Descartes and Spinoza on Matter

Paper Summary:

In this paper, the writer provides an examination of the differences between the views of Descartes and Spinoza. The writer discusses these two philosophers and examines their respective conceptions of the distinction between mind and matter. The writer argues that their views are partially influenced by a religious past and partly by a scientific-rationalistic future.

From the Paper:

"Ren Descartes and Baruch Spinoza were two of the most important modern European philosophers. While both were known as proponents of rationalism, they each harboured metaphysical conceptions of God that were arbitrary and mystical. As such they had one foot in the religious past and the other in the scientific-rationalistic future. They had good reasons not to broadcast their conceptions of God too widely. The trial of Galileo in which the Inquisition forced him to publicly recant what he knew to be ... "

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