Spinozaâs Monistic Determinism.
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Write а CritiÑаl Thinking essaÑ based on the passage below:
"Like a wave that appears for an exceedingly brief time on an infinitely huge, infinitely old, infinitely intelligible, and infinitely deep ocean, you live as an enveloped and dependent being â or, in more Spinozistic terms, as a transient finite state (or mode) of an infinite being (substance) that has infinitely different fundamental ways of being (attributes), and is infinitely expressive. The entire story of the oceanâs waves shows up under each of these different ways of being (the modes are trans-attribute modes), although you are limited to thinking and experiencing only two ways (thought and extension). Each wave is caused by prior waves, which are caused by prior waves, and so on; and in the sequence of waves nothing could have been different. There is no randomness or chance in the ocean. Thoughts, choices, and actions that you might feel are free, in the sense of being uncaused, are actually enveloped and dependent, and are parts of an infinitely long chain of states that could not have been different. Some finite modes are able to understand this â at least in part â and some are not; and this acquisition of understanding, and failure to acquire understanding, are states that are also caused".This, in brief, is "Spinozaâs Monistic Determinism".
Keeping this passage in mind write your essay and "Answer the following QUESTIONS" as your "MAIN TOPIC" for the essay:
(1)Is it plausible and coherent? (2)Does it leave finite modes - like you â as mere dominoes in an infinitely long sequence? (3)Is there any freedom here?