Descartes Three Substances

According to Aristotle, substance is independent of anything else. A cat, a person, and a tree would all be examples of substances. Other things might depend on substance, but substance does not depend upon them (Solomon, page 142). For example, a cat can exist without a tail, but the tail of a cat cannot exist without the cat itself. A substance can be defined in terms of what is essential (142). If a person asked what has four paws, claws, fur, and whiskers, someone would identify it as a cat because those are essential properties that make it a cat. It is the concrete individual thing which remains constant despite the fact that it changes and has different properties at different times (142). A tree's leaves might fall off during autumn,

Mind and body cannot be substances because they are created by God which would counteract the definition of substance: that which stands alone. His vision of substance is there is one infinite substance. Since there is only one substance, the problem of having two substances interact doesn't arise (163). There is one body, the physical universe, and one mind, of the thinking in the universe (163). Everything has an explanation for its existence whether it is self-caused or because of something else. Because of determinism, every event in the universe necessarily occurs at the result of its cause (164). No action, whether man or God, is free (164). The ultimate cause is God, which is to say, the universe itself (164). Everything in the universe is exactly as it should be (164). Spinoza's cause-of-itself is like Aristotle's prime mover, the first cause which initiates all changes but is not itself affected by anything prior, except the cause-of-itself is identical to the universe (159). If we can think of something as not existing then existing is not one of its essential characteristics and it is not self-caused (160). It's possible to imagine a world without the internet, pencils, or even cars. It's possible to imagine your very own house without an air conditioner, curtains, or a cat. Because they did not come into existence on their own, they are attributes. Spinoza claims substance has attributes, essential characteristics of a substances, and modes, modifications of attributes (159). An attribute would be having a human body and modes would be having brunette hair and brown eyes. He states that Descartes' attributes of mind and body, thought and extension, are actually attributes of God. His vision of substance has a pantheistic, also considered atheistic view due to narrowing Descartes' three substances down to only the one substance of God. In Abrahamic religions, God is separate and transcendent