Spinoza

• Spinoza (1632-77) is known to be the noblest and most lovable of all the great philosophers. He was born a Jew but his whole philosophy is dominated by the idea of god. His family went to Holland from Spain or maybe Portugal, to escape the Inquisition. He firstly in Amsterdam and then Hague, earning a living by polishing lenses. At the early age of 44 he died of Phthisis.
• His chief work was the Ethics, however he did write two other books, the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, which is a combination of biblical criticism and political theory. The other was  the Tractatus Politicus, which deals with political theory only.
• Spinoza's political theory is mainly derived from Hobbes. He states that in a state of nature, there is no right or wrong because wrong consists of disobeying the law. He holds that the sovereign can do no wrong and that the church should be entirely subordinate to State. He is opposed to all types of rebellion, even against a bad government.
• Spinoza's Ethics deals with three main matters. It begins with metaphysics; it the goes on to the psychology of the passions and the will; and finally it sets forth an ethic based on the preceding metaphysics and psychology.
• For Spinoza, he believed that for him, thought and extension were both attributes of god. He also believed that there can only be one being who is wholly positive and he must be absolutely infinite. Which leads him to believe that everything that happens is a manifestation of God's inscrutable nature and that it is logically impossible that events should be other that they are. This leads to sin where according to Spinoza, everything is decreed by God and therefore is good.
• Spinoza believed in a theory that the human mind has an adequate knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God. He also stated that 'The mind's highest good is the knowledge of God, and the mind's highest virtue is to know God'.
• Like Socrates and Plato, Spinoza believed that all wrong action sis due to intellectual error.
• According to Spinoza's (irrational and ignorant thinking) 'whatever happens is part of the eternal timeless world as God sees it; to him the date is irrelevant'. Also ' only ignorance makes us think that we can alter the future; what will be will be, and the future is as unalterably fixed as the past. that is why hope and fear are condemned: both depend upon viewing the future as uncertain, and therefore spring from lack of wisdom'.
• Spinoza also believed that there is no evil, because God has no knowledge of evil, because there is no evil to be known.
• Spinoza's outlook is intended to liberate men from the tyranny of fear. His wisdom was that free men didn't think of death, but only of life. He lived up to these words because on the day he died, he was said to be completely calm and spoke of every day matters that interested him as if it was a normal day. 

Spinoza



• Spinoza spoke about emotions a lot and emotions in relation to God. Below are some directs quotes from 'Russell's History of Western philosophy' on Spinoza and emotions.
• Understanding that all things are necessary helps the mind to acquire power over the emotions. 'He who clearly and distinctly understands himself and his emotions, loves God, and so much the more as he more understands himself and his emotions'.
• All joy in true thought is part of the intellectual love of god, for it contains nothing negative, and is therefore truly part of the whole, not only apparently, as are fragmentary things so separated in thought as to appear bad'.
• 'Everything is part of God. This understanding of everything as part of God is love of God. When all objects are referred to God, the idea of God will fully occupy the mind'. Thus the statement that 'Love of God must hold the chief place in the mind'.
• Lastly Spinoza says that a man who loves God cannot want God to love him because God loves and hates no one. This leads to the quote 'a man who loved God and wished God to love him would be wishing to feel pain, which is absurd'.
• My opinion is that Spinoza is very ignorant to think these things and to hold these believes. With me being an Atheist, I cant stand people like Spinoza who solely believe that God is the answer to every question that could be possibly asked. When I was reading chapter 10 of 'Russell A Western Philosophy' I couldn't believe how many times I saw the word God in one chapter, I mean its just ridiculous. The only two ideas that I could possibly agree on is when he says that free men don't think of death but only of life. Also that he believes 'revenge is a dangerous motive' and that 'life dominated by a single passion is a narrow life'. Even though he got the latter idea from the bible quote 'Love your enemies'.