Benedictus de Spinoza

Benedictus de Spinoza was a 17th-century philosopher who proposed that everything is interconnected through a single substance, which he identified with God or Nature. He believed that individual identities are expressions of this one substance, and change is a fundamental part of existence. For Spinoza, understanding ourselves and the world involves recognizing our place within this unity. He emphasized that instead of seeing identity as fixed, we should view it as dynamic, shaped by our experiences and interactions, while still being part of the broader whole that is constantly evolving.