Spinoza Essay

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Spinoza takes Descartes idea and alters it. Spinoza makes a distinction between thought and extension. They are two different attributes of the one substance. Each thing is both thought and extension. The thought is known through ideas and the extension is what exists and can be sensed physically. Extension therefore, is more of a physical property, while thought is a mental one. Descartes views thought as the property of mind and extension as the property of bodies. Spinoza however, believes that a mind and body reality could be distinguished into two separate attributes of thought and extension.

Spinoza believed the mind and body are different. That they are two different ways of description. So, for Spinoza, reality can be describes by physical bodies or as logical ordered ideas. There is not two different sequences, (one of mind and one of body) but the same sequence viewed in different ways. For Spinoza, the mind and body act simultaneously and one does not determine the other.
In Spinoza there seems to be no real freedom of the mind or will. The Cartesian split at least allows for a freedom between mind and body, and vice versa, because there is some independence between the two. However, Descartes divided the mind and the body and so he has to find some reason for the mind to act upon the body. He has made the thought separate from the world and so needs to find a way for thought to know the world.
“Mind-body interaction was not a problem that the Cartesian philosophy was originally intended to solve, but one that grew out of the Cartesian system itself” (Radner, 1985 P.35)
Here, it is clear Spinoza’s account of the relation between thought and extension is more defensible because Spinoza avoids all the problems of the ...

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...mind and body are one is a better belief than Descartes belief that they are separate. Spinoza avoids the problem of how the mind can act upon the body, by pointing out that the mind and body are not separate, they act simultaneously, but one does not cause the other. Spinoza also disagrees with Descartes view that error is caused by free will making judgements. Instead, Spinoza believes that error is caused by inadequate knowledge. This is a better view, as Spinoza points out, because Descartes has a false view of freedom. Spinoza’s position is also more defensible because he does not view the body as inferior to the mind, as Descartes does. Instead, Spinoza believes that separation is unethical and that the knowledge of unity between the body and mind is essential.
So, I find Spinoza’s position to be more defeasible. As Cotthingham described in ‘The Rationalist’

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