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Spinoza's Mediate Infinite Mode TAD M. SCHMALTZ IN PART I of the Ethics, Spinoza argued that a modification is infinite just in case it either "follows from the absolute nature of any attribute of God" or "follows from some attribute of God, as it is modified by such a modification" that is infinite. 1The main purpose of this argument is to bolster the claim later in this text that a finite modification can follow from a divine attribute only insofar as that attribute is modified by another finite modification. 2 Thus it is understandable that in the section that contains the argument Spinoza did not actually affirm the existence of the two kinds of infinite modifications he mentioned, which following standard practice I call "immediate infinite modes" and "mediate infinite modes," respectively.3 Yet in this section he did 'E IP21,D-22,D, G II 65-66/Curley 429-3 o. In the text and notes of this paper I use the following abbreviations pertaining to Spinoza's writings: E: Ethics (Ethica); Ep.: Letters (Epistoke); RDPP: Descartes' Principles of Philosophy (Renati Des Cartes Principiorum Philosophiae); CM: Appendix containing Metaphysical Thoughts (Cogitata Metaphysica); KV: Short Treatise (Korte Verhandeling); TdlE: Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (Tractatus de lntellectus Emendatione); G: C. Gebhardt, ed., Spinoza Opera, 4 vols. (Heidelberg: Carl Winters, t925), cited by volume and page; Curley: E. Curley, trans, and ed., The Collected Works of Spinoza, vol. I (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985); Wolf: A. Wolf, trans, and ed., The Correspondence of Spinoza (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1928). I use the following abbreviations to refer to passages from both E and RDPP: IP22D = Part I, Proposition 22, Demonstration; IDef8Ex = Part I, Definition 8, Explanation; IIP7,C = Part II, Proposition 7 and its Corollary; IIP45,D,S = Part II, Proposition 45 and both its Demonstration and its Scholium; IILem7S = Part II, Lemma 7, Scholium; IIA"2 = Part II, 2nd of the second set of Axioms. References to passages from Spinoza's other texts take the following forms: CM I.i = Metaphysical Thoughts, Part I, ch. i; KV I.ix. 1 = Short Treatise, Part I, ch. ix, sec. 1; KV, App. II.l 4 = Short Treatise, Appendix II, sec. 14; TdlE, lol = Treatise, sec. lol. Translations of the passages from Spinoza's Latin works (viz., E, Ep., RDPP, CM, and TdlE) are substantially my own. Translations of passages from the Dutch KV are borrowed from Curley. 2The claim that a finite modification can follow only in this way is found in E IP28; and its Demonstration cites both E IP2a and E IP22 (G II 69/Curley 432). I am grateful to an anonymous referee for pointing out the merely subsidiary role of the argument concerning the infinite modifications. 3Spinoza did not himself refer to the infinite modes in this way, though he did distinguish in E IP23D between modes that follow from the absolute nature of a divine attribute "immediately" and those that so follow "by some mediating modification" (G II 67/Curley 431 ). [199] 200 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 35:9 APRIL 1997 offer as an example of an immediate infinite mode in the attribute of thought the "Idea of God" (idea Dei), a mode that plays a crucial role elsewhere in the Ethics.4 Moreover, he noted in this text, what he had indicated in his earlier writings, that such a mode corresponds to "motion and rest," a basic feature of the material world.5 By contrast, his earliest works do not even mention the mediate infinite modes, and the Ethics itself cites no example of a mode of this sort. In fact, the only place in which Spinoza provided an example is in a somewhat obscure passage from a 1675 letter to G. H. Schuller. Pressed by Schuller for such examples, he offered in response merely "the face of the whole Universe" (facies totius Universi).6 He did refer Schuller to a miniature treatise on body in the Ethics, thus implying that this infinite mode pertains in some manner to the attribute of extension. But Spinoza did not indicate the significance of this mode with respect to his account of this attribute, and said...

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