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Full Idea
God is not only the efficient cause of the existence of things, but also of their essence.
Gist of Idea
God is the efficient cause of essences, as well as of existences
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], I Pr 25)
Book Ref
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics', ed/tr. White,WH/Stirling,AH [Wordsworth 2001], p.25
A Reaction
This is close to Leibniz's view that the so-called 'laws of nature' are not imposed by God from outside, but are rooted with nature, in the essences of what has been created (which is modern scientific essentialism).
| 8152 | Earth, food, fire, sun are all forms of Brahman [Anon (Upan)] |
| 2631 | Antisthenes says there is only one god, which is nature [Antisthenes (I), by Cicero] |
| 20807 | The cosmos and heavens are the substance of god [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius] |
| 6038 | Stoics say god is matter, or an inseparable quality of it, or is the power within it [Stoic school, by Chalcidius] |
| 18461 | Everything existing proceeds from divinity, and is within divinity [Porphyry] |
| 7256 | In Utopia, the Supreme Being is identical with Nature [More,T] |
| 12757 | That God is the substance of all things is an ill-reputed doctrine [Leibniz on Spinoza] |
| 17180 | Everything is in God, and nothing exists or is thinkable without God [Spinoza] |
| 17181 | God is the efficient cause of essences, as well as of existences [Spinoza] |
| 4829 | The human mind is part of the infinite intellect of God [Spinoza] |
| 19408 | To say that nature or the one universal substance is God is a pernicious doctrine [Leibniz] |
| 7580 | Pantheism destroys the distinction between good and evil [Kierkegaard] |