Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book establishes the conditions of the problem: substance is unique; the attributes are each identical to substance; and the attributes are diverse. It discusses the absolute idealist reading of Spinoza and presents the arguments of John Clark Murray and Errol E. Harris in favour of the reading, which are based on textual evidence for dominance of the order of thought in the system of the attributes. In the metaphysics of Spinoza, one substance encompasses reality and is known through each of an infinite diversity of attributes, which are the ways its nature is objectively and independently conceived. Whereas the evidence points to the fact that Spinoza recognized the need for the negation of the negation, the issue is about its nature and that of the resulting identity in difference of substance and its attributes.