display all the ideas for this combination of texts
5 ideas
17174 | Outside the mind, there are just things and their properties [Spinoza] |
Full Idea: Outside the intellect, there is nothing but substances and their affections. | |
From: Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], I Pr 04) | |
A reaction: This is pretty close to the very sparse ontology espoused by modern philosophers who take their lead from the logic. |
17176 | The more reality a thing has, the more attributes it has [Spinoza] |
Full Idea: The more reality or being a thing possesses, the more attributes belong to it. | |
From: Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], I Pr 09) | |
A reaction: This commitment to degrees of existence (which I find baffling) is presumably to enable God to be the thing with infinite attributes, and an infinite degree of Being. What percentage of Being would you say you've got (on a good day)? |
17179 | There must always be a reason or cause why some triangle does or does not exist [Spinoza] |
Full Idea: If a triangle exists, there must be a reason or cause why it exists; and if it does not exist, there must be a reason or cause which hinders its existence or which negates it. | |
From: Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], I Pr 11) | |
A reaction: Hm. Spinoza is setting up a defence of the ontological argument, which seems to require that he lower his normal high standards of argument. |
17186 | Men say they prefer order, not realising that we imagine the order [Spinoza] |
Full Idea: Men prefer order to confusion, as if order were something in nature apart from our own imagination. | |
From: Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], IApp) |
20127 | Laws of nature are universal, so everything must be understood through those laws [Spinoza] |
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. | |
From: Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], III Pref) | |
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'. |