Friday, May 30, 2014

Revelation and Superstition

The brevity of Descartes' attention to the process of Divine Revelation leaves its classification as 'Deistic' or 'Theistic' under-determined.  For, if it consists in an elevation out of corporeality, then it might be the former, but if it involves in an ingression of his Deity into an extended being, then the latter is closer.  In sharp contrast with both, the equivalence of God and Nature in Spinoza's system entails that a Mode's knowledge of God is also a knowledge of a rationally acting Nature.  Hence, Revelation in that system consists in the dispelling of any illusion that one is separate from Nature.  From that perspective, the supernatural dimension shared by the two interpretations of Descartes' concept of Revelation, marks each as a 'superstition'.

No comments:

Post a Comment