BARUCH SPINOZAYounes Aitcaid

Theory Of Knowledge

Ethics by Baruch Spinoza

Spinoza’s most important part of his philosophy is his naturalistic view of God , the world, and all of these connections with humans and each other which is discussed in his multilayered novel: Ethics.

Part 1: God is the uncaused, substance of the universe in the fact that God is the infinite, one, and every substance within the universe which Spinoza defends with 14 propositions but explains his proof in three steps :

# 1- There are no two substances that can share an attribute#2- There is a substance with infinite attributes/qualities

meaning that substance is the only common and simultaneously unique substance

#3- A second substance can’t exist cant exist because it would have to an attribute in common with the original which isnt possible because God has all infinite attributes because he is one substance.

Note: This ideas are partly from the ideas of Descartes who he studied greatly and followed his philosophy.

Ethics: God and nature: problems What Spinoza is stating that every

object in the world is God , but actually he stated that God is the underlying cause of everything in the substance of the universe and stated that although God always existed, however he stated that despite choosing to create the world, the creation of it was already stated to happen.

Ethics: nature

According to Espinoza, Nature ( in Latin: Natura) has two parts :

God and his attributes causing the following of everything else &

The attributes of Nature which in itself, is the substantial whole in which serves as a medium for the order of things that naturally happen from the essences of God

(Summarize)events happen only from Nature and its laws which in turn, are governed by the necessity of the existence of God.

ETHICS: NATURE: PROBLEM Spinoza’s view of Nature and God

caused his critical naming of being a pantheist which states God is not distinct from the world and that everything of nature contains within itself supernatural God. However, Spinoza states God is to be identified with Nature and its attributes thus eliminating his connection with the latter sense but he still thinks God is the whole of nature making him part pantheist.

ETHICS: NATURE: PROBLEM On the intrepreation of Spinoza and

pantheism, he states God is identical with part or all of Nature which is why he called a pantheist, but however this also bases the fact that atheists can, without difficulty admit God is nothing but nature also making pantheism and atheism parallel to each other.

ETHICS; NATURE: WORKINGS OF THE WORLD Proposition 1: A substance is prior in nature to its affections. Proposition 2: Two substances having different

attributes have nothing in common with one another. (In other words, if two substances differ in nature, then they have nothing in common).

Proposition 3: If things have nothing in common with one another, one of them cannot be the cause of the other. Proposition 4: Two or more distinct things are distinguished from one another, either by a difference in the

attributes [i.e., the natures or essences] of the substances or by a difference in their affections [i.e., their accidental properties].

Proposition 5: In nature, there cannot be two or more substances of the same nature or attribute. Proposition 6: One substance cannot be produced by another substance. Proposition 7: It pertains to the nature of a substance to exist. Proposition 8: Every substance is necessarily infinite. Proposition 9: The more reality or being each thing has, the more attributes belong to it. Proposition 10: Each attribute of a substance must be conceived through itself. Proposition 11: God, or a substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite

essence, necessarily exists. (The proof of this proposition consists simply in the classic “ontological proof for God's existence”. Spinoza writes that “if you deny this, conceive, if you can, that God does not exist. Therefore, by axiom 7 [‘If a thing can be conceived as not existing, its essence does not involve existence’], his essence does not involve existence. But this, by proposition 7, is absurd. Therefore, God necessarily exists, q.e.d.”)

Proposition 12: No attribute of a substance can be truly conceived from which it follows that the substance can be divided.

Proposition 13: A substance which is absolutely infinite is indivisible. Proposition 14: Except God, no substance can be or be conceived.

Ethics: Human Beings Spinoza states the two attributes of God itself is extenstion

is and thought. By extension, he meant that : God is an extension of essence, bodies are the extension of

expression , and ideas are the extension of thought which is important since the latter is his prime example of the attribute of extension.

In the case of the human body, its idea is the human soul or mind, the latter which supposedly perceives itself and experiences the world around it by interacting with other bodies, however the human mind and body are two different expressions—under Thought and under Extension—of one thing: the person. And because there is no causal interaction between the mind and body, the so-called mind-body problem does not, technically speaking, arise.

Ethics; Knowledge Also, Spinoza says that the Thought’s view and

connection of human bodies is not knowledge of the world , but how the human mind views(perceives) the surrounding environment which states how we are ignorant of our own causes. Adequate ideas, however are based on rational experiences and understanding of the connection of something with one of God’s attribute eternally, but outside of time.

Reason is the apprehension of something of the essence of something through origanized, logical directions.

Sensory experience, on the other hand, is the view of a perspective at any given momentary time.

Spinoza philosophy: explained

You: Ok, I read all that, but what is he really saying? Tell me what this Spinoza guy is saying.

Me(or some other person, or in Spinoza’s words: the physical medium of another collection of God-loved, natural collection of self-aware, intelligent, various species) Spinoza is stating that the universe is just a physical expression of everything that was naturally supposed to happen and as such, its creator(or possibly vice-versa) God and his attributes all make up nature which caused the existence of other creatures and humans who are self-aware, self-evolving, speaking, and communicating beings who dominate the planet(supposedly) because this is the way it naturally exists and that all ideas, deaths, thought, and evolution is just the self-inflicted human way of advancing itself as the only known intelligent lifeforms in the universe.

Quotes: 1/3 slides Fear cannot be without hope nor hope without fear.

For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice. Freedom is absolutely necessary for the progress in science and the liberal arts. God is the indwelling and not the transient cause of all things.

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice

As men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits.

He, who has a true idea, simultaneously knows that he has a true idea, and cannot doubt of the truth of the thing perceived.

Pride is therefore pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself.- questionable.

It therefore comes to pass that everyone is fond of relating his own exploits and displaying the strength both of his body and his mind, and that men are on this account a nuisance one to the other. - CAUSES of fighting

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long is he determined not to do it: and consequently, so long it is impossible to him that he should do it.

Men will find that they can prepare with mutual aid far more easily what they need, and avoid far more easily the perils which beset them on all sides, by united force.

Avarice, ambition, lust, etc., are nothing but species of madness.

Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it.

 

Quotes

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice

As men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readily embrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may move another to scoff, I conclude... that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of his creed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits.

Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all their circumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: but being frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and being often kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertainty of fortune’s greedily coveted favours, they are consequently for the most part, very prone to credulity.

He, who has a true idea, simultaneously knows that he has a true idea, and cannot doubt of the truth of the thing perceived.

Pride is therefore pleasure arising from a man's thinking too highly of himself.- questionable.

It therefore comes to pass that everyone is fond of relating his own exploits and displaying the strength both of his body and his mind, and that men are on this account a nuisance one to the other. - CAUSES of fighting

So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long is he determined not to do it: and consequently, so long it is impossible to him that he should do it.

Bibliography

Nadler, Steven. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. . Stanford University. 2008. Web. 17 Feb 2011. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza/#ThePolTre

Philosophy Paradise.2006. Web 17 Feb 2011.The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing

Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 17 Feb 2011.