The Year 1663 and the Spinozist Identity of Being and Power: Hypothesis on a Development

Abstract

Following the work of the French Spinoza scholar Bernard Rousset, Matheron here endeavours to read Spinoza’s interpretation of Descartes by examining how Spinoza himself critically reworked two of his own earlier texts so as to ultimately establish the identity of being and power. It is thus in 1663 that Spinoza finally develops and lays out the key feature of his mature philosophy, namely, the definition of God as an absolutely infinite substance whose formulation and re-formulation across multiple drafts Matheron re-establishes. He then turns to Spinoza’s own critical reflections on his earlier Principles of Cartesian Philosophy, which sets the stage for grasping the development of Spinoza’s thought as it moves towards its ultimate philosophical originality as displayed in the Ethics.