Descartes Spinoza Descartes vs. Spinoza

Descartes Spinoza

Descartes vs. Spinoza on God

Both Spinoza and Descartes define God as a perfect and infinite being. However, Descartes' proof for the existence of God requires that God, be separate from man. In contrast, Spinoza believed that God is not separate from man or separate from anything else, but that God is all things because God is the only thing. Through his restrictive notion of substances and attributes, Spinoza demonstrates that, if God is truly infinite, as both him and Descartes believe, God could never create anything which is separate from God.

Descartes

Descartes argues that God is a perfect and infinite being and that man, an imperfect and finite being is incapable of grasping a perfect and infinite being such as God. Descartes establishes that an imperfect being cannot think up the notion of a perfect being, writing that it "It does not matter that I don't grasp the infinite, or that there are countless additional attributes of God that I can't grasp and perhaps can't even touch in my thought; for it is in the nature of the infinite not to be grasped by a finite being like myself."

Because he cannot possibly grasp the notion of God, he concludes that the notion of a perfect being must have originated from the perfect being himself, writing that "…I judge that all the attributes that I clearly perceive and know to imply some perfection…are present in God either straightforwardly or in some higher form." He concludes the mere fact that "I exist and have within me an idea of a most perfect being -- that is, God -- provides a clear proof that God does indeed exist."

Spinoza

Spinoza's argument for God closely follows Descarte's argument until Spinoza refines his definition of "infinite" and introduces his definitions of substances and attributes. He defines "God" as being "a thing that is absolutely infinite," meaning God has all attributes. This is distinguished from being "infinite in its own kind," infinite in certain attributes but not all attributes. Spinoza defines "substance" as "what is in itself and is conceived through itself, i.e. that whose concept doesn't have to be formed out of the concept of something else." He defines "attribute" as "what the intellect perceives of a substance as constituting its essence."

Spinoza sets up his argument for the nondivisibility of God by establishing that substances are exclusive. In Proposition 2, he establishes that "Two substances having different attributes have nothing in common with one another." In proposition 5, he establishes that "In Nature there cannot be two or more substances having the same nature or attribute."

Spinoza demonstrates that, if God is infinite, God can never create anything which is separate from God.

In Proposition 3, he establishes that "If things have nothing in common with one another, one of them cannot be the cause of the other." In proposition 6, he establishes that "One substance can't be produced by another substance."

With these definitions and propositions established, Spinoza proceeds to demonstrate that there can only be one substance in the universe. (P14) to prove this, he writes, "Since God is an absolutely infinite thing, of whom no attribute expressing an essence of substance can be denied (by 6), and God necessarily exists (by 11), if there were a substance other than God it would have to be explained through some attribute of God; but explanations can flow only within attributes, not from one attribute to another; and so two substances with an attribute in common would exist, which (by 5) is absurd."