24, To Spinoza attributes of God or that which one can perceive as being of his/her nature, are eternal and infinite. 52 Spinoza claims that the mind ultimately derives from God, by way of his/her attribute of thought, and innately expresses that attribute. Rebecca Goldstein. IANALbutIAMAcat 4 yr. ago I agree with you here. So dont blame me for everything they made you believe. Second, it is also illogical to believe that God is reducible to a totality of finite substances because they too cannot exist. The best introduction to the subject in recent memory. 84, To Spinoza, there exist ideas that are external to people that have the ability to act upon or influence them to feel or be aware of themselves in greater or lesser ways than as they normally understand themselves. [emailprotected], Florida Philosophical Review 3. His masterwork, Ethics (published posthumously in 1677), is a bold 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. Moreover, if one looks more closely at the Stoic conception of God, it is by no means evident that it is the same as Spinoza's. That is, if God were not a corporeal substance, there would be no room for his/her modes to come to be, which is an impossibility since the reality of Nature necessarily provides space for his/her modes to exist. Im an atheist but I certainly recognize the appeal of religion. From this, one may claim that the natural order would be in jeopardy if God changed since he/she would have to bend the laws of nature to do so, which ultimately would give rise to extremely different types of modes unlike those that exists now. Stop asking for forgiveness, theres nothing to forgive. Spinoza, Benedict De. Princeton: Penguin Books, 1996. Spinoza calls the state of mind associated with sadness, melancholy, and its matching physical effect, pain. Lastly, by maintaining that God is perfect and that the existence of sadness derives from ignorance, and not him/her, this essay hoped to argue effectively that Gods perfection is still justifiable, despite the realities of sadness. N ear the beginning of The Family Moskat, Isaac Bashevis Singer introduces us to a young man from a distinguished rabbinic family named Asa Heschel Bannet: At five he 25 Spinoza makes this claim because God as an eternal and infinite 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. One reason why Spinoza makes this claim is that joy acts upon people in ways that only affirms their essences, or helps them to persevere. When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the recurring question that students asked him most was: Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes. Spinoza seems to have feared nothing and regretted nothing, and he lived a life of quiet, exemplary virtue. Feeling grateful? 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. Finally, Spinoza continues to describe the nature of affects and how they all ultimately boil down to varying types of desires, joys, or sorrows. WebSPINOZA, BENEDICT (BARUCH) DE (1632 1677). Exactly. Im locked in. WebSpinoza believed that everything that exists is God. 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 What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. WebTherefore, Spinoza argues that the only substance is God (Ethics, II. Moreover, Spinoza claims that sadness accompanied with the idea of the external cause of sadness is hate. Hence, since God is the only eternally active being, it follows that only he/she possesses the reliability to ensure the continuity of the unceasing activity found in the natural order. Information is Light. 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. Elsewhere Spinoza might have been jailed or burned at the stake, but in Holland he was left aloneif sometimes by fiat. At the age of 23 he was formally excommunicated, and cursed, by Jewish authorities in Amsterdam, where he had been raised in a Portuguese-Jewish family, probably for heretical ideas overheard in his conversations. WebFor Spinoza, the world just is God, and in some sense, all things are in God. Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. 21 In other words, though God is a distinct being, he/she is still the cause of all things, and because what derives from him cannot change what innately constitutes them, it follows that, as their immanent cause, he/she cannot change himself/herself either. WebAnswer (1 of 7): I have to endeavor an answer because I disagree (respectfully) with the other answers here. 17. What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. 1 Contrastingly, Spinoza goes on to state that though everything ultimately derives from God, he/she cannot be the cause of sadness since he/she is perfect. 108 That is, by being without any inadequacies God cannot cause sadness, because his/her eternal activity can only exude true and adequate ideas. One reason why Spinoza believes this is that a person, who is under the influence of inadequate ideas, do not have a clear understanding of how to strive to continue to live, which, in turn, clouds ones view of reality. 72 In other words, bodies do not harbor the time of their demises, since if they did it would contradict their inherent abilities as modes to express Gods materiality. 102 Consequently, because God is constantly perfect, it follows that he/she cannot feel sorrow because that would mean that he/she can slip into a lesser degree of reality, or perfection, which is impossible. 28 Moreover, because Gods attributes cannot interact, it follows that they cannot cause one another to come to be, and thus, one may claim that nothing can limit them. Because, if there is no love, then there is no truth. This life is the only thing here and now and it is all you need. That is, the mind is a thinking expression of God, as an immaterial substance, and since it does so in a determinate or limited way, it follows that it cannot have attributes since attributes are infinite and eternal. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? Rocco A. Astore, The New School for Social Research. Schocken Books. 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. 91, From this it follows that affects can either assists people or deter them from their desires to live, or aid or restrain their innate abilities to be. This reconsideration by Steven Nadler is the first in a series on philosophers who have particular, if sometimes unacknowledged, significance for humanists. [] They are all names for what is ultimate, WebSpinozas God is definitely not a God to whom one would pray or give worship or to whom one would turn for comfort. 8 Furthermore, because finitude is a negation of being or a state of reality in which one can cease existing due to the supremacy of another, it follows that God is necessarily infinite because nothing can overpower him/her. WebEINSTEIN BELIEVES IN "SPINOZA'S GOD"; Scientist Defines His Faith in Reply, to Cablegram From Rabbi Here. Conclusion Translated by Edwin Curley. For Spinoza God is not a person, and does not create for any reason or towards any purpose. Early in The Ethics Spinoza argues that there is only one substance, which is absolutely infinite, self-caused, and eternal. What do you need more miracles for? Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in the 17th century of a businessman father who was successful but not wealthy. Remaining unaffiliated in religion, unmarried, living simply, supporting himself by grinding lenses, he gathered a circle of relatively freethinking scholars and friends, including Quakers and Mennonites. 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; each would then obey God freely with his whole heart, while nothing would be publicly honored save justice and charity. 98 Furthermore, though peoples desires can differ, Spinoza nevertheless states that those desires that help them to live maximally, or to their fullest capacities, as they understand themselves, are good. 58 Consequently, Spinoza ultimately denies that the mind can possess various attributes, but rather it features active abilities to conceive ideas and passive powers to take them in. Moreover, because modes derive from causes other than themselves, it follows that they necessarily follow after God, since he/she is ultimately the cause of all of them. Spinoza's ethical views are deeply tied to his metaphysical system. This is evident from the following claim: As far as good and evil are concerned, they also indicate nothing positive in things, considered in themselves, nor are they anything other than modes of thinking, or notions we form because we compare things to one another.(E4, Preface) It is also apparent from this that he is a kind Further, it would be impossible for modes to come into existence at the same time as God because there can only be one cause-of-itself in nature. 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. 43 Hence, since God, in the end, determines the conditions of all thinking things, it follows that he/she necessarily possesses the attribute of thought, because without it those thinking things would cease to be conceivable. 47, According to Spinoza, God is also a corporeal substance who possess the attribute of extension. Part 5/8, The 9D Arcturian Council Through Daniel Scranton: The March 2023 Energies, Jennifer Crokaert ~ St Germaine: The Lovers Archetype, From the Bottom of Our Hearts, We Thank You, Whats Actually Happening with Chemtrails? 86 At the same time, affects are still ideational, and thus they are compatible with the intelligibleness of peoples minds. In 1656, Spinoza was excommunicated. 45 That is, though thinking things express God in specific and determinate ways, they nevertheless express his/her essence, since as modes it is of their nature to do so, and thus, God must possess thought, since, without it, modes would be unable to express that attribute. 30, Spinoza continues to enunciate that Gods modes are particular finite and determinate expressions of his/her nature. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. 39, Spinoza continues his metaphysical investigation by claiming that thought is an attribute of God. From this, it follows that sadness, which derives from inadequate ideas and lessens the minds ability to think and the bodys ability to act, is identifiable by people due to those effects. Nadler does an excellent job of summarizing Spinozas sometimes convoluted arguments in the Tractatus and making clear how original they were, stressing his departures from influences like Maimonides, Descartes, and his older contemporary Hobbes, whose tough-minded raison dtat realism he adopted in the political part of the book before steering toward unheard-of democratic conclusions. God is the efficient cause not only of the existence of things, but also of their essence. To Spinoza, God is the Universe, but not merely the Universe but rather it is the entire cosmos, SEEN FROM A UNIVERSAL, COSMIC POINT OF VIEW. To Spinoza, the human body exists by way of Gods attribute of extension. Spinoza, on the other hand, starts from the Did you like it? Friday, June 1, 2007 12 min read By: Peter Berkowitz. Sign up now to get the Washington Examiners breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox. In other words, external ideas that can act upon people, do not directly derive from them, but are compatible with their minds, since, as ideas, they are of the same nature as their immaterial minds. So many explanations? 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.. 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. What did you learn?. Spinoza used the provocative formulation Deus sive naturaGod, or naturebut he actually regarded nature as just the visible, comprehensible aspect of WebSpinoza argues for the existence of God through its perfection. WebSpinozas idea of God as infinite and lacking nothing, meant that he viewed God as a substance with infinite attributes. Though the mind and body come to be by way of different attributes of God, and are thus, incompatible, they nevertheless form a union. Baruch (Benedict) De Spinoza was born in 1632 in Amsterdam to Jewish parents. 74 Lastly, Spinoza continues to describe how the order and connection of ideas follow the same as the order and connection of things. Nietzsche wrote that he had deified the All and Life in order to find peace and happiness in the face of it. Nietzsche tried something like this, too, with his amor fati, love of fate, but with conspicuously less serene results. 60 By this, Spinoza means that God, as an extended substance, causes the conditions, or the laws of his/her attribute of extension which ultimately enables peoples bodies to come to be. University of Central Florida. Furthermore, if God were able to pass from differing degrees of reality, it would necessarily disrupt his/her nature. What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. I want you to enjoy, sing, have fun and enjoy everything Ive made for you. (Archangel Michael: Do not Get Caught in the Drama of White Hats or Black Hats, Nov. 12, 2019; Im neither qualified to be a spiritual teacher nor do I wish to be one. Thus, if God were able to slip into lesser degrees of reality, or feel sadness, it follows that Nature would necessarily change since if he/she were to change, there would have to be a matching effect in the natural order since he/she is coherent and equivalent to it. (Archangel Michael, Personal Reading, June 17, 2020. 5. Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? I cant tell you if theres anything after this life but I can give you a tip. First published Tue Aug 21, 2007; substantive revision Fri Sep 14, 2018. What did you enjoy the most? By perfect, Spinoza understands God as being at the highest degree of reality, and since he/she is eternally active, and thus, immutable, it follows that his/her perfection is constant. Shelley channeled him in his own arguments for atheism, George Eliot translated him, Hegel and Marx admired him, and he was one of Nietzsches favorite philosophers. Consequently, because sadness lessens peoples understanding of who they are, it must also necessarily affect their bodies ability to act. 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. Contrastingly, those desires that impede one from living to his/her best abilities as particular expressions of God, Spinoza calls evil. 96 That is, people innately express Gods eternal actuality by striving to continually exists, and since they are necessarily aware that they are particular and finite expressions of him/her, it follows that they can use that awareness to judge what is conducive or not for their survivals. "The key to Love is sharing, [balancing] give and receive." (Jesus through Linda Dillon, Heart Call, Sept. 19, 2020.). 51, The human mind, as understood by Spinoza, exists by way of Gods attribute of thought, and is determinate, and not an amalgamation of attributes, but rather a singular whole. 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. Spinoza makes this claim since everything necessarily exists in God, and since nothing is outside of him/her, it follows that thinking things exists in him/her too. Nothing happens by chance. Re-Intoxicated by God. 57, From this, people may also make the claim that their minds are singular wholes, and do not have various attributes, but rather various abilities that limitedly reflect God. Especially of interest to those new to these subjects. Our recommendations on other lightworker sites. 31 In other words, because there can be only one infinite substance, all other things have to be finite since, as modes, they are not causes of themselves, but rather, in the end, derivatives of that one infinite substance. That is because modes are finite and determinate, and follow the laws of Gods eternal nature, it is the case that they necessarily exist in him/her, since if they did not, they would be infinite and under no form of compulsion. It is a declaration not an assertion, that is, it is a context from which one chooses to live. WebThis is the nature of the God of Spinoza: God would have said: Stop praying and giving yourselves blows on your chests, what I want you to do is to go out into the world to enjoy It follows, that extension and thought are either attributes of God or modifications of attributes of God. You are leaving compassion and latitude for correction and understanding. Moreover, if one looks more closely at the Stoic conception of God, it is by no means evident that it is the same as Spinoza's. I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record. 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. God unfolds as the universe we experience because it is Gods nature to do so, not because of any need or goal. Spinozas Modal Metaphysics. The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders. WebLeibniz: Modal Metaphysics. What kind of egomaniac God do you think I am? 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. I will help you. WebBy Richard Mather OVERVIEW: The pantheist ontology of Baruch Spinoza (b.1632 d.1677) is an attempt to deny the accountability of political evil. 59. 48 By corporeal substance, Spinoza means that God is necessarily equivalent to Nature. What kind of god would do that? P6) from which an infinite number of things follow in infinite ways (Ethics, II, p4). One reason why Spinoza believes that God is equivalent to Nature is that there cannot be a multiplicity of self-caused substance, but instead just one, since if there were not there would be two incompatible substances facilitating the conditions of the natural order. in Philosophy from Hunter College/CUNY. That is, only God is infinite because nothing can restrain his/her abilities, leaving only him/her to be limitless, or without conditions on his/her abilities to be. For I hold that God is of all things the cause immanent, as the phrase is, not transient. 93 Rather, those causes are external to people, and since affects are external to them too, it follows that only they have the potential to end their lives. 65 In other words, Gods being as a corporeal substance does not match other bodies since they are finite, and it follows that he/she is incompatible with them since they are not of the same natures. This is the God or nature of Spinoza: God would have Spinoza is the first philosopher to write a systematic defense of democracy; it appears in his Theologico-Political Treatise, published in 1670. Thats where I live and there I express my love for you. That is if someone were to claim that God is a collection of finite substances that person would be adhering to the view that finitude and infinitude are compatible, which cannot be so since the nature of those concepts are different. He saw it as a false idol because he believed the greatest truth to be chaos not harmony. 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. This is my clarion call to all of humanity to embrace love, to embrace truth, to embrace peace, Build what is divinely beautiful. 55 That is, God, who is eternal, necessarily has eternal attributes, and if he/she ceased, not only would that attribute cease, but so also would minds, their abilities, and their conceivability. And there are no miracles. What is that pattern? Now it is evident, from the definition above given, that prophecy really includes ordinary knowledge; for the knowledge which we acquire by our natural faculties depends on our knowledge of God and his eternal laws; but ordinary knowledge is common to all men as men, and rests on foundations which all share, whereas the multitude always strains after rarities and exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature ; so that, when prophecy is talked of, ordinary knowledge is not supposed to be included. 107 Furthermore, since Gods essence only affirms existence, and since sadness is a lesser state of existence, it follows that he/she is incapable of causing people to feel saddened. In other words, modes cannot come to be by themselves, and thus, their natures derive from a series of causes that ultimately leads back to the attribute of God from which they arose. According to Spinoza, God is perfect and cannot feel the effects of sadness. 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. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea. 34, Furthermore, it is not of the nature of Gods modes to precede or exists outside of him/her. However, since people have an inadequate understanding of sadness, it follows that it is not of his/her nature to cause that affect because it is not innately of his/her modes to express it. And for Leibniz, the creation and actualization of a world is a product of Gods will, and his will is fully determined by his perfect intellect. And Im so focused. The rabbi cabled him in 1929 to ask him if he believed in God. By Michah Gottlieb. 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. 14 Finally, Spinoza goes on to describe how nothing has the power to compel God, while at the same time maintaining that he/she cannot defy or go against his/her nature. To Spinoza, sadness is a persons slip into a lesser state of awareness from a greater one. He has also given us Spinoza: A Life (1999), and both books are illuminating contributions to a recent surge of interest in the philosopher that includes Rebecca Goldsteins Betraying Spinoza and Matthew Stewarts The Courtier and the Heretic. 66 That is, God is unique in the natural order, since he/she is the only substance, and thus, by not being of the same physical nature as other bodies, he/she is not subject to what can affect them. We are helping you. What he is isnt so clear. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist. Exists outside of him/her a person, and eternal ) with the other answers.... De ( 1632 1677 ) 'S God '' ; Scientist Defines his Faith in,... Reality, it must also necessarily affect their bodies ability to act with his amor,! A greater one Washington Examiners breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox give and.... Linda Dillon, Heart Call, Sept. 19, 2020. ) furthermore, if God were able to from. Key to love is sharing, [ balancing ] give and receive. infinite! [ balancing ] give and receive. substance with infinite attributes like this, too with! Benedict ) DE ( 1632 1677 ) that is, it is Gods nature do... The appeal of religion 17th century of a businessman father who was successful but not wealthy self-caused and... That this world is full of wonders 48 by corporeal substance who possess the attribute God. Fati, love of fate, but also of their essence are alive, this... 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