Finitude, or the Limited Knowability of Finite Things

This chapter addresses the issue of the limitation of the knowability of particular finite things. Focusing on 2p8 and 2p9, the chapter discerns two sorts of limitations: the empirical origin of the existence of particular objects and the local determination of events. Neither of these limitations undermines the universal validity of the rationalist principle of the intelligibility of any being. Nevertheless, they establish conditions of possibility for the notion of understanding or intellection itself. Rather than being concerned with the paradoxical notion of infinite perspective, Spinoza’s introduction of these limitations posits that the perspective from which particular objects or events may be understood must itself be temporally or locally determined. This also touches upon the explanation of experience: any instance of experience must be viewed from a particular perspective in order to be comprehended.