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127. - Mode

from M

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

By
Martin Lin
Edited by
Karolina Hübner  and
Justin Steinberg
Karolina Hübner
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Justin Steinberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
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Summary

Spinoza claims that all the various things that make up the world – people, plants, planets, etc. – are modes of a single substance. But what is a mode (modus)? Along with “substance” and “attribute,” “mode” is one of Spinoza’s basic ontological categories, which he defines as “the affections of a substance, or that which is in another through which it is also conceived” (E1def5). In other words, something is a mode if and only if it inheres in another thing, and conceiving the latter is required for conceiving the former. Many readers of Spinoza have thought that this definition itself stands in need of further elucidation. What is it for one thing to be in another and what is the relevant notion of conception?

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The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon , pp. 368 - 373
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Recommended Reading

Bayle, P. (1965). Historical and Critical Dictionary: Selections. Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Bennett, J. (2001). Learning from Six Philosophers: Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume. 2 vols. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carriero, J. (1995). On the relationship between mode and substance in Spinoza’s metaphysics. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 33(2), 245–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curley, E. 1969. Spinoza’s Metaphysics: An Essay in Interpretation. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curley, E., and Walski, G. (1999). Spinoza’s necessitarianism reconsidered. In Gennaro, R. and Huenemann, C. (eds.), New Essays on the Rationalists (pp. 241–64). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Garrett, D. (1991). Spinoza’s necessitarianism. In Yovel, Y. (ed.), God and Nature: Spinoza’s Metaphysics (pp. 97–118). Brill.Google Scholar
Primus, K. (2019). Spinoza’s ‘infinite modes’ reconsidered. Journal of Modern Philosophy, 1(1), 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmaltz, T. (1997). Spinoza’s mediate infinite mode. Journal of the History of Philosophy, 35(2), 199–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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  • Mode
  • Edited by Karolina Hübner, Cornell University, New York, Justin Steinberg, Cornell University, New York
  • Book: The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon
  • Online publication: 09 January 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992459.127
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  • Mode
  • Edited by Karolina Hübner, Cornell University, New York, Justin Steinberg, Cornell University, New York
  • Book: The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon
  • Online publication: 09 January 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992459.127
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Mode
  • Edited by Karolina Hübner, Cornell University, New York, Justin Steinberg, Cornell University, New York
  • Book: The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon
  • Online publication: 09 January 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108992459.127
Available formats
×