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Single Idea 4829

[filed under theme 28. God / C. Attitudes to God / 2. Pantheism ]

Full Idea

The human mind is part of the infinite intellect of God.

Gist of Idea

The human mind is part of the infinite intellect of God

Source

Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], II Pr 11)

Book Ref

Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics, Improvement of Understanding, Letters', ed/tr. Elwes,R [Dover 1955], p.91


A Reaction

What is the difference between being a part of something which totally fails to communicate with the whole, and being separate from the whole? Spinoza's proposal strikes me as daft.


The 12 ideas with the same theme [view that God and nature are identical]:

Earth, food, fire, sun are all forms of Brahman [Anon (Upan)]
Antisthenes says there is only one god, which is nature [Antisthenes (I), by Cicero]
The cosmos and heavens are the substance of god [Zeno of Citium, by Diog. Laertius]
Stoics say god is matter, or an inseparable quality of it, or is the power within it [Stoic school, by Chalcidius]
Everything existing proceeds from divinity, and is within divinity [Porphyry]
In Utopia, the Supreme Being is identical with Nature [More,T]
That God is the substance of all things is an ill-reputed doctrine [Leibniz on Spinoza]
Everything is in God, and nothing exists or is thinkable without God [Spinoza]
God is the efficient cause of essences, as well as of existences [Spinoza]
The human mind is part of the infinite intellect of God [Spinoza]
To say that nature or the one universal substance is God is a pernicious doctrine [Leibniz]
Pantheism destroys the distinction between good and evil [Kierkegaard]