Abstract

For Spinoza substances are of certain kinds. Spinoza captures this with the help of attributes. For example, thought and extension are infinite attributes of God‐substance. For Spinoza the essence of substance is its existence and existence is power. An important albeit difficult thing in Spinoza's conception of essence is that an expression of an essence, such as the physical reality or the mental reality, is always a full expression of the essence or power. Spinoza shared with Descartes a well‐known tenet according to which thinking of the finite is posterior to thinking of the infinite. The chapter deals with a citation where Spinoza denies that God is subject to fate, and provides a rough sketch of how Spinoza tries to shape the universe in causal form. Spinoza never considers how such free acts of thought or adequate ideas, are consistent with his necessitarianism.