [Heraclitus, by Aristotle] |
| 550 | Anaxagoras said that the number of principles was infinite [Anaxagoras, by Aristotle] |
| 21383 | The ultimate constituents of reality are the homoeomeries [Anaxagoras, by Vlastos] |
| 484 | Everything is ultimately a variation of one underlying thing [Diogenes of Apollonia] |
| 488 | Air is divine, because it is in and around everything, and arranges everything [Diogenes of Apollonia] |
| 13224 | There couldn't be just one element, which was both water and air at the same time [Aristotle] |
| 17177 | In nature there is just one infinite substance [Spinoza] |
| 6421 | Newton's four fundamentals are: space, time, matter and force [Newton, by Russell] |