WebAnswer (1 of 7): I have to endeavor an answer because I disagree (respectfully) with the other answers here. 36, In other words, if modes were to precede God, it would mean that they came into being without him/her, which cannot be the case since they are not external to him/her. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) served as the natural end of the rationalist tradition on the European continent, which included Descartes, Spinoza, and Malebranche. And he gives us the historical context of Dutch Golden Age politics and culture, which usually allowed the tolerant cosmopolitanism of its merchant class to prevail over clerical indignation. Although Leibniz had many philosophical and intellectual interests, he was arguably most Baruch (Benedict) De Spinoza was born in 1632 in Amsterdam to Jewish parents. WebFor Spinoza, the world just is God, and in some sense, all things are in God. 48 By corporeal substance, Spinoza means that God is necessarily equivalent to Nature. 5. It is also of great importance to address Spinozas views on the types of ideas that the mind can have, which are inadequate, adequate, or true ideas. Abstract. Moreover, if God were free, as colloquially understood, he/she would be able to choose to cease being active, and thus, the continuity of existence would be in jeopardy since he/she would have the ability to be inactive. For Spinoza God is not a person, and does not create for any reason or towards any purpose. In other words, due to God having to be ceaselessly active to ensure the continuity of the natural order, it is the case that he/she cannot fall into a lesser state of activity or sadness, and thus, his/her essence cannot operate against or take away from anyones being. Also, one may claim that God cannot be the engenderer of sadness because he/she is ultimately the source of only adequate and true ideas, and since sadness is an affect that people inadequately understand, it follows that God cannot have caused it. His thought combines a Conceptual Foundations and Motivations 1.1 Definition of ultimate Brahman, the Dao, emptiness, God, the One, Reasonablenessthere, in alphabetical order, are names of the central subjects of concern in what are commonly parsed as some of the worlds religions, philosophies and quasi-religious-philosophies. 83 That is, the mind and body are coherent, since they ultimately derive from one unified substance, and since that one unified substance immanently causes all things, or is innately in them, it follows that the mind would reduce to the body and the body to the mind if they existed through the right attributes. WebSpinoza is often put forward as the father of pantheism and as the greatest pantheist, but in fact his writings on God are extremely abstract and theoretical, very unappealing to a modern scientific viewpoint. Stop going to those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and say they are my house! 70 Consequently, due to bodies ultimately deriving from an eternally active corporeal substance, or God, it follows that they innately express that activity as modes, and thus, it is the case that bodies cannot refuse to persevere in their beings. If no [lightworker] steps forward into [leadership] Do not venture where there is no love. WebSpinoza believed that everything that exists is God. Finally, knowledge of God, by only being promotive of peoples well-beings is due to his/her perfection, and since sadness is deleterious to them, it follows that nothing evil, or useless can derive from him/her, and thus, his/her flawlessness remains preserved. At the same time, the more people gain adequate knowledge of what has led them to feel saddened, the less sorrow affects them, since it ultimately causes that emotion to cease to be sadness. Finally, he states that desires that have good effects increase the minds ability to think, and thus, the bodys ability to act, whereas evil ones diminish those abilities. Spinozas metaphysics consists of one thing, substance, and its modifications (modes). 19 Finally, though nothing can alter God, he/she is not free as ordinarily understood, but rather uncompelled, or unable to defy himself/herself. This piece has explained Spinozas views on the nature of God, his/her attributes, and the modes that ultimately arise from him/her. Our recommendations on other lightworker sites. She begins: Benedict de Spinoza did not have a religionat least in the usual sense of the word (1). 103 To Spinoza, it is impossible for God to slip into a lesser degree of perfection, not only because he/she is permanently unchanging, but also because he/she is limitless, and thus, what affects his/her limited modes, cannot affect him/her. Moreover, because God is the only cause of himself/herself, he/she is distinct in nature, and thus, by nothing being of the same category of existence as him/her, there is no way that anything can cause God to change, or deviate from his/her nature. Finally, Spinoza continues to address the nature of that which can act upon and influence people, which he calls affects. On the last day of his life, before his death at the age of 44 from lung disease, he was calmly conversing with his friends about philosophy, the same as always. 3. Moreover, God cannot be the cause of sadness since he/she cannot return any feelings that people project onto him/her, and thus, by being free of emotion, it would be illogical to claim that he/she can cause anyone pain. 25 Spinoza makes this claim because God as an eternal and infinite being necessarily has attributes of the same nature, due to only things of the same kind being compatible. Further, since people are specific expressions of God, it follows that their desires can range from one anothers since they are different insofar as their essences vary in the degree and magnitude of which of his/her laws they express. 85 Those external ideas Spinoza calls affects and since they do not arise from peoples ability to conceive ideas, it follows that they have an inadequate knowledge of them. If everything comes from God just being God, then all would seem to be for the best in the best of all possible worlds, and our calamities are, so to speak, simply divine. But once we recognize this inexorable order as Gods only providence, we arrive at a serene acceptance of the world, combined with a virtuous immunity to its petty distractions and snares, thus partaking of the true freedom which belongs to God. But thats why secularist readers (Nadler among them) have always seen Spinozas God as a thin disguise for an orderly, perhaps awe-inspiring, but purposeless and indifferent nature. By that which causes itself, Spinoza means that God is the only being who does not derive from an external cause for his/her existence or an outside concept for his/her conceivability. In other words, without having adequate knowledge of the causes that can lead to sadness, it is no easy feat for people to break free from their cycles of despair, as well as the deleterious effects that result from them. 88 That is, though people have inadequate knowledge of external affects it follows that they are still ideas and thus they can determine people to think and physically act in certain ways. 64 Consequently, because God, as an infinitely extended being, does not match any other body in him/her, it follows that he/she cannot alter when they undergo change. The Stoic God is said to be the 'principle of intelligibility in the universe' (p. 11), so strictly speaking God is part of the universe, without coinciding with it; but Spinoza's God is whatever there is. Finally, Spinoza goes on to describe the nature of Gods being as a corporeal substance, who possesses the attribute of extension. 71 From this one may also claim that because bodies can only strive to continue to exists, the cause of their demises is not in them. My opinion concerning God differs widely from that which is ordinarily defended by modern Christians. Translated by Edwin Curley. SourceLight Seeing you home 16 In other words, as the sole cause of itself, nothing can compete with Gods infinite nature because all other things derive from causes other than themselves, which renders them to be subject to the conditions that they inherit from their immediate engenderers. And if there is no truth, there will not be peace and [peace], Sweet One, is the Plan. 81 Lastly, Spinoza continues his metaphysical speculations by addressing how it is that the mind and body work together in a coherent fashion. Stop praising me. That is, Spinoza believes that through the application of reason, people can gain knowledge, and by doing so, inadequate ideas cease to influence them, and thus, emotions such as sadness can no longer affect them. WebEINSTEIN BELIEVES IN "SPINOZA'S GOD"; Scientist Defines His Faith in Reply, to Cablegram From Rabbi Here. in Philosophy from Hunter College/CUNY. What did you learn?. And why were less interested now in Spinozas logic than in his peace of mind. Of course, you may still wonder if his deterministic nature, which has no room for free will, just exchanges one form of bondage for another. Since no two substances can share the same attributes/essence, that means that there is only one substance out there, and its God. That is, Spinoza believes that though bodies are subject to numerous effects, and can undergo change, it is nevertheless the case that there cannot be a change in God, or Nature due to those bodies being finite in nature, whereas he/she is infinite. Rocco A. Astore, The New School for Social Research. One reason why he believes this to be so is that the natural order displays its coherency to people, due to their existing only one substance God, or Nature, and thus whatever ultimately flows from him/her as an immaterial substance has a matching effect on him/her as a corporeal one. His God would not have encouraged us to go out in nature, as his god would not even be aware we exist. 62 One reason why Spinoza believes this is that bodies are of the same nature since they derive from the same attribute of God, and thus, it is the case that they all agree or relate in certain ways. Spinoza on Human Freedom closes on a high note, with a strong chapter that examines how the state can contribute to the freedom or autonomy of the individual. Im a writer who wishes to share his views with you on subjects of mutual interest and listen to yours as lightworker equals and spiritual adults. Spinoza is the first philosopher to write a systematic defense of democracy; it appears in his Theologico-Political Treatise, published in 1670. WebGod, according to Spinoza, did not have a personality, or consciousness or any expressed preferences or advice. Although wishing to give the impression that their highbrow books buck the trend, in reality they preach to the Baruch De Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the three great rationalist in the century of philosophy, along with French Descartes. 82. Benedict de Spinoza, Hebrew forename Baruch, Latin forename Benedictus, Portuguese Bento de Espinosa, (born November 24, 1632, Amsterdamdied February 21, 1677, The Hague), Dutch Jewish philosopher, one of the foremost exponents of 17th-century Rationalism and one of the early and seminal figures of the Enlightenment. 37 From this, one may claim that modes cannot exist outside of God because, for something to exist outside of something else, it must precede it. 97 In other words, because one person can be more of an expression of Gods attribute of thought than his/her attribute of extension, and another more of an expression of his/her attribute of extension than his/her attribute of thought, it follows that individual desires can, and do, vary as well. What kind of god would do that? The Tractatus, Nadler points out, is a more readable and urgent book than his posthumously published magnum opus, the Ethics, with its rigorously Euclidean, axiomatic format, but the books have a common aim: liberation from bondage, whether psychological, political, or religious.. 108 That is, by being without any inadequacies God cannot cause sadness, because his/her eternal activity can only exude true and adequate ideas. Responsibility is not burden, fault, praise, blame, credit, shame or guilt. 109 One reason why Spinoza adheres to this view is that sadness derives from inadequate ideas, which act upon people, and distort their abilities to assess reality correctly because, when saddened, they slip into lesser states of awareness. Furthermore, Spinoza continues to claim that like all other shapes, bodies retain the effects of what causes them to move or come to rest, and reflect those effects too. Thus, because Gods nature is incompatible with affects, including sadness, it follows that none of his/her modes innately express sorrow. Early in The Ethics Spinoza argues that there is only one substance, which is absolutely infinite, self-caused, and eternal. 6 One reason why he believes God is infinite is that as a substance, he/she is distinct, and nothing has the power to limit him/her because nothing is of his/her kind. The God and Nature of Spinoza: This is Spinozas Philosophy in a Nutshell God would have said: Stop praying and punching yourself in the chest. Like Einstein, we can likely use some of his soothing sense of cosmic harmony, whether or not we pay it the compliment of calling it Spinozas God. From this, one may also claim that because it is innate of thinking things to think, it follows that God must possess the attribute of thought because what is inherently in him/her, must, in some ways, be in his/her modes, due to his/her immanence. 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