Philosophy of Religion Research

Explanation of Spinoza’s Arguments for the Unity of God and Reconstruction of Ethics’ Proof

Document Type : Original Research

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy of Religion, Religions and Mysticism, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

Spinoza’s philosophy may be classified among the forms of philosophical theism, in the sense that it affirms the existence of God and regards God as absolutely one. However, the conception of God that Spinoza offers is by no means identical with that of the theologians and philosophers in the classical Abrahamic tradition. Throughout his works, Spinoza presents several arguments to demonstrate the unity of God or the divine substance. In this paper, using a descriptive-analytical method, we present and explicate these arguments. Most of them are grounded in the notions of “absolute perfection” and “necessity of existence”. Some of these arguments do not deny a plurality of substances and merely affirm the unity of the divine substance, whereas others aim to prove that the divine substance is the only existing and conceivable substance—that is, strict substance monism. We also argue that Spinoza’s proof of God in the Ethics, if formulated in its conventional manner, is not conclusive. Therefore, by appealing to the distinction between “absolute infinity” and “infinity of a kind”, we propose a more coherent reconstruction of that proof. In expounding the major arguments, we also trace their conceptual antecedents among medieval Jewish, Christian, and Islamic philosophers.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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Philosophy of Religion Research
Volume 23, Issue 2 - Serial Number 46
December 2025
Pages 61-76