Giordano Bruno · Philosophy

The One Substance: Cause, Principle, and Unity

In <em>De la causa, principio et uno</em>, Bruno argued that beneath all the changing forms of the world there is a single infinite substance - matter and spirit as two faces of one reality, God not above the world but the soul within it - a monism that anticipates Spinoza by a century.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Bruno collapsed the many into one: a single infinite substance underlies all forms, matter and form (or spirit) are aspects of the same reality, and God is the immanent world-soul, the &lsquo;nature naturing&rsquo; within things rather than a cause standing outside them. Explain how this monism works…

Leads to Baruch Spinoza.

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