Proof: Whatever is determined to exist and to act has been so determined by God
(Pr. 26 and Cor. Pr. 24). But that which is finite and has a determinate existence cannot
have been produced by the absolute nature of one of God’s attributes, for whatever
follows from the absolute nature of one of God’s attributes is infinite and eternal
(Pr. 21). It must therefore have followed from God or one of his attributes insofar as that
is considered as affected by some mode; for nothing exists but substance and its modes
(Ax. 1 and Defs. 3 and 5), and modes (Cor. Pr. 25) are nothing but affections of God’s
attributes. But neither could a finite and determined thing have followed from God or
one of his attributes insofar as that is affected by a modification which is eternal and
infinite (Pr. 22). Therefore, it must have followed, or been determined to exist and to
act, by God or one of his attributes insofar as it was modified by a modification which
is finite and has a determinate existence. That was the first point. Then again this cause
or this mode (the reasoning is the same as in the first part of this proof) must also have
been determined by another cause, which is also finite and has a determinate existence,
and again this last (the reasoning is the same) by another, and so ad infinitum.
Scholium: Since some things must have been produced directly by God (those
things, in fact, which necessarily follow from his absolute nature) and others through
the medium of these primary things (which other things nevertheless cannot be or be
conceived without God), it follows, firstly, that God is absolutely the proximate
cause of things directly produced by him. I say “absolutely” [absolute], and not
“within their own kind” [suo genere], as some say. For the effects of God can neither
486 BARUCHSPINOZA
The Synagogue, Amsterdam, n.d., by
Rembrandt (1606–1669).
Spinoza was a member of the
Amsterdam Synagogue until he
was excommunicated in 1656.
(
Art Resource, NY)© Bridgman-Giraudon/