Existence of God Benedict De Spinoza vs. Rene Descartes
Benedict De Spinoza vs. Rene Descartes In Spinoza's view God is a substance that includes eternal attributes and their necessity. One of the proofs for existence of such a substance is that something does not exist if and only if something else prevents its existence. For example, people walk on earth instead of flying on it, because there are rules of gravity that prevent people from flying on earth. Gravity influences everything, which is on earth's surface, thus preventing us humans to fly. Because God is an eternal being consisting of infinite attributes there is nothing that could ever prevent its existence. And that is because for something to contradict God's existence it must have something in common with God externally, through which it can act on God. For example, a square circle does not exist because there are certain rules about the circle that contradict to the existence of it being square. Square circle and a circle have something in common because for one thing they both deal with circle. However, this is not the case with God. God is a substance that can be understood only independently, and can not have anything in common with anything else. Since there can not be anything in
The free will is infinitely perfect and can not in itself be the cause of errors. It is the will that makes Descartes feel similar to God because God has all the perfections obviously including the unlimited will (p. 197). Here is where Spinoza disagrees with Descartes. Spinoza says that God has no will because he is not bound by anyone, and acts as he does. Since God self caused itself it is his necessity to act as he does (p. 60). This means that God in Spinoza's view does not will, or choose to express anything simply because everything that is conceivable or reasonable exists. Suppose there were something that could not logically exit, or whose existence would contradict to its essence, then according to Spinoza's definition God would not express its existence and since everything exists in the sphere of God's infinite intellect that something would not exist. (p. 59) Furthermore, since God is a supremely perfect being his own nature can not contradict his existence. This part of proof is easier understood when one considers more closely the fact that God is not caused by any external forces. Things that were caused externally owe the qualities that they posses solely to their cause. For example, if there is a critical disease in the bloodline of one's parent the one's child may be at a great risk of having the disease. This, however, is not the case with God. First, because God is eternal and infinitely perfect. Secondly and mainly, because God is a self caused substance. Likewise, for God to self cause itself, its essence must include existence, or existence belongs to it nature. From this it is logical to conclude that God exists. Even though the Spinozistic discussion concerns God more than man, and Cartesian discussion concerns man more than God Spinoza's view seems more right to me once again because Spinoza has logical foundation from which he builds and concludes most of his proof. Descartes' view of will and intellect was supported by a very reasonable proof such as " I think therefore I am". The idea that when the will is limited to the understanding things are perceived clearly and distinctly convinced me until Spinoza came along and destroyed it all with his deductive conclusions of will, intellect and essence. All I believe now is that there is one substance that has infinite attributes of which each expresses eternal essentiality. Furthermore, Spinoza says that not only the free will but also intellect do not belong to God's nature (p.60). Spinoza understands that this may sound very ridiculous to many because they think that since God is a Supreme Being his must have at least free will and an intellect. Despite their believe that God is supremely intelligent, many still think if God created everything which is in his intellect then he would not be able to create any more, and thus, would use up his omnipotence. To prove that God can never use up his omnipotence, we must prove that God can not provide creations though it is in his power to do so. This sounds extremely contradictory to
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Approximate Word count = 2057
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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