  Another doctrine that is heavily affected by how one understands the attributes is the union of mind and body. For Descartes, the issue was how to unite two really distinct created substances—uniting minds with bodies. Descartes’ reply is that God unites these two substances, and we have tools by which to recognize that we are united in this way, i.e., sensory experience (Meditation Six). Spinoza, of course, cannot allude to God as creator to unite minds and bodies, since what is being united are not created substances but finite modes. The possible problem can be articulated as follows: How can Spinoza claim, on the one hand, that there are modes of really distinct attributes, e.g., my mind and my body, and therefore there is a real distinction between my mind and my body, and, on the other, claim in the Scholium to 2P7 that my mind and body are one and the same?