Will, Eternity, Ubiquity

According to Spinoza, Mind expresses its actual essence--its endeavor to persist in its own being--in two ways. First, qua the idea of its Body, it promotes the maintenance of the integrity of the latter via the acquisition of adequate ideas, e. g. adequate knowledge of nutrition. Second, qua merely idea, it seeks its eternality as a mode of divine Thought. Now, as has been previously discussed, Spinoza does not seem to ascribe an actual essence to Body, thereby missing how it, too, can endeavor to persist in its own being. In contrast, Will, as presented here, entails processes that are analogous to those that Spinoza ascribes to Mind. First, as a principle of Variation, Will, alone, explains how a Mode, as Spinoza recognizes, endeavors to increase its strength, i. e. Mind can only maintain a given degree of strength. Second, Will, qua Motility, is an impulse to an indefinite elsewhere. So, just as Mind, a mode of divine Thought, seeks Eternity, Body, a mode of divine Extension, seeks Ubiquity.