After a long hiatus from aeternitas or "eternity," (I.D8) Spinoza returns to this topic. From that definition, "eternity" is a form of existence independent of duration, even permanent duration. I conceptualize it in the following way. The essence of a triangle is three-sidedness. There may be an infinite number of particular triangles, but the essence remains consistent. Furthermore, this essence is eternal, that is, it is true regardless of duration. Similarly God is eternal, that is, the existence of God is not explained by duration or time. The concept of God as "the nature of nature" is helpful to me here. as "nature of nature" is conceptually very separate from time and duration, as opposed to "nature" which is clearly affected.
Here is the quote from Descartes's Principles, Part I, Proposition 19:"God is eternal. Demonstration: God is a perfect being (Def.8), and therefore necessarily exists. If we attribute only a limited existence to Him these limits must be known, if not by us, by God Himself (per Prop.9), who is omniscient. But then God who is omniscient (per Def.8), would know no existence beyond these limits, which is absurd (per Prop.5). Therefore God does not have a limited but an infinite existence, which we call eternity. (Vid. Chap.I, Part II, of our Appendix). God therefore is eternal. Q.E.D."
Rather than "nature of nature," there is a more complex, yet more nuanced way to think about this eternity and existence discussion. God as causa immanens is virtual, not actual. Actual is historical - it is a thing's duration as a process of creation and destruction, emergence and disappearance. All things actual come and go. The virtual, on the other hand, is immanent to the actual as contemporaneous with the present, but forms its a priori condition and the future potential. Virtual is a realm of pure potential that can be thought of in terms of Einstein's matter-energy equivalence - that all matter is merely an actualization of energy, an energy that remains immanent to matter, that is enveloped within matter; it is the condition of matter's origin and presence while simultaneously an enveloped potential. The actual present reveals the past and is pregnant with the future. But the usage of time-words in reference to the virtual is misleading as the virtual only appears temporal. In Spinoza, the virtual (a term he does not use but is useful to apply to this area) considered apart from the actual - as an infinite realm of pure potential - is eternal. But even this separation is misleading, for the actual is the sole destination of the virtual. The virtual is destined to eternal creation of the actual, but this immanence is eternally immanent to itself as substance. This eternal virtual immanence does not unfold within the actual spatial-temporal, but unfolds the actual spatial-temporal.
Deus sive omnia Dei attributa sunt aeterna.
Translated as,
God or all attributes of God are eternal.
Demonstratio: Deus enim (per defintionem 6) est substania quae (per propositionem 11) necessario existit hoc est (per propositionem 7) ad cujus naturam pertinet existere sive (quod idem est) ex cujus defintione sequitur ipsum existit adeoque (per definitionem 8) est aeternus. Deinde per Dei attributa intelligendum est id quod (per defintionem 4) divinae substantiae essentiam exprimit hoc est id quod ad substantiam pertinet : id ipsum inquam ipsa attributa involvere debent. Atqui ad naturam substantiae (ut jam ex propositionem 7 demonstravi) pertinet aeternitas. Ergo unumquodque attributorum aetenitatem involvere debet adeoque omnia sunt aeterna. Q.E.D.
Translated as,
For God (by D6) is substance, which (by P11) necessarily exists, that is (by P7) to whose nature it pertains to exist, or (what is the same) from whose definition it follows that it exists and to such an extent (by D8), he is eternal. Next, by God's attributes it must be understood that which (by D4) expresses the essence of divine substance, that is, what pertains to substance. The attributes themselves, I say, must involve it itself. Still, eternity pertains to the nature of substance (as I have already demonstrated from P7). Therefore each and every one of the attributes must involve eternity and to this extent they are all eternal.
Scholium: Haec propositio quam clarissime etiam patet ex modo quo (propositione 11) Dei existentiam demonstravi; ex ea inquam demonstratione constat Dei existentiam sicut ejus essentiam aeternam esse veritatem. Deinde (propositione 19 Principiorum Cartesii) alio etiam modo Dei aeternitatem demonstravi nec opus est eum hic repetere.
Translated as,
Also, this proposition is as clear as possible from the way I have demonstrated the existence of God (P11). For from that demonstration, I say, it is established that the existence of God, like its essence, is an eternal truth. Next (Decartes' Principles IP19) I have also demonstrated the eternity of God in another way and there is no need to repeat it here.
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