ABSTRACT
This chapter explores two offshoots of the contradiction between the two conceptions of causality that Spinoza applies to God. The conception of non-hierarchical perfection, expresses existence as it is and not as we would want it to be. Contrarily, a non-philosophical, hierarchical conception of perfection is erroneous because it incorrectly assumes man to be situated at the center of existence. However, in the framework of the conception of the hierarchy of perfections, the perfection of every detail in existence is distinguishable from the perfection of every other thing, and inferior to the perfection of existence in its entirety or God. Determining the perfection of a thing by comparing it to the universal idea of things of the same kind is wrong. Universal ideas are simply fictions that express the limits of man's capacity of knowledge and the dominance of the deceptions of imagination in his consciousness.
