Benedict de Spinoza, THE ETHICS
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have a conditioned existence; but if several individual things
concur in one action, so as to be all simultaneously the effect
of one cause, I consider them all, so far, as one particular
thing.

AXIOMS I. The essence of man does not involve necessary
existence, that is, it may, in the order of nature, come to pass
that this or that man does or does not exist.

II. Man thinks.

III. Modes of thinking, such as love, desire, or any other of
the passions, do not take place, unless there be in the same
individual an idea of the thing loved, desired, &c. But the idea
can exist without the presence of any other mode of thinking.

IV. We perceive that a certain body is affected in many ways.

V. We feel and perceive no particular things, save bodies and
modes of thought.

N.B. The Postulates are given after the conclusion of Prop.
xiii.

PROPOSITIONS I. Thought is an attribute of God, or God is a
thinking thing.

>>>>>Proof--Particular thoughts, or this and that thought, are
modes which, in a certain conditioned manner, express the nature
of God (Pt. i., Prop. xxv., Cor.). God therefore possesses the
attribute (Pt. i., Def. v.) of which the concept is involved in
all particular thoughts, which latter are conceived thereby.
Thought, therefore, is one of the infinite attributes of God,
which express God's eternal and infinite essence (Pt. i., Def.
vi.). In other words, God is a thinking thing. Q.E.D.

*****Note--This proposition is also evident from the fact, that
we are able to conceive an infinite thinking being. For, in
proportion as a thinking being is conceived as thinking more
thoughts, so is it conceived as containing more reality or
perfection. Therefore a being, which can think an infinite
number of things in an infinite number of ways, is,
necessarily, in respect of thinking, infinite. As, therefore,
from the consideration of thought alone, we conceive an infinite
being, thought is necessarily (Pt. i., Deff. iv. and vi.) one of
the infinite attributes of God, as we were desirous of showing.

II. Extension is an attribute of God, or God is an extended