Raven wrote on Jul 5^th, 2020 at 3:06am:


"Atheism" is silent on morality. I think you mean Humanism.

Ayn Marx wrote on Oct 14^th, 2021 at 10:05am:



According to Spinoza, everything that exists is either a substance or a mode (E1a1). A substance is something that needs nothing else in order to exist or be conceived. Substances are independent entities both conceptually and ontologically (E1d3). A mode or property is something that needs a substance in order to exist, and cannot exist without a substance (E1d5). For example, being furry, orange, hungry, angry, etc. are modes that need a substance which is furry, orange, hungry, angry, etc. Hunger and patches of orange color cannot exist floating around on their own, but rather, hunger and patches of orange color need something (namely, a substance) to be hungry and have the orange color. Hunger and colors are, therefore, dependent entities or modes.

According to almost all of Spinoza’s predecessors (including Aristotle and Descartes) there are lots of substances in the universe, each with their own modes or properties. For example, according to Descartes a cat is a substance which has the modes or properties of being furry, orange, soft, etc. (Though some have argued that Descartes cannot actually individuate multiple extended substances. See Curley 1988, 15-19; 141-2 n. 9.) Spinoza, however, rejects this traditional view and argues instead that there is only one substance, called “God” or “Nature.” Cats, dogs, people, rocks, etc. are not substances in Spinoza’s view, but rather, cats, dogs, people, rocks, etc. are just modes or properties of one substance. This one substance is simply people-like in places, rock-like in other places, chair-like in still other places, etc.

One can think of substance as an infinite space. Some regions of this one space are hard and brown (rocks), other regions of space are green, juicy, and soft (plants), while still other regions are furry, orange, and soft (cats), etc. As a cat walks across the room all that happens in Spinoza’s view is that different regions of space become successively furry, orange, and soft (See Bennett 1984: 88-92 for more on space and the extended substance in Spinoza).

This one substance has an infinite number of attributes. An attribute is simply an essence; a “what it is to be” that kind of thing. According to Descartes, every substance has only one attribute: bodies have only the attribute of extension, and minds have only the attribute of thought. Spinoza, however, argues against this claim that the one substance is absolutely infinite and so it must exist in every way that something can exist. Thus, he infers that the one substance must have an infinite number of attributes (E1p9). An attribute, according to Spinoza, is just the essence of substance under some way of conceiving or describing the substance (E1d4). When we consider substance one way, then we conceive of its essence as extension. When we consider substance another way, then we conceive of its essence as thought. (See Della Rocca 1996a: 164-167.) While substance has an infinite number of different attributes, Spinoza argues that human beings only know about two of them: extension and thought.
Etc

You asked about the infinite. Spinoza explained it.

That Kant argued the limits of reason to be its qualities of dimension and causality is irrelevant to infinity. You can conceive infinity as Spinoza shows, whether dimension is outside of reason or is a built in furniture of it.

If a substance is not infinite then another substance is limiting it, which in turn is infinite or else similarly limited.

And so the legs of the elephants go ALL THE WAY DOWN, as the Hindus explain....

Ayn Marx wrote on Oct 14^th, 2021 at 1:26pm:

Infinite is something that has no limit. Anything that has limit is limited by something else.
What has no limit, ie is not limited by something else?
God, as Spinoza explained. God is the only substance that has nothing outside it to limit it.
What is god? Spinoza used 'nature' (in the sense of 'all that is') interchangeably with 'god'.
God has infinite attributes, which are of two kinds: things and ideas.


It is very interesting and very intelligent - so you may well pass, or else it will pass you. But Einstein, for example, thought that Spinoza came closest to philosophy being actually true.
Spinoza was formally excommunicated by the Jews of Amsterdam and was shuned by every organised Christian Church.
He was called both an atheist and one brimming with god.

There is more to him than what I sketched here but this is the start.

Oh - and he wasn't gay so he's no use for justifying yourself.