Invention and Method

In general, Invention involves the adaptation of available materials and processes for some purpose.  Now, according to Spinoza, Mind has a natural propensity to construct more complex Ideas from simpler ones.  Thus, his Method of constructing more complex Ideas out of simpler ones is an Invention.  Likewise, all the notable Philosophical Methods are inventions.  Conversely, though, the execution of these Methods has usually left no room for invention, which has left them inadequate to the concept of Invention.  So, for example, Spinoza's principle of the endeavor to persist in one's being seems to entail a continuation of the given, and, hence, to leave his Invention ungrounded.  In contrast, the modification of his principle proposed here--the endeavor to maximize the exercise of strength--does entail the possibility of digressing from the given, and, hence, of inventing.  However, the difficulty that the modification poses for his doctrine is that it is antithetical to a concept of Eternity qua changeless, whereas he often ascribes that concept to his God/Nature/Substance of which a Mode's principle of behavior is an instance.  So, his Method, as well as any Invention, seems to be underivable from at least some of the premises of his doctrine.