Baruch Spinoza
You see everything as one connected whole, God and Nature as the same thing, and you find peace in understanding why things must be as they are.
“Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.”
What you’d believe
- One substance — God or NatureThere exists only one infinite substance, God or Nature; all particular things are modes (modifications) of it.
- Necessity and the two attributesEverything follows necessarily from the nature of God; mind and body are not two things but one reality grasped under the attributes of thought and extension.
- Freedom through understanding (blessedness)We are not free from the causal order, but we become free and blessed by understanding it and loving God/Nature intellectually.
