New Reflexions on Being Finite Modes of Infinite Substance in Spinoza

Abstract

 This work is part of a doctoral research and is based on a hypothesis called onto-gnoseological. This hypothesis maintains that the dualities within the spinozian system (expressed in the pairs infinite-finite, eternity-duration, essence-existence, substance-modes) cannot be considered as ontological but rather as gnoseological. Within the framework of this hypothesis, I seek to prove in this article that the notions of substance and finite modes, traditionally understood as strongly ontological, are consistently associated by Spinoza with the different human ways of knowing. That is, they are presented as the notes with which men conceive Nature from the different genres of knowledge. This kind of interpretation has as a corollary not only the suppression of all dualist objection to the spinozian univocal system, but also a deeper understanding of the power of human knowledge in Spinoza.