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Spinoza: The Trinity: God-Man-Universe as One
The choice of Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
Spinoza creates a shell of Trinity of God-Man-Universe and he enters into his shell never to come out.
God as an Eternal Cause: God is Nature
Spinoza considers God as an eternal cause, immanent and efficient of everything, including thought'. But he considers that it is absurd to imagine the world as being created by a free act of the divine will'. Spinoza presumes God to be nature'. This presumption remains a philosophical speculation.
Fusion ( or Confusion) of Cause and Effect
The fundament of Spinozian thought is fusing' of cause and effect' together, namely God and nature'. It is contrary to monotheist religious presumptions where the universe and nature are separated; where the universe being an act of creation by a creator God who is extra-Universe.
Universe and nature are the handiwork of such creator-cause. Thus religions presume that God is prior to the universe and is not part of the universe as Spinoza presumes. To present his argument Spinoza rejects religion as a whole. He is another example of the individual choice to reject religious belief and
replace it by his own belief-system.
Spinoza defines his terms of the concept of God in the following manner:
"By God, I understand an absolutely infinite being, i.e. a substance consisting of infinity of attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essence" (1)
This is a terminological system that is redundant and self- assertive. Spinoza does not enter into a precise definition of nature nor of substance, in order to explain the presence, origin, dimension, function and laws of these phenomena. He does not explain how the substance was conceived and for what reason. He assumes that the "substance" is "God" who is
auto-productive. This presumption is the foundation of
Spinoza's idea that "Nature is God".
Confronting Substance
Spinoza is confronted with "substance" - basis of "things" - and concludes that such substance is God' and things' at one and the same time, i.e. substance constitutes being' which is God himself'.
He considers confrontation of man with the universe
"substance" as the means of reason "mind" to get to the "Being"- "God":
Proposition XXIV (fifth part) "The More we understand
particular things, the more we understand God" (2)
And for this reason, he assumes, man needs "duration of body":
Proposition XXII (fifth part): "the mind can imagine nothing and can remember things in the past except by the duration of body." (3)
Spinoza considers substance' as follows:
Proposal I (First part): "substance is former by nature to its assignments." (4)
Proposal III "If things do not have anything common between them, one cannot be the cause of the other". (5)
Proposal "In Nature there cannot be two or several substances of comparable nature or attribute" (6)
Proposal VI "One substance cannot be produced by another substance" (7)
Proposal VII "It belongs to the nature of the substance to exist" (8)
Proposal VIII "Any substance is necessarily infinite" (9)
Proposition IX "The more a thing possesses reality or being, the more attributes belong to it" (10)
Proposition X "Each attribute of a substance must be conceived by itself" (11)
From these propositions Spinoza presumes an idea of a God by necessity':
Proposal XI "God, in other words is a substance constituted of infinity of attributes, of which each of these expresses an eternal and infinite essence, exists necessarily" (12)
Assumption with no Support
The arguments of Spinoza are founded on propositional assumptions. He does not define Substance. The assumption for the existence of God is based on an assumed necessity'.
"Necessity" is a presumption that cannot be proven. It is presumed "to force an idea" that needs validation.
The presumption that "God" is a "substance" as well as the "attributes" invented by Spinoza ("essence", "eternal" and "infinite") are the personal convictions of its author. The presumption by Spinoza of "God" who "exists" "necessarily" is a subjective personal belief.
The premises advanced here need valid evidence and not only assertive conjectural repetitions.
Spinoza assumes further:
Proposal XIV "Apart from God, null substance can be (dari), nor can be conceived. (13)
Proposition XV "All that is, is in God, and nothing, without God, can be, nor can be conceived" (14)
Proposal "God acts according to the only laws of his nature, and without being constrained by anybody. (15)
Proposition XVIII "God is immanent cause, but non-transitive of all things" (16)
Proposition XXV "God is not only efficient cause of the existence of things, but also of their essence. (17)
Proposition XXVI "A thing which is determined to produce some effect is necessarily determined by God; and that which is not determined by God cannot determine by itself to produce an effect." (18)
From these assertive presumptive Spinoza seeks to establish grounds for his final conclusion of the Spinozian doctrine namely that "God is the Being' represented by God, man and nature".
Proposal XXIX "In nature, thus, nothing is contingent; but all things are determined by the necessity of divine nature to exist and produce an effect in a certain way. (19)
Proposal XXX "Comprehension, finite in act or infinite in act, must understand the attributes of God and the assignments of God, nothing else" (20)
Proposal XXXI "Comprehension in act, whether it is finite or infinite, and in the same way the will, desire and love, etc, must be reported to Natured Nature, but not to the Naturant." (21)
Proposal XXXIV "The power of God is his essence" (22)
It is obvious that these presumptions remain the personal convictions of Spinoza himself. Looking at the universe Spinoza concludes his belief-system. This belief-system is particular to Spinoza where he enters into a closed circle of Nature being God and vise versa.
Here there is no cause and effect both are one and the same: the craftsman and the
product are one and the same and existence and essence are one and the same.
God is not an outside agent that creates nature but He is nature itself and thus God and nature are an auto-creative system. Spinoza rejects the creator-created formula offered by other religious belief and by some philosophers but rejects totally the thesis of religions.
A Choice Nevertheless
Spinoza tries to liberate himself from religion to find himself caught up in his own religion.
Our concern here is to show that Spinoza had to confront the universe, like every one else, and has the choice to believe or disbelieve in a creator cause.
He chose to believe according to his own personal convictions
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1. Spinoza, L'Ethique, Traduction de Roland Caillois,
