ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a passage or passages from the Ethics and then explains the way such passages indicate an identity of substance and attribute. These passages support the objectivity of the attributes, as the ways of conceiving of the nature of substance; the aseity of the attributes; and their infinity. The issue of the objectivity of the attributes is most fundamentally one of whether any attribute actually constitutes the essence of substance, such that from any one a complete and intelligible conception of its nature can be developed. T. L. S. Sprigge and Leslie Armour interpret the attributes as expressions of a nature conceived through infinite attributes, and therefore substance is self-determining, on their view, as conceived through any attribute, as each attribute is an expression of this nature. The definition of God in the Ethics can be cited in favour of the identity of substance and attribute, as it ascribes infinity to both substance and each of its attributes.
