SPINOZA'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO DESCARTES'S ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

Spinoza revises his early Cartesian arguments for God in three important respects. By defining God in terms of conceptually distinct attributes, he has an argument for God's actual possibility. By defining God in terms of conceptual independence, he has an argument for the mind-independence of God's nature. By including reason and power as features of God's nature, he provides a mechanism by which God's nature necessitates God. Each of these address important objections to Descartes's ontological argument. Given his similarities with Descartes and familiarity with these objections, Spinoza may have had Descartes's critics in mind, and regardless, Cartesians may benefit by examining Spinoza's ontological arguments more closely.