Spinoza and Gödel: Causa Sui and Undecidable Truth

North American Spinoza Society Monograph 13:46-52 (2007)
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Abstract

Spinoza distinguishes between causation that is external, as in A causing B where A is external to B, and causation that is internal, where C causes itself (causa sui), without any involvement of anything external to C. External causation is easy to understand, but self causation is not. This note explores an approach to self-causation based upon Gödelian undecidability and draws upon ideas from an earlier study of Gödel’s proof and the quantum measurement problem (Zwick, 1978).

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Martin Zwick
Portland State University

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