Q0058
“God, or Nature.” — Baruch Spinoza (Ethics I)
Verified English quotation. Primary source: Ethics I. Theme: nature.
English
God, or Nature.
Source and attribution
The archive attributes this English wording to Ethics I and files it under Rationalism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
About Baruch Spinoza
Baruch (Benedictus) Spinoza (1632–1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish descent who developed a rigorous geometric metaphysics of God-or-Nature. Excommunicated from Amsterdam’s Jewish community in 1656, he ground lenses and wrote in Latin with a small circle of freethinkers.
Interpretation
Spinoza's formula denies that anything occurs outside the order of nature or contrary to it. His target is the habit of treating events that surprise us as violations, which he thinks follows from ignorance of causes rather than from anything in the events. If nature is a single system governed by necessary laws, then the marvellous is a measure of our understanding, not a property of the thing. The claim is metaphysical and directed at superstition.
Why it matters
It is a discipline for the reaction of surprise: what looks like a violation is usually a cause you have not traced.
Concepts in this quote
- Nature
- Philosophy quotes about nature ask what the cosmos is, how humans belong in it, and whether “natural” can guide ethics or politics.
- God
- God appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat god as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
How to cite this quotation
APA: Baruch Spinoza. (n.d.). God, or Nature. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0058
MLA: Baruch Spinoza. “God, or Nature..” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0058.
Chicago: Baruch Spinoza. “God, or Nature..” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0058.
Frequently asked questions
What is the source of the quotation “God, or Nature.”?
The passage is attributed to Baruch Spinoza, Ethics I. The archive attributes this English wording to Ethics I and files it under Rationalism. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.
What does Baruch Spinoza mean by nature?
Nature may mean physical cosmos, living world, human nature, or a normative standard of what ought to be. Presocratics, Daoists, Stoics, and modern environmental thinkers share the word while disagreeing about its force. This passage enters that discussion through nature, god.