spinoza god would have said
67 From this, one may also claim that because God is the only cause of himself/herself, no bodies can exist outside of him/her, and thus they cannot act upon, or affect him/her. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. Consequently, it follows that his/her fixed essence necessarily radiates his/her immutable attribute of thought; setting the conditions that give rise to the conceivability of thinking things. Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what youve been taught about me. Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity. Live as if there is not. Moreover, God possesses the attribute of extension, since as Nature, he/she is physically infinite, and since all attributes are infinite, it follows that only a being of equal magnitude can possess the attribute of extension. 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 Thats the way to praise me. That gateway is open and you are being flooded and you are being assisted and you will be assisted every step of the way. Furthermore, God is immutable since he/she is not a conglomeration of substances, but rather an indivisible whole. 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. 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. Unlike the ancient Stoics whom he somewhat resembles, Spinoza thought emotions are best taken care of when they are fully understood, not when they are fully extinguished. 56 In other words, the mind, which depends on God, and his/her infinite attribute of thought, cannot determine its nature, because it does not cause itself, and thus, it must follow the flow of Gods immutable essence since it ultimately derived from his/her fixed essence. 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 SourceLight Seeing you home What did you enjoy the most? 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. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. Since no two substances can share the same attributes/essence, that means that there is only one substance out there, and its God. Finally, Spinoza goes on to describe the nature of Gods being as a corporeal substance, who possesses the attribute of extension. Keeping with his father's wishes he studied Jewish theology. Philosophers that are significant to him and his studies are Parmenides, Plato, Plotinus, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, and Hegel. 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. 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. 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. Due to this, it follows that all things rely on Gods eternal existence and essence since he/she is necessarily the most powerful or perfectly active being. If no [lightworker] steps forward into [leadership] Do not venture where there is no love. University of Central Florida. 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. Throughout the history of philosophy, many theorists have attempted to explain the meaning and cause of peoples sorrows. He saw it as a false idol because he believed the greatest truth to be chaos not harmony. 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. WebLeibniz: Modal Metaphysics. 111 But, to Spinoza, these are absurdities, since God, who is the only being in eternal and immutable activity, cannot cause inadequate ideas since it does not match his/her natural essence. Spinoza is commonly (but not by all of his interpreters) assumed to be a pantheist, which means that since Nature or Substance are synonyms of God, God and Nature or Substance are identical. Indeed, Spinoza explicitly wrote that Whatever is, is in God, and nothing can be or be conceived without God and that all things are in God (1p17d). Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. Spinozas instinct for statist control and his distrust of the common man are displayed in Theological-Political Treatise (published 1670). God unfolds as the universe we experience because it is Gods nature to do so, not because of any need or goal. 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. 3. One consequence is that everything that happens in nature, and everything that natures lawful order dishes out to us personally, is necessarythe way the conclusion of a logical or mathematical demonstration is necessary. 48 By corporeal substance, Spinoza means that God is necessarily equivalent to Nature. 35 Consequently, because God is first in the series of being, it follows that all modes must follow after him/her because if they did precede him/her, it would mean that they either caused themselves or caused him/her to be, which are both impossibilities. Baruch Our recommendations on other lightworker sites. My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in the 17th century of a businessman father who was successful but not wealthy. Len Satov In other words, joy is an external idea that causes people to be at a greater level of activity since it affects the mind by amplifying happiness, which, in turn, necessarily affects the body in a pleasurable way. 38 Finally, because modes are neither infinite nor free, they necessarily reside in and follow after God, or the one infinite and uncompelled substance. It follows, that extension and thought are either attributes of God or modifications of attributes of God. Especially of interest to those new to these subjects. Pantheistic mysticism? She begins: Benedict de Spinoza did not have a religionat least in the usual sense of the word (1). That is, what is not in Gods modes, cannot be of God, since he/she exudes his/her being, and thus, is not fully distinct from what follows from his/her nature. How can I punish you for being the way you are, if Im the one who made you? Man can, indeed, act contrarily to the decrees of God, as far as they have been written like laws in the minds of ourselves or the prophets, but against that eternal decree of God, which is written in universal nature, and has regard to the course of nature as a whole, he can do nothing. 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. 78 That is, God matches Nature in an eternally perfect way, since God and Nature absolutely, or innately, reflect one another so much so that the idea of Nature or God and the object of God or Nature are one and the same. Spinozas Modal Metaphysics. Spinoza continues to state that joy is a persons passage from a lesser state of being to a greater one. Consequently, since God does not cause inadequate ideas, and because sadness derives from those types of ideas, it is the case that people who believe that he/she is against them or has caused them sorrows are in error. Princeton: Penguin Books, 1996. 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. His fellow Jews were thereafter forbidden to speak to him or even go near him. 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. Heres some 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. To Spinoza, God is the only substance who causes himself/herself, and because that makes him/her unique in nature, it follows that all other things derive from external causes. (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. From this, it follows that sadness, which Gods limited modes are subject to the influence of, cannot affect him/her, since the nature of sadness is not compatible with his/her nature. 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. That is, sadness disrupts peoples abilities to exist because it causes them to less aware of themselves. 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. 108 That is, by being without any inadequacies God cannot cause sadness, because his/her eternal activity can only exude true and adequate ideas. Also, if God were made up of finite substances he/she would necessarily be finite as well, which is illogical because nothing has the power to limit him/her. While he was at it he also demolished the Bibles claim to be the word of God, seizing on its inconsistencies and anachronisms, reduced religion to the simple moral imperative to love our neighbor (the rest being merely organized superstition), and called for a maximum freedom of thought and an end to all ecclesiastical authority over society. 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. His interests include a wide variety of both ancient and modern metaphysics, ontology, meta-ethics, and political philosophy. http://www.lensatov.com/, * On the Importance of the Universal Laws. 47, According to Spinoza, God is also a corporeal substance who possess the attribute of extension. But it is a religion outside the usual sense of the word. Exactly. 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