Het blog van gisteren over George L. Kline (1921 -) "On
the infinity of Spinoza’s attributes" werd aanleiding voor dit blog. Kline
vertelde dat hij m.b.t. wat hij in zijn
artikel behandelde op het spoor was gezet door Harold H. Joachim's Study of the Ethics of Spinoza (Ethica
Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata) uit 1901.
Kline vermeldt in zijn laatste paragraaf: “It will be
evident to readers familiar with the Spinoza literature that my interpretation
of the infinity of the attributes is indepted to a suggestion put forward by
H.H. Joachim in 1901. According to Joachim, the term ‘infinite’, as applied to
attributes, means ’complete’: ’each Attribute is “infinite” in suo genere: it is in itself the full, all-inclusive expression
of that character of Reality wich it is.” [p. 23] Substance, Joachim claims, is
infinite in the sense of complete, all-inclusive, and self-contained; Spinoza’s
God includes ‘all Attributes’. His nature is “absolutely complete [i.e. infinitum I], includes all [infinita II] essential positive forms of
being, and cannot be conceived as in any way limited.” [p. 28, 41] [de notities
tussen hoekige haken verwijzen naar Klines eigen toelichting [cf. blog].
Wikipedia leert ons over Joachim: “was a British idealist
philosopher. A disciple of Francis Herbert Bradley, whose posthumous papers he
edited, Joachim is now identified with the later days of the British Idealist
movement. He is generally credited with the definitive formulation of the
coherence theory of truth, in his book The
Nature of Truth (1906). He was also a scholar of Aristotle and Spinoza.” [Cf.] Hij
schreef zoals gezegd: