Aristotle and Spinoza.

This gloss is from David Balme (Aristotle's Parts of Animals, 1972) and shows that Aristotle and Spinoza agree in that there is a first, absolute cause because there are contingent causes. In Spinoza it is a causa sui conceptually, because there is a reality, so there is a first and eternal cause (cf. Michael Della Rocca, Spinoza, Routledge, 2008). Aubenque says (1962) that in Aristotle there is no causa sui in reality, because ousia cannot create itself. But causa sui has nothing to do with self-creation, but with being not created in time, so Nature is eternal. Aubenque says (1962) that the Greeks did not ask themselves the question "Why is there something rather than nothing" and the answer is because the Greeks thought Nature eternal, not created in time.