The Distinction of Eternity, Duration, and Time in Spinoza’s Principles of Cartesian Philosophy and Metaphysical Thoughts

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present what we might call Spinoza’s “theory of temporality” in Descartes’s Principles of Philosophy and its Appendix, Metaphysical Thoughts, published together in 1663. Our specific goal is to determine the nature of the distinction between the concepts of eternity, duration and time. We believe that this can shed light not only on the way in which Spinoza’s doctrine evolves, but also on understanding the progressive distance that our author takes from Descartes’ philosophy in general, and from his ontology of continuous creation in particular.