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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Spinoza's Ethics demonstrates that 'substance' can be defined as that which is in itself and conceived through itself, entailing exactly one infinite substance.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.The inference from 'logically conceivable in itself' to 'only one such being exists' commits a modal fallacy—possibility doesn't entail uniqueness.
      ?

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    • 2.Attributes like thought and extension appear to have independent conceptual status in Spinoza's system, suggesting multiple fundamental principles, not one.
      ?

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    • 3.Defining substance circularly (in itself, through itself) begs the question rather than proving monism follows necessarily from these criteria.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.A being that depends on something external for its existence or intelligibility is by definition not substance, making independence logically necessary.
      ?

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    • 2.If two infinite substances existed, each would limit the other, contradicting infinitude. Therefore, only one infinite substance is logically possible.
      ?

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    • 3.Spinoza's definition avoids medieval theological problems by grounding reality in a single self-explanatory principle rather than contingent beings.
      ?

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