Infinite Modes in Spinoza: A Gnoseological Response to a Classic Enigma
Keywords:
Infinite Modes, Finite Modes, Theory of Knowledge, Common Notions, SpinozaAbstract
This work aims to address the classical problem of infinite modes in Spinoza from an innovative reading hypothesis. Departing from conventional interpretations that ascribe ontological status to infinite modes, I will seek to demonstrate that Spinoza associates infinite modes with a cognitive perspective throughout his work. I will argue, based on his theory of knowledge, that our philosopher refers to infinite modes as the aspect of nature we understand when we conceive through the common notions of rational knowledge. Understanding them in this way will, in turn, allow us to provide an explanation for the mystery of the infinite mode that Spinoza leaves unnamed.
References
Fuentes primarias
Spinoza, B. (2011). Ética. Introducción, traducción y notas de Vidal Peña. Madrid: Editorial Alianza.
Spinoza, B. (2008). Tratado de la reforma del entendimiento. (B. Eremiev y L. Placencia, Trads.). Buenos Aires: Colihue.
Spinoza, B. (1990). Tratado breve. Traducción, notas y prólogo de Atilano Domínguez. Madrid: Editorial Alianza.
Spinoza, B. (1988). Tratado de la reforma del entendimiento/Principios de filosofía de Descartes/Pensamientos metafísicos. (A. Domínguez, Trad.). Madrid: Editorial Alianza.
Spinoza, B. (2007). Epistolario. (O. Cohan, Trad.). Buenos Aires: Editorial Colihue.
Fuentes secundarias
Allison, H. (1987) Benedict de Spinoza. An Introduction. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Beyssade, J.-M., (1994). Sur le mode infini médiat dans l’attribut de la pensée. Du problème (lettre 64) à une solution (Éthique V, 36). Revue philosophique de la France et de l’etranger 119.
Chaui, M. (1999). A Nervura do real. Imanência e liberdade em Espinosa. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras.
Chaui, M. (2008). O fim da metafísica: Espinoza e a ontologia do necessário. En Tatián, D. (Ed.), Spinoza: cuarto colóquio (pp.11-38). Córdoba: Ed. Brujas.
Cohen, D. (2015). Spinoza. Una cartografía de la Ética. Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Eudeba.
Curley, E. M. (1969). Spinoza´s Metaphysics: An Essay in Interpretation. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
De Dijn, H. (1991). Metaphysics as Ethics. En Yovel, Y. (Ed). God and Nature: Spinoza´s Metaphysics: Papers Presented at the First Jerusalem Conference (pp.119-138). Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Deleuze, G. (2008). En medio de Spinoza. (Equipo Editorial Cactus, Trad.). Buenos Aires: Ed. Cactus.
Deleuze, G. (2013). Spinoza. Filosofía práctica. (A. Escohotado. Trad.). Buenos Aires: Tusquets.
Domínguez, A. (1978). Modos infinitos y entendimiento divino en la metafísica de Spinoza. Sefarad XXXVIII, pp.107-141.
García Ruzo, A. (2022). La Ética de Spinoza como proyecto ontognoseológico. Daimon. Revista internacional de filosofía, 86, 101-116. https://doi.org/10.6018/daimon.423251
García Ruzo, A. (2023). Univocidad y ciencia intuitiva en Spinoza. Areté. Revista de Filosofía, 35(2), 324-344. https://doi.org/10.18800/arete.202302.004.
Garrett, D. (2009). Spinoza on the Essence of the Human Body and the Part of the Mind that is Eternal. En Koistinen, O. (ed), Cambridge Companion to Spinoza’s Ethics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Giancotti, E. (1995). Studi su Hobbes e Spinoza. Napoli: Bibliopolis.
Gómez Torrente, M. (1997). La teoría de los modos infinitos de Spinoza. Revista Latinoamericana de Filosofía, vol. XXIII, (2). Recuperado de https://www.filosoficas.unam.mx/~mariogt/1997bGomez-Torrente_TMIS.pdf.
Gueroult, M., (1968, 1974). Spinoza, 2 vols, 446, n. 80; 471-2; 557-61; II, 529- 56. París: Hildesheim.
Joachim, H. H., (1964). A Study of the Ethics of Spinoza. Nueva York: Russell and Russell.
Laerke, M., (2017). Aspects of Spinoza’s Theory of Essence, Formal Essence, Non-existence, and Two Types of Actuality. En Sinclair, M. (Ed), The Actual and the Possible. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198786436.003.0002.
Macherey, P. (2001). Introduction à l’Ethique de Spinoza, la première partie: la nature des choses. París: PUF.
Macherey, P. (2006). Hegel o Spinoza. Buenos Aires: Tinta Limón.
Marshall, E. (2013). The Spiritual Automaton. Spinoza’s Science of the Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Martin, C. (2008). The Framework of Essences in Spinoza’s Ethics. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 16(3):3, pp. 489-450. https://doi.org/10.1080/09608780802200489.
Melamed, Y. (2013). The Building Blocks of Spinoza´s Metaphysics: Substance, Attributes and Modes. En Della Rocca, M. (Ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Spinoza. Nueva York: Oxford University Press.
Melamed, Y. (2013b). Spinoza’s Metaphysics. Substance and Thought. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195394054.001.0001.
Nadler, S. (2001). Spinoza’s Heresy. Inmortality and Jewish Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nadler, S. (2012). Spinoza’s Monism and the Reality of the Finite. En Goff, P. (Ed) Spinoza on Monism. Liverpool: Palgrave Macmillan.
Parkinson, G. H. R. (1954). Spinoza’s Theory of Knowledge. Glasgow - Nueva York – Toronto: Oxford University Press.
Pinheiro, U. (2015). Looking for Spinoza’s Missing Mediate Infinite Mode of Thought. The Philosophical Forum, 46(4), 363-376. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/phil.12083
Peterman, A. (2015). Spinoza on extension. Philosophers’ Imprint, 15(14), 1-23. Recuperado de http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.3521354.0015.014
Prelorentzos, Y. (1992). La durée chez Spinoza, These de Doctorat de Philosophie. Université de Paris IV, inédita.
Primus, K. (2009). Spinoza’s «Infinite Modes» Reconsidered. Journal of Modern Philosophy, 1(1). http://doi.org/10.32881/jomp.69.
Rousset, B. (1968). La perspective finale de l’Éthique et le problème de la cohérence du spinozisme. L’autonomie comme salut. Paris: Vrin.
Savan, D. (1994). Spinoza on Duration, Time, and Eternity. En Graeme Hunter (Ed.). Spinoza. The Enduring Questions. University of Toronto Press.
Schmaltz, T. M. (1997). Spinoza’s mediate infinite mode. Journal of the History of Philosophy 35(2), 199- 235. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/hph.1997.0024.
Schmaltz, T. M. (2015). Spinoza on Eternity and Duration: The 1663 Connection. En: Melamed, Y. (Ed.), The Young Spinoza. A Metaphysician in the Making (pp. 205-220). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Séverac, P. (2011). Spinoza. Union et désunion. Paris: Ed. Vrin.
Sibilia, G. (2017). De la producción eterna de lo real al tiempo vivido. Ontología y temporalidad en Spinoza. Tesis doctoral, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras.
Steinberg, D. (2009). Knowledge in Spinoza’s Ethics. En Koistinen, O. (Ed), The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza’s Ethics (pp. 140-166). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Solé, M. J. (2022). Introducción a Spinoza. Buenos Aires: RAGIF Ediciones.
Wolfson, H. (1934) The Philosophy of Spinoza. Unfolding the Latent Processes of His Reasoning. Vol I. USA: Harvard University Press., USA.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Eidos
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term "Work" shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.
2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.
The Author shall grant to the Publisher a nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons 3.0 License Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported CC BY-NC 3.0, or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions: (a) Attribution: Other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;(b) Noncommercial: Other users (including Publisher) may not use this Work for commercial purposes;
4. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
5. Authors are permitted, and Eidos promotes, to post online the preprint manuscript of the Work in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work is expected be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Eidos's assigned URL to the Article and its final published version in Eidos.
