Jason Waller (Purdue University)
“Spinoza’s Attributes and the ‘Intermediate’ Distinctions of Henry of Ghent and Duns Scotus”
In this paper I argue that the “mysterious” distinction which separates Spinoza’s attributes might be a Scholastic “intermediate” distinction similar to Henry of Ghent’s (d. 1293) intentional distinction. My argument for this conclusion takes place in three sections. In section one, I contrast the nature of Henry’s intentional distinction with Scotus’s formal distinction. In section two, I deduce the nature of Spinoza’s “mysterious” distinction from Descartes’s real and conceptual distinctions and recast the problem concerning the nature of the attributes. In section three, I argue that the attributes are likely intentionally distinct.