PHILOS 25B Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Baruch Spinoza, Monism, No Substance
Document Summary
Recap: spinoza argues for monism, the idea that there is only one substance in the universe, he does this in propositions 1-15. Proposition 5: this proposition depends on the idea that the plurality of substances of the same attribute necessitates a way to distinguish them. Spinoza says there is no way to distinguish them, so there can be no plurality. Spinoza"s claim is not just an epistemic claim. It"s not about our being able to distinguish substances. It"s about whether are actually any grounds in nature for this individuation. He says we can only possibly distinguish substances by: differences in their attributes, differences in their affections. For substances of the same attribute, we can"t distinguish them based on their attributes and must appeal to their affections: but spinoza thinks this doesn"t work either. In other words, we have to presuppose there are two distinct substances in order to prove there are two distinct substances.
