Spinoza, Parallelism, Form-Matter

Mind-Body parallelism is not happenstance in Spinoza's system. It is entailed by the more fundamental thesis that Mind and Body are two aspects of the experiences of one and the same entity. Likewise, Mind and Body are either both active or both passive in his system, in contrast with traditions for which one is active and the other passive. Spinoza originally introduces the distinction between 'active' and 'passive' as that between 'nature naturing' and 'nature natured', or, more commonly, creator-created, as preparation for terming God's creatures 'Modes'. But Modes are not thereby immutably passive, and can become active to a lesser or greater degree, depending on the acquisition of adequate ideas. In On the Improvement of the Understanding, Spinoza specifies that adequate ideas are definitions that meet certain criteria, and in the case of the definition of a created thing, one criterion is that the definition comprehend the proximate cause of the thing, e. g. a 'circle' is a "figure described by a line whereof one end is fixed and the other free". Hence, drawing a circle with this definition in mind exemplifies active conduct, as well as what he elsewhere characterizes as action "determined" by reason. Now, as has been argued previously here, in the performing of such an action, the definition is the 'Form' of the performance, and the physical motion its 'Matter', with both dynamic processes. Thus, qua active, Mind and Body are a Form-Matter relation, which, by analogy, suggests that so, too, are God's attributes, Thought and Extension. However, if so, then that God can possess additional attributes, as Spinoza speculates, is impossible, i. e. Form and Matter are exhaustively complementary.