system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Spinoza Explanation

To make it simple, we are studying Spinoza in class and i still cannot fully understand  the teacher and the texts made by spinoza. This is why i came on this thread, to have some answers, explanations. The subject i would need help are: The substance and modes thing, his theory of truth, theory about making errors, etc. In other words a recap of almost eveything, because i dont understand almost anything i read.

Thank you.
gpt
Spinoza's theory of Truth / Error is terrifically difficult.  But you won't understand it until you get the basic system down.

The starting characters are substance, attribute, and mode.

Substance is the basic stuff, the being, of existence.

Attributes are ways of understanding substance.  Ways of interpreting or relating to substance.  For Spinoza, the two attributes we know are thought and extension.  Every particular thing will be either a thought thing, or an extension thing.  (This will get more complicated later.)

Modes are modifications of substance.

Ok.  So what the hell does that mean.

Think of the hood of a car.  Suppose someone hits the hood with a hammer.  That will produce a dent, right?  The relationship of the dent and the hood of the car is kinda like the relationship of substance and modes.  In order for a mode (dent) to exist, there has to be something in which it exists.  All of the modes (dents) exist in substance (the hood of the car).  You couldn't have dents without car hoods; there has to be some thing that is dented.  Moreover, those dents in some way modify the car hood.  The dent exists in the car hood, and the car hood is modified by the dent.

That's reality, for Spinoza.  Reality is a really big car hood.  Every existing thing (mode) is a dent in that car hood.

That's a basic starting point for Spinoza's system.  Can you think it?  Because nothing else will make sense until you can think the substance-attribute-mode model.