Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 6

Philosophy - Essay Example If one can form the adequate and perfect idea, then absolute knowledge of God is viable. For Spinoza, to conceive an idea in its most adequate form, the mind needs, first and foremost, to undergo a long and strenuous process of self-transformation, the aim of which is to render itself adequate to the infinite intellect. Thereafter, the mind is able to intuit the concrete essence of a thing as Gods knowledge. Gods essence is eternal and infinite. By contrast, human knowledge is temporal and finite. To reach Gods knowledge, the human mind must transcend itself to the extent that it grasps Gods eternity and infinity. On knowing Gods essence, humans are, to a certain extent, as infinite and eternal as God is. In what ways can humans know the infinite and eternal aspects of Gods essence? Insofar as one knows the first causes of things, one understands the infinite of Gods essence as substance. Such formulation is not very illuminating. How are the first causes of things related to the infinite aspect of Gods essence? Even if infinity is tantamount to the first causes of things, how can one practically experience actual infinity so as to comprehend Gods essence? Spinoza suggests two kinds of infinity, the infinite of imagination and the infinite of reason. Presumably, the two infinities are related: one has to grasp, say, the infinite of imagination before proceeding to the infinite of reason . Within the context of infinity, God’s essence is eternity. Eternal existence is conceived to follow from the essence of the thing. Gods essence necessarily involves his existence; to know a things essence as Gods knowledge entails grasping its eternal existence as well. Humans exist and endure in time. How can they know Gods essence and enjoy his eternal existence? As finite modes, things are caused to exist. Things subsist in time; they come into existence and go out of existence. Through conceiving ideas, humans know things as