Descartes and Spinoza on Substance Rene Descartes and Baruch Spinoza were rationalist philosophers, seeing universe through mathematics: everything is ordered and can be demonstrated in geometrical manner. Even though Spinoza was heavily influenced by Descartes, they did not share the same view of the essence of substance, and, therefore, God. Whereas Descartes was substance dualist, Spinoza believed in one substance. Descartes' mind and matter distinction can be found in his Meditations on First Philosophy , written …showed first 75 words of 290 total…

…showed last 75 words of 290 total…its attributes. However, he rejects Descartes’ dualism. Disagreeing with Descartes, Spinoza maintains that mind and body have no influence on each other and are the two attributes of the one substance: God. Spinoza argues that the definition of substance requires that there can only be a single substance, thus making it impossible for the mind and body to be distinct substances. For him, God is everything and in everything: He is not transitive, but immanent.