Laws and Nature in Spinoza’s Ethics
Abstract
abstract: A tradition associated with Aristotle, essentialism , emphasizes the effort to show how effects follow from laws distinctive of the thing in which they occur. A different tradition, associated with the scientific revolution, unificationism , emphasizes the effort to show that nature conforms to laws because it is in some ways uniform. In his accounts of laws and nature in the Ethics , Spinoza defends exceptionless, detailed versions of essentialism and unificationism.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought
Historical Philosophy and Science
Medieval Philosophy and Theology
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of the history of philosophy
- Volume
- 64
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 53–75
- Publication date
- 1 January 2026
- Language
- EN