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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present
Yitzhak Melamed here offers a new and systematic interpretation of
the core of Spinoza's metaphysics. In the first part of the book,
he proposes a new reading of the metaphysics of substance in
Spinoza: he argues that for Spinoza modes both inhere in and are
predicated of God. Using extensive textual evidence, he shows that
Spinoza considered modes to be God's propria. He goes on to clarify
Spinoza's understanding of infinity, mereological relations,
infinite modes, and the flow of finite things from God's essence.
In the second part of the book, Melamed relies on this
interpretation of the substance-mode relation and the nature of
infinite modes and puts forward two interrelated theses about the
structure of the attribute of Thought and its overarching role in
Spinoza's metaphysics. First, he shows that Spinoza had not one,
but two independent doctrines of parallelism. Then, in his final
main thesis, Melamed argues that, for Spinoza, ideas have a
multifaceted (in fact, infinitely faceted) structure that allows
one and the same idea to represent the infinitely many modes which
are parallel to it in the infinitely many attributes. Thought turns
out to be coextensive with the whole of nature. Spinoza cannot
embrace an idealist reduction of Extension to Thought because of
his commitment to the conceptual separation of the attributes. Yet,
within Spinoza's metaphysics, Thought clearly has primacy over the
other attributes insofar as it is the only attribute which is as
elaborate, as complex, and, in some senses, as powerful as God.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
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keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
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