The Philosophical Requirements of God’s Infiniteness From the Viewpoint of Spinoza

One of the attributes that in many divine traditions is ascribed to God is infiniteness. Philosophers and theologians often take God infinite in His both Essence and Attributes. In other words, they interpret the individuation of God to His infiniteness or essential absoluteness. Spinoza, the rationalist philosopher of the 17th century, is also a scholar who introduces God as the Unique Substance, and deems the infiniteness attribute necessary for God and so takes His Essence and Attributes to be infinite. From Spinoza’s viewpoint, describing God as infinite has some requirements, including being the Former Whole, being the Internal Cause, and not being Supernatural. Thus, Spinoza asserts that in the divine traditions common in Abrahamic religions, God’s infiniteness attribute has not been correctly analyzed and so the relationship between God and non-God has been misinterpreted. In this study, using the valid sources in the realm of Spinoza studies and adopting the descriptive-analytical method, Spinoza’s opinions in this regard are investigated.