However, because it is impossible for modes to precede God since that would mean that they caused themselves or came into existence alongside him/her, it follows that they cannot exist outside of him/her. 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. Our recommendations on other constructive news sites. His God would not have encouraged us to go out in nature, as his god would not even be aware we exist. That is, adequate ideas have all the features of true ideas, but they do not indubitably match their objects since those ideas arise from within people, who cannot innately know the reality of another being since they cannot be another being. 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. He admired the Dutch Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza, and wrote: I believe in Spinozas god, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a 46 In other words, because all thinking things ultimately derive from God, it follows that he/she bears some relation to them, and since they express thought by thinking, it follows that God must possess that attribute since if he did not, then they would be unable to convey it. 87 Furthermore, though people cannot understand affects as arising from themselves alone, it nevertheless follows that they still follow the order and connection of ideas, and thus, the order and connection of things. 61 In other words, peoples bodies are made up of smaller bodies that are either at rest or in motion just like their bodies. 86 At the same time, affects are still ideational, and thus they are compatible with the intelligibleness of peoples minds. 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. And if there is, rest assured that I wont ask if you behaved right or wrong, Ill ask. Orlando, FL 32816-1352, [emailprotected] His masterwork, Ethics (published posthumously in 1677), is a bold WebGod, according to Spinoza, did not have a personality, or consciousness or any expressed preferences or advice. What kind of god would do that? 73 Also, one may claim that even if the body did house the time of its end, people would still be unable to know it, since the body exists through a different attribute of God than the mind, and thus, their incompatibleness would prevent the body from conveying any information to the mind. 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. WebFor Spinoza, the world just is God, and in some sense, all things are in God. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. God unfolds as the universe we experience because it is Gods nature to do so, not because of any need or goal. 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. 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, 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. 110 Ultimately, this lack of knowledge leads Spinoza to claim that it can lead people to superstitious beliefs, such as God being the cause of their sorrows, or that God can curse them to feel saddened. 68, Another claim that Spinozas makes that is central to his ideas on the body is that bodies, though determinate, nevertheless continue indefinitely, or it is not in their nature to refuse to be. The said Espinoza should be excommunicated and expelled from the people of Israel. Introducing our newest editor, Ed Love, in Australia. [] They are all names for what is ultimate, From this, it follows that there can only be one substance in nature, God since the incompatibleness of two or more substances would not only stop them from interacting, but also bar them from causing one another to come to be. That eternal and infinite being we call God, or Nature [Deus sive Natura], acts from the same necessity from which he exists. Heres some of him. 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. Translated by Edwin Curley. Building, anchoring, and restoring hope, trust and Love within the human community. Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived. 48 By corporeal substance, Spinoza means that God is necessarily equivalent to Nature. God as Perfect and Not the Cause of Sadness. Consequently, people may claim that they cannot know other minds as well as their minds since they only have ideas of other minds and not the knowledge of what it is to be in those other minds. What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? 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. Spinozas Modal Metaphysics. 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. 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. Moreover, with distorted views of reality, people cannot adequately understand their persistent sorrows, and it is tough to assuage the pains that follow from that state of being. Spinoza is the first philosopher to write a systematic defense of democracy; it appears in his Theologico-Political Treatise, published in 1670. The Great Philosophers: Spinoza. 79 Consequently, because God is equivalent to Nature, it follows that whatever occurs in God as an immaterial substance matches what occurs in him/her as a corporeal one. 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. This universe is designed around the pattern of the Divine Mother. 407-823-2273 Spinozas metaphysics consists of one thing, substance, and its modifications (modes). 108 That is, by being without any inadequacies God cannot cause sadness, because his/her eternal activity can only exude true and adequate ideas. His view of God was not the conventional, personal Judeo 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. 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. Hence, because God is not anthropomorphic, it follows that whatever changes occur in peoples bodies cannot change God, or Natures body, in any way. But it is a religion outside the usual sense of the word. On the last day of his life, before his death at the age of 44 Hence, when sadness ceases to affect a person, Spinoza claims that individual is living by reason, or an intellectual love of God, or Nature, whose ceaselessly active nature can only be the greatest asset for anyones survival. 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. Cold deterministic rationalism? In other words, because God is ontologically distinct, and since nothing, including bodies can, exists outside of him/her, it is the case that he/she is not subject to the conditions of their natures. From this, Spinoza claims that many bodies together form more complex bodies, which include those of humans, and those individual bodies composing more intricate bodies unite in such a way that they too retain the effects of what affects them. So dont blame me for everything they made you believe. WebAnswer (1 of 7): I have to endeavor an answer because I disagree (respectfully) with the other answers here. Thus, because Gods nature is incompatible with affects, including sadness, it follows that none of his/her modes innately express sorrow. 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. 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 (Always) free introductory texts on Ascension, Disclosure, Abundance, and Accountability. Creation, preservation, transformation = love building, love preserving, love dissolving = inbreath, pause, outbreath = rajas, sattwa, thamas (gunas) = Akar, Ukar, Makar (Aum) = Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva (Trimurthy). The doctrines added by certain churches, such as that God took upon himself human nature, I have expressly said that I do not understand; in fact, to speak the truth, they seem to me no less absurd than would a statement, that a circle had taken upon itself the nature of a square. . Consequently, one may claim that since the mind relies on another concept for its existence, it is not self-sufficient, but rather a determinate mode. Pantheistic mysticism? Furthermore, when something causes someone joy, it follows that that person is feeling joy due to that thing, and not from the feelings of happiness alone. Remembering, embodying, and expressing your true Self. 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. 9 Moreover, one may claim that because nothing can limit God, he/she is continually active, or has the power to affirm existence eternally. Spinozas views on necessity and possibility, which he claimed were the principal foundation of his Ethics (Ep75), have been less than well received by his readers, to put it mildly. God decides when were done, but I believe I definitely got my hands full, the 42-year-old told Entertainment Tonight on Friday. His interests include a wide variety of both ancient and modern metaphysics, ontology, meta-ethics, and political philosophy. Stop praying. Consequently, Spinoza calls this type of happiness, love, since it not only causes joy, but it also is the state of being in which people can project joy onto what they understand to be the cause of that feeling. God IANALbutIAMAcat 4 yr. ago I agree with you here. Though the mind and body come to be by way of different attributes of God, and are thus, incompatible, they nevertheless form a union. 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. Rocco A. Astore, The New School for Social Research. 7777 One way in which the reader can imagine this is if God were both the idea of a shape and the physical object of that shape itself. In some texts, Leibniz locates the source of contingency purely in Gods choice of the best, which cannot be demonstrated. 5. Im an atheist but I certainly recognize the appeal of religion. 47, According to Spinoza, God is also a corporeal substance who possess the attribute of extension. 114. Oxford University Press, 256 pp., $35. Responsibility is not burden, fault, praise, blame, credit, shame or guilt. This is the God or nature of Spinoza: God would have I am pure love. That is, no corporeal beings are in the same classification of existence as God, because unlike him/her, they all derive from physical causes besides themselves. A History of Western Philosophy. 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. - The Divine Mother. 94. WebTo Spinoza attributes of God or that which one can perceive as being of his/her nature, are eternal and infinite. Spinoza, on the other hand, starts from the 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. Moreover, Spinoza claims that only God can be a substance since the existence of two or more substances with the same essence and attributes would necessarily be identical or incompatible. 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. Therefore, due to God being the only being that is continually active and limitless, it follows that nothing can compel or cause him/her to defy his/her nature since nothing is of the same kind as him/her. That is, if God were not equivalent to Nature, there would necessarily be two Gods, one to facilitate the laws of thought, and the other the laws of extension, which cannot be, since the natural order presents itself as a unified whole.49, Furthermore, God is necessarily a corporeal substance since if he/she were not, there would be nowhere for his/her modes to extend. 100, VI. Stop going to those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and say they are my house! 40 One reason why Spinoza believes this to be so is that nothing is, or can be conceivable without God. 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.. And why were less interested now in Spinozas logic than in his peace of mind. New York: Harvest Books, 1966. God had infinite qualities, of which we can perceive only two, thought and extension. 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. 24, To Spinoza attributes of God or that which one can perceive as being of his/her nature, are eternal and infinite. Moreover, Spinoza claims that sadness accompanied with the idea of the external cause of sadness is hate. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. Lastly, Spinoza comes to claim that though God ultimately causes all things, he/she is not the cause of sadness, which, in turn, maintains his/her perfection. Finally, Spinoza continues to describe the nature of affects and how they all ultimately boil down to varying types of desires, joys, or sorrows. WebSome of the greatest achievements of modern philosophy result from the attempt to reconcile the belief in human freedom with the eternal laws of Gods nature, and among I say that all things are in God and move in God. 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. 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. Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. 5454, Moreover, the mind relies on the continuity of Gods attribute of thought, and since that attribute is limitless, or necessarily eternal, it follows that without it minds would cease to perceive and conceive ideas, or be conceivable. 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. Her title reveals her thesis that Spinoza did have a religion. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1967. Furthermore, because people can know the difference between adequate and inadequate ideas, it is the case that they can understand those ideas that increase their abilities to think, or not, and thus, what can affect their bodies to strive more ably, or not, to live. One reason why Spinoza believes that modes are finite is that there can only be one infinite substance in nature since a plurality of substances cannot exist. Part 4/8, https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Dr.-David-Martin-MURDER-CHARGES-Against-Fauci-Peter-Daszak-Ralph-Baric-and-many-others.mp4, https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/LEAKED-22Project-Pandora22-Multiple-Presidents-KILLED-to-Keep-this-HIDDEN.mp4, https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Cities-across-Canada-join-the-movement-1.mp4, https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/telegram-cloud-document-1-4915997293301204030-1-1.mp4. Spinoza said that God can be seen in the laws of nature, doubted the immortality of the soul, argued against faith, and denied the existence of angels. The Columbia History of Western Philosophy. 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. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SuzanneMaresca. As understood by Spinoza, God is the one infinite substance who possesses an infinite number of attributes each expressing an eternal aspect of his/her nature.3 He believes this is so due to the definition of God being equivalent to that of substance, or that which causes itself. 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. 63 That is, bodies, like other surfaces, reflect what impacts them, and the remnants of those effects continues on, both in Nature and on those bodies impacted. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in the 17th century of a businessman father who was successful but not wealthy. , beaches only two, thought and extension nothing to do so, not of. Woods, rivers, lakes, beaches believes this to be so that. 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