Spinoza and Alexander

Samuel Alexander is sometimes characterized as a contemporary Spinozist. The main basis for that classification is Alexander's system, which, like Spinoza's is Naturalistic, and features two primary attributes. For Alexander, those attributes are Space and Time, in contrast with Spinoza's Extension and Thought, such that everything that exists is a combination of Space and Time. However, unlike Spinozism, Alexander's system features a hierarchical structure, organized in terms of relations of 'emergence', in which higher qualities emerge from lower Space-Time configurations, e. g. colors from physical processes, though, both levels may be in the object itself, rather than as Locke has it. The current highest level of Nature, according to Alexander is Mind, which emerges from cerebral neural patterns. But, Alexander projects the eventual emergence of a next level, 'Deity', from Mind. Hence, while, like Spinoza's God, Alexander's Deity is Naturalistic, unlike the former, it is neither co-extensive with Nature nor eternal. Furthermore, Alexander's Deity, whether while in the process of emerging, or completely emerged, seems to have no practical implications for current actual individual conduct, unlike Spinoza's God, the knowledge of which promotes the freedom of an individual.