Spinoza, Bergson, Alexander, Nietzsche, Pantheism

While both Bergson and Alexander have been classified as 'Pantheistic', comparisons between their systems and Spinoza's only underscore their limitations with respect to the rigorous standards established by the latter. In general, whereas for Spinoza, everything in Nature is divine, for both Bergson and Alexander, only portions of it are. For Bergson, Elan Vital is God, but Matter is like fallen angels. For Alexander, the relation of Deity to Nature is, in some key respects, like that of an incipient tree-ring to a given tree--when fully emerged, Deity might contain all of Nature, but it itself is only a part of Nature, and Nature has existed without it. In contrast with both Bergson and Alexander, Nietzsche comes closer to expressing Spinoza's reverence for all of Nature, in his affirmation of Eternal Recurrence, which resists imposing any anthropomorphic judgment on any aspect of Nature. In other words, all four Philosophers can be classified as 'Naturalistic', but, insofar as any component of Nature, at any stage of development, is conceived as non-divine, the concept of Nature of which it is a part is not 'Pantheistic' in the Spinozistic sense.