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97. - Infinite Intellect and Intellection

from I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

By
Karolina Hübner  and
Josefine Klingspor
Edited by
Karolina Hübner  and
Justin Steinberg
Karolina Hübner
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Justin Steinberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

One of Spinoza’s many unorthodox theological moves is to banish the intellect from the divine essence. Unlike most of his predecessors, for whom God’s intellect is identical to God’s essence, Spinoza takes God’s “infinite intellect [intellectus … infinitus]” to be only a modification (“mode”) of divine Thought, an effect understandable through God’s essence, rather than a part or an aspect of that essence itself (E1p31–33).

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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon , pp. 266 - 269
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Recommended Reading

Bennett, J. (1984). A Study of Spinoza’s Ethics. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Giancotti, E. (1991). On the problem of infinite modes. In Yovel, Y. (ed.), God and Nature: Spinoza’s Metaphysics (pp. 97–118). Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gueroult, M. (1968). Spinoza, vol. I: Dieu (Éthique, 1). Georg Olms.Google Scholar
Joachim, H. H. (1901). A Study of the Ethics of Spinoza. Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Melamed, Y. (2013). Spinoza’s Metaphysics: Substance and Thought. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmaltz, T. (1997). Spinoza’s mediate infinite mode. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 35(2), 199–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, M. (1999). Infinite understanding, scientia intuitiva, and Ethics 1.16. In Wilson, , Ideas and mechanism: Essays on Early Modern Philosophy (pp. 237–59). Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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