more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Nature's laws ....are everywhere and always the same; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely through nature's universal laws and rules.
Gist of Idea
Laws of nature are universal, so everything must be understood through those laws
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], III Pref)
Book Ref
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics, Improvement of Understanding, Letters', ed/tr. Elwes,R [Dover 1955], p.129
A Reaction
Leiter calls this Methodological Naturalism, which says that the procedures and findings of philosophy should conform to those of science. I think I'm also a Substantive Naturalist, who says 'that's all there is'.
21268 | Non-human things are explicable naturally, and voluntary things by the will, so God is not needed [Aquinas] |
20127 | Laws of nature are universal, so everything must be understood through those laws [Spinoza] |
24151 | I only want thinking that is anchored in body, senses and earth [Nietzsche] |
20123 | First see nature as non-human, then fit ourselves into this view of nature [Nietzsche] |
18391 | 'Naturalism' says only the world of space-time exists [Armstrong] |
3509 | Externalism may be the key idea in philosophical naturalism [Papineau] |