# (perfection or reality) or (God’s perfect graphic)

Spinoza's Ethics 1.6 · essay 7 of 21 · by Reza Khosravivala · published 2024-07-21 · updated 2026-09-12
Canonical: https://rezakhosravi.com/essays/perfection/  (this Markdown edition: https://rezakhosravi.com/essays/perfection/index.md)
Summary: Spinoza view on perfection and reality and how they are synonymous
Topics: Spinoza, Ethics, Perfection, Reality
Originally on: Medium (https://medium.com/@mrez9090/spinoza-ethics-1-2-perfection-or-reality-or-gods-infinitely-perfect-graphic-4be5f2e0aa88); mamzi.net (archived on GitHub) (https://github.com/mreza0100/mamzi.net.github.io)
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Next: 1.7 Miracles (https://rezakhosravi.com/essays/miracles/index.md)

![Radiant circular diagram of linked nodes labelled Nature, God and perfection around a burst of light](https://rezakhosravi.com/img/essays/perfection/01.webp)

Understanding the concept of Spinoza’s perfection can completely change your **worldview** in a way that you won’t look at reality the same way you always have.

At the end of understanding this concept, it's expected for you to see how everything is different from what you used to see, but yet nothing changed, except your understanding of how infinite, infinite is.

![Starfield of orbits and glowing rings under the line God equals Nature equals Substance](https://rezakhosravi.com/img/essays/perfection/02.webp)

## Infinity in numbers

Let’s assume we have all the positive numbers from 0 to infinity.

Now we have infinite numbers, but we don’t have half of them, which are the negative numbers. So we can have infinite, but still not all of it.

At the time that we have **absolutely infinite** numbers, we would say we have the **perfect** set. On the contrary, the imperfection of it would be a finite range or just infinite (not absolute infinite).

Conclusion: We can have boundless infinity between finite boundaries, just like how there are infinite decimal numbers between 1-2 (1.01, 1.0001 and so on to infinity)

## Space or reality

If now we consider 2 points in reality, we can find infinite possible places between them. This shows that within a finite boundary, there are an infinite number of possible points.

## Things

**Things** I define as extended things with concrete finite boundaries.

Things have all been specified in finite boundaries, everything in nature, no matter how big, is not absolutely infinite. Things are just **extended things** inside space.

Now if we consider ourselves as extended things with definite shape living in this reality, you would realize we are finite as bodies, also everything else as matter. From our body to the biggest galaxies, all of these are modes of the one substance conceived as extended, see [1D5](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/1D5) and [2D1](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/2D1), not things sitting inside a box called space. That's why reality is perfect, because it leaves nothing out, as to say, it contains all the numbers.

Hence it follows that the one and only **absolutely infinite** thing is **substance**, God or Nature, which has infinitely many attributes, and Extension is the one we can picture, see [1D6](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/1D6) and [2P2](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/2P2).

Now let's connect some dots

God = Nature = Substance = Infinitely Extended thing = Reality

We can see how the perfection of nature possesses itself through reality.

Everything else is finite extended things inside reality, which is an infinity within its boundaries.

While we, as finite beings, perceive only a portion of this infinity, it does not diminish the perfection of the whole. In other words, as extended things we are finite modes of this infinite substance.

> [**> Ethics 1P8:**](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/1P8) **Every substance is necessarily infinite.**

This does not give us many infinite substances, one inside another. It is one of the steps to [1P14](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/1P14): there is only one substance, and everything extended is a mode of it.

> [**>**](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/2D6) [**Ethics**](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/1P8)[**2D6:**](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/2D6)Reality and perfection I use as synonymous terms.

## Misconception of perfection

Perfection is associated with achieving the preconceived goal of a creator or someone who can judge the completion of the thing said.

Let’s say a half-finished building, no one calls it perfect. At the time that it has been brought to reality, by its creator and judge, it shall be called perfect. Later on, humans started to build towers, apartments, houses, etc. Each of them started to pick their own favorite values to judge the perfection of the thing in their favor. But they have been unaware that all judgment objects have been brought to reality by necessity or infinite accuracy, and not because of perfection in a way that could happen differently.

So we can see how **perfection** becomes **opinion-based,** and an opinion does not have reality values within its nature. As we must be aware that **good**, **bad**, **meaning**, and **opinions**, are all the products of the mind, and not the quality of thing in reality. In reality, everything exists because of necessity accompanied by infinite accuracy.

So no building or tower is perfect, whether finished or not? That depends on a human's judgment of the thing said to find the good or bad for whom.

These concepts are relative or opinion-based, the only **non-opinion-based** ground is the **truth** or **reality**. The very **reality** is the **truth.** The goal here is to be able to distinguish reality from imagination and opinion, set ourselves free, and take the drive of life to a way of living in harmony with nature and ourselves.

> **Reality is the extended space or substance, within infinite sides, each stretched to infinity, which itself and within all consist absolutely infinite God to possess its perfection through reality. Reza Khosravivala**

### Add on

Modern observations indicate that the observable universe is finite in extent and that large-scale spatial geometry is very close to flat; whether the entire universe is spatially finite or infinite remains unknown. Either way, this does not touch what Spinoza says. His infinite is not a measurement of how far space reaches, it is a claim of reason about substance, that substance is limited by nothing of the same kind, see [1D2](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/1D2) and [1D6](https://ethica.bc.edu/#/element/1D6). So the observation neither confirms nor refutes it, and it doesn't invalidate anything else of the system.