Definition, Objectivity and the Number of Divine Substance Attributes in Spinoza’s Thought

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant professor at theUniversity of Tehran, College of Farabi

Abstract

The problem of God’s attributes, with its semantic, epistemological and ontological aspects, has very important position both in theology and philosophy. Spinoza as a 17th century rationalist philosopher that has based his metaphysics upon the idea of God as the First Cause, and the only substance, says that to conceive God’s essence is nothing more than conceiving his  attributes. In this article I have tried to make some systematic responses to the questions about definition, objectivity and the number of God’s attributes in Spinoza’s philosophy. My method of research is descriptive-analytic. In short, it can be said that Spinoza in his final thoughts, believes that the attributes of God are knowable (by the intellect), objective and infinite in being and number. He also makes distinction between attributes of God and his properties and negates some attributes that theologians ascribe to God in order to avoid anthropomorphism.

Keywords

References

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Philosophy of Religion
Volume 14, Issue 3
October 2017
Pages 651-668

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