GENERAL PRINCIPLES 23 



Spinoza, 'substance ' is ' that which is in itself and is 

 conceived through itself; in other words, that, the 

 conception of which does not need the conception of 

 another thing from, which it must be formed V That 

 is to say, substance is the unconditioned, or that which 

 is not conditioned or determined by anything other 

 than itself. There is ambiguity in the statement. It 

 may mean e'ither that substance is selconditioned or 

 that it is absolutely unconditioned, to the exclusion of all 

 determination. In the one case substance would be a 

 real system of reciprocal determinations ; in the other, it 

 would be unbroken being, to which every determination 

 is foreign. The latter is the dominant aspect of substance 

 in the philosophy of Spinoza. That aspect alone is con- 

 sistent with the principle that i Determination is negation.' 

 Consequently his position amounts to saying that sub- 

 stance can have no real parts. For the very meaning of 

 a part implies that it must be determined or conditioned 

 by other parts 2 . 



In contrary opposition to this, there is the theory of 

 atoms and the void, which Leibniz tells us at one time 

 charmed his imagination 3 . To affirm the real existence 

 of indivisible material atoms is to deny the infinite 

 divisibility of matter. Accordingly, if the atoms con- 

 stitute the ultimate reality of the world, its unity is 

 destroyed, its continuity becomes an illusion. However 

 numerous the atoms may be, they can together constitute 

 no true unity, i but only a collection or heaping up of 

 parts ad infinitum 4 .' Atomism thus endeavours to establish 

 the reality of the parts at the expense of the whole. 



It is necessary, then, to lay bare the presuppositions 

 of these contrary theories in order to find the elements of 

 truth in each and to reconcile them in a more compre- 

 hensive view. The doctrine of Spinoza is the consistent 



1 Ethics, Part i. def. 3, Hale White's Tr. 



2 Ibid. Part i. prop. 12 and 13. 



3 New System, 3. * Loc. cit. 



