more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
To say that nature itself or the substance of all things is God is a pernicious doctrine, recently introduced into the world or renewed by a subtle or profane author.
Gist of Idea
To say that nature or the one universal substance is God is a pernicious doctrine
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (On Nature Itself (De Ipsa Natura) [1698], 8)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'Philosophical Essays', ed/tr. Arlew,R /Garber,D [Hackett 1989], p.160
A Reaction
The dastardly profane author is, of course, Spinoza, whom Leibniz had met in 1676. The doctrine may be pernicious to religious orthodoxy, but to me it is rather baffling, since in my understanding nature and God have almost nothing in common.
| 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] |