1001Philosophers

Baruch Spinoza vs Rene Descartes

Spinoza's philosophy began as a Cartesian project and developed into a radical revision of Cartesianism. The Ethics is in many ways an immanent critique of Descartes' substance dualism.

At a glance

Baruch SpinozaRene Descartes
Dates1632 – 16771596 – 1650
NationalityDutchFrench
EraModernModern
Movements Rationalism, Early Modern Philosophy, Jewish Philosophy Rationalism, Early Modern Philosophy
Profile Baruch Spinoza → Rene Descartes →

Where they agree

Both held that genuine knowledge is achieved by the intellect rather than by the senses, both used the geometrical method as the model of philosophical demonstration, and both held that the existence of God can be demonstrated a priori. Both treated the affects as objects of philosophical analysis rather than as merely irrational disturbances.

Where they disagree

Descartes held that there are three substances: God, mind, and body, with mind and body interacting through divine concurrence. Spinoza collapsed the distinction: there is one and only one substance, identified with God or Nature, of which mind and body are two attributes. Mind and body do not interact; they are the same reality under two descriptions. Where Descartes preserved free will and personal immortality, Spinoza held everything follows by necessity from God's nature, and personal immortality is reinterpreted as the eternity of the intellectual love of God.

Representative quotes

Baruch Spinoza

  • “The free man thinks of nothing less than of death, and his wisdom is a meditation, not on death, but on life.”

    Homo liber de nulla re minus, quam de morte cogitat, et ejus sapientia non mortis, sed vitae meditatio est.

  • “All things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”

    Et sane arduum debet esse, quod adeo raro reperitur. Qui enim posset fieri, si salus in promptu esset et sine magno labore reperiri posset, ut ab omnibus fere negligeretur? Sed omnia praeclara tam difficilia, quam rara sunt.

  • “Letter to William van Blyenbergh (1665) as quoted by Sir Frederick Pollock , Spinoza: His Life and Philosophy (1880) pp. 50-51”

    If you find the light of Scripture clearer than the light of reason (which also is given us by divine wisdom), you are doubtless right in your own conscience in making your reason yield. For my part, since I plainly confess that I do not understand the Scriptures, though I have spent many years upon them, and since I know that when once I have a firm proof I cannot by any course of thought come to

Rene Descartes

  • “I think, therefore I am.”

    Je pense, donc je suis.

  • “If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.”

    In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life, to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.

  • “No doubt you know that Galileo had been convicted not long ago by the Inquisition, and that his opinion on the movement of the Earth had been condemned as heresy. Now I will tell you that all things I explain in my treatise , among which is also that same opinion about the movement of the Earth, all depend on one another, and are based upon certain evident truths. Nevertheless, I will not for the world stand up against the authority of the Church. ...I have the desire to live in peace and to continue on the road on which I have started.”

    Letter to Marin Mersenne (end of Feb., 1634) as quoted by Amir Aczel , Pendulum: Leon Foucault and the Triumph of Science (2003)

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