Combining Texts

Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Belief Truth and Knowledge' and 'The Ethics'

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5 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 2. Types of Existence
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)?
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 5. Reason for Existence
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.
7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 1. Grounding / a. Nature of grounding
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)
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 5. Naturalism
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'.