The role of real versus formal distinction in Spinoza's univocal conception of substance

Spinoza's undertaking is grounded in his ontology that permeates every aspect of his book. This paper attempts to demonstrate that Spinoza's understanding of substance is univocal and necessary, that this is dependent upon the notion of real distinction as non-numerical and the centrality of substance as fundamentally active being. Spinoza's parallelism, his theory of ideas, and his understanding regarding the nature of desire make sense only in terms of his ontology. Consequently, this paper will be divided into three sections: a first part concerned with a brief overview of Spinoza's causal rationalism, a section dedicated to his understanding of substance and general metaphysics, and a third section dedicated to the application of his metaphysics to the understanding of human mind and desire in particular.