Substance Monism and Identity Theory in Spinoza

Andreas Schmidt examines how Spinoza establishes substance monism, the radical idea that only one reality—God—exists, while reconciling this unity with the multiplicity of divine attributes like thought and extension. Schmidt argues that Spinoza avoids the inconsistencies of Descartes by treating "substance" univocally, employing the scholastic doctrine of divine simplicity to suggest that God is identical to each of his essential properties. To solve the logical tension of how distinct attributes can belong to a single simple being, the author proposes that Spinoza utilizes a formal distinction, a concept from Duns Scotus where entities are conceptually independent but ontologically identical. This framework ultimately allows Spinoza to present an identity theory of mind and body, asserting that mental and physical states are merely different expressions of the same underlying reality, thereby resolving the traditional problem of mind-body interaction.
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