Spinoza on substance and the concept of God

Spinoza: "There can be, or be conceived, no other substance but God"

Spinoza, in the first chapter of his work "Ethics" uses a set of axioms, propositions and definitions which correlated one to the other become arguments which support the idea that "There can be, or be conceived no other substance but God." It is important to observe right from the very beginning the distinction between being and being conceived, a distinction which the author will deny. The "things" which exist, exist because there is an intellect which can conceive them.(D3)

The term "substance" is not to be analyzed in its literal meaning of matter, but rather in the metaphysical sense of "what is real," what is "true." The attributes are the elements which constitute the essence of substance. (D4) Substance being made of essence, it is safe to say that substance is essence and therefore truth. Being truth, according to Spinoza, it also becomes eternity. (D8 Eternity refers not to the continuous, uninterrupted dimension of time, but to the value of "truth"/essence of the existing entities).

God is absolutely infinite, which means that his infinite attributes make up an infinite and eternal essentiality. (D6). The only conclusion which can derive from this statement is no other substance can exist or be conceived outside God (since his attributes are infinite and there can not be two substances having the same nature or attributes PIV.) in addition, everything which exists, exists only in itself or in something else (A1). It results that all the things which exist or cab be conceived besides God exist in God. According to D5, the mode exists in and is conceived through something which is different from itself. Hence, everything that exists besides God can be considered a mode. However, it is stated that the modes are in fact modifications of substance.

Under these circumstances, it might be considered that modes modify the essence of the substance called God. It is known for God to be eternal (that is have a constant and absolute value of truth). Thus, it can be deduced that these modifications do not alter the truth value of God, but only contribute to its realization. Since everything that exists, exists in God and is a result not of his will, but of his very existence (God could not have decided otherwise, the fact that he exists is a direct and necessary cause for anything else to exist), one could not help but wonder if and if yes, then why, is evil part of the entire equation as well. The first answer might not be a yes or a no, but might belong to another perspective, that is a purely theoretical, conceptual one.

Since all the existing things exist in God and are conceived through him, being a direct response to his very existence, then one might argue that all the things are effects of the existence of God. Since an effect follows a definite cause, the conclusion is that God is such a definite cause. The fact that he is infinite does not represent a contradiction, on the contrary, its infinite potential demonstrates how he can be positioned as the definite cause of everything.

If everything is in God, does that mean that knowing every little thing will allow us to know God? Or is the total more than just the sum of its parts? The latter version seems to be a more appropriate of an answer. Substance exists a priori to its modifications (PI). This means they will derive from it, having its very essence and not a different one. In other words, it is substance that can be decomposed by the intellect into a multitude of modes and not the other way around (it would be absurd to take the existing modes, analyze them and put them together in order to conceive a total, that is, the substance, God).

This statement is also demonstrated by the second note that Spinoza makes in order to better explain PVIII, that is modifications can exist only in something which is external to themselves and the intellect form a conception of them only through a conception of the very thing which contains them.

Another question which comes into mind is what or who conceived God. The answer is that God conceived itself. On the one hand, if he is infinite and two substances would have to be different in order to exist, and God has the monopoly on all the attributes, it is obvious that another substance other than God could not exist in order to cause the existence of him.

PIII says that things with nothing in common can not be one the cause of another. It has also been stated that God is infinite. This leaves no room for another substance. Should this substance exist, it would have the same attributes, and hence, the same essence as God. But that would mean they would be self caused (D1) and finite after their kind (D2). This is just another means of saying that God exists in himself and is conceived through himself. And at the same time, it is a proof that there can not be two or more substances which have the same nature or attribute (PV).

A further proof to the fact God must be its own cause is represented by PVII, according to which existence belongs to the nature of substance. Nothing external from substance can be the cause of substance and essence implies existence. In other words, God is conceived through himself. Not only does his infinity prevent any other substance from existing, but nothing that could exist outside it would have the power to conceive it.

The arguments which Spinoza came up with keep turning on themselves in a circular manner. Had two substances existed, that means they would have been to be finite, that is limit each other through that which they are and through their very existence / conception. This also means that they would have to be part of the same "category," that is have an identical attribute. This contradicts PV (there can not be two or more substances with the same nature or attribute), hence it is false and existence is necessarily infinite. The infinite is just one, God is infinite, therefore, God is the only existing substance.

Taking into consideration P. IX, according to which the more reality a being has, the bigger the number of attributes that this one has, it can be stated that since all the attributes are the attributes of God (not just the existing ones, but also all the potential ones) then God is the absolute reality. This leaves room for the question regarding the existence of evil, where by "evil" one understand the opposed value of God, which is "good." Should Spinoza be right and God (good) be the only reality, it would mean either that evil is good too (which is a contradiction) or that evil is not reality, but a mere illusion. Evil exists for sure, or at least this is how disasters in the world such as war, famine, sickness, murders are considered. They are either good and perceived as evil, because they are not judged through the correct perspective or they are evil as essence and evil is a necessary attribute of God as well.

or, one could leave aside the perception of evil as an attribute of the only existing substance, God, and consider it to ne a mode of his. This means that evil is a modification of good, but it exists in God (not as a being, but as a concept) and can only be conceived through it. Since evil is the diametrical opposite of good this makes sense.