(1632 – 1677)

Benedict de Spinoza

WHO WAS BENEDICT DE SPINOZA?

Heterodox religious thinker of the second half of the

seventeenth century Europe; an outcast Jew.

A post-Cartesian philosopher who got into trouble with

clerics.

After writing on philosophy, he died of TB, leaving some

writing unfinished, that were posthumous publications.

He gave a monistic metaphysics, in which God and Nature

are identical. God is no longer the transcendent creator of

the universe who rules it via providence.

TREATISE ON THE CORRECT UNDERSTANDING

In this book Spinoza attempted to formulate a

philosophical method that would allow the

mind to form the clear and distinct ideas that

are necessary for perfection.

In addition, reflection upon various kinds of

knowledge, an extended treatment of

definition and an analysis of nature and causes

of doubt. This was the first book that he wrote.

WAS SPINOZA A HUMANIST?

Spinoza adopted a naturalist position which

endorses the scientific examination of human

beings just like any other objects in nature.

Spinoza was a rationalist thinker.

Humanists affirm the existence of a metaphysical

and moral gulf between humanity and nature;

assign a special value to humanity.

SPINOZA’S IDEA OF NATURE

Humility, poverty and chastity become the effects of an

especially rich and superabundant life, sufficiently

powerful to have conquered thought and subordinated

every other instinct to itself.

This was what Spinoza called nature; a life no longer

lived on the basis of need, in terms of means and

ends, but according to a production, a productivity, a

potency, in terms of causes and effects.

SUBSTANCE,

Spinoza defines substance in terms of

ontological and conceptual independence.

Something is a substance just in case it is in

itself and is conceived through itself, Spinoza

says.

Here the in-itself condition signifies ontological

independence and the conceived-through-itself

condition, conceptual independence

ATTRIBUTE,

Attribute is that which the intellect perceives of

substance as constituting its essence.

An attribute is not just any property of a substance – it

is its very essence.

So close is the association of an attribute and the

substance of which it is an attribute that Spinoza

denies that there is a real distinction between them.

MODE, GOD

Mode: Modifications of a substance or, that which is in something else through which it is also conceived.

A mode is what exists in another and is conceived through another. Specifically, it exists as a modification or an affection of a substance and cannot be conceived apart from it.

God: A being absolutely infinite, that is, a Substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence.

HOW DOES SPINOZA CONCEIVE OF GOD AND MAN?

God is Nature itself;

Nature: an infinite, necessary, and fully

deterministic system of which humans are a part.

Humans find happiness only through a rational

understanding of this system and their place in it.

Spinoza wrote on God, Man, Mind, Emotions,

Power of the Intellect and human Freedom.

GOD, THOUGHT, EXTENSION

Spinoza argues that any possible substance

has to exist by necessity, because nothing

external can prevent a possible substance from

existing.

Spinoza defines God as a substance that has

an infinity of attributes, each of which is infinite

in its own kind.

Thought and extension are attributes of God.

DIVINE AND HUMAN LAWS AND SPINOZA

Spinoza: while human laws aim only at

prosperity and peace, divine laws aim at “the

true knowledge and love of God” (TTP 4.3/50).

For Spinoza, to know what we are depends on

knowing what the universe or God is, because

Spinoza sees us as limitations in God or the

universe. Our bodies have spatial limits and our

understanding has limits in thought.

The core purpose of religion is to direct us to a life

that is guided by reason towards the perfection of

reason.

For the best and most blissful life is the life of

contemplation, culminating in knowledge of God.

God himself, is the perfect model of this life.

RELIGION AND REASON

AFFLICATIONS, ENCUMERANCES

Being pure Reason, God eternally knows and enjoys the

truth, unencumbered by hunger, pain, ignorance, and other

afflictions that come with being embodied. The task of

religion is to make us as much like God as possible.

Classical theism, the idea that God is the creator of the

universe who remains ontologically distinct from it is

rejected by Spinoza. Nature is seen as a power that is one

and the same with divine power.

THE ETHICS, ‘ON GOD’ AND ‘MAN’

(i) God necessarily exists;

(ii) God is the only possible substance;

(iii) everything follows from God by geometrical necessity.

A human being is generated by God’s beginning to think an object that we call the human body. Because of this, all human minds are parts of the infinite intellect of God. The nature of human beings as mind–body unions follows.

Ultimate aim of the Ethics is to aid us in the

attainment of happiness, which is to be found in the

intellectual love of God. This love, according to

Spinoza, arises out of the knowledge that we gain

of the divine essence insofar as we see how the

essences of singular things follow of necessity from

it. Beginning with propositions concerning God, he

was able to employ it to show how all other things

can be derived from God.

THEOLOGICAL-POLITICAL TREATISE

Completed and published anonymously in 1670.

Spinoza considered the primary threat to the freedom

of thought emanated from the clergy, whom he accused

of playing upon the fears and superstitions of people in

order to maintain power.

Spinoza sought the freedom to do philosophical work

unencumbered by the constraints of sectarianism.