Abstract: Does Spinoza have good reasons for holding that the one substance – 'God' – thinks, and does so essentially? Spinoza certainly seems to think that he ought to be able to offer an argument for this conclusion; the claim that substance is essentially a thinking thing is subject to not one but two proofs in his Ethics. This talk focuses on his aposteriori argument from our own experience of ourselves as thinking, and considers also Spinoza's views of concepts, explanation, and intelligibility.
