DESCARTES AND SPINOZA ON THE PERFECTION OF GOD: A CONTRAST

Abstract

After repeatedly reading Descartes’s Meditations on First Philosophy, what stills stands out most to this present essayist is Descartes’s notion of God’s perfection and how the perfection of the Divine includes the existence of the Almighty. Similarly, if we look to Spinoza’s Ethics Book I and the beginnings of Book II, we find comparable claims; namely, that the Almighty’s essence necessarily involves existence, and that this is a perfection of God alone. First, this article will detail how Descartes establishes God’s existence via the argument from perfection, and how this perfection of God reinforces the existence of such a supreme entity. Next, this piece will treat Spinoza’s understanding of God as that which must exist, and how this mandatory existence is solely of the perfection of God. Lastly, this paper will show that although Spinoza’s understanding of God’s perfection in his Ethics Book I and II may appear akin to Descartes, it would be incorrect to fully understand either philosopher’s views on God’s perfection as being entirely the same.