Spinoza's arguments in the "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus" are almost throughout connected either by way of agreement or opposition with those of Maimonides on the same topics. One of the main objects of the book is to show the contradictory nature of statements in the Scriptures, and Spinoza speaks with contempt of the efforts of the Rabbis to reconcile them. He is no doubt here referring to the most important work of his teacher Manasseh b. Israel the "Conciliador." In his chapter on prophecy Spinoza differs from Maimonides in regarding the work of a prophet as being due almost entirely to imagination, which can not, like reason, give rise to truth. Spinoza does an injustice in stating that Maimonides regards angels as existing only in dreams, which was partly due to a misreading in the edition of Maimonides used by him; this again is one of the test questions leading to his excommunication. The criterion of a true revelation selected by Spinoza—the vividness of the prophetic vision—is that used by Crescas ("Or Adonai," II. iv. 3), and both thinkers used the same example, that of Hananiah. Spinoza's view of the selection of the Israelites, that they exceeded other nations neither in learning nor in piety, but in political and social salvation, places him in opposition to both Maimonides and Crescas. He here attributes the preservation of the Jews to their rites ("Tractatus Theologico-Politicus," iii. 53), but sees no reason why they should not once again become an independent nation (ib. iii. 55). In his discussion of ceremonies Spinoza declares that they are no longer binding on Jews or others, and were put into force only through the influence of the Rabbis and other ecclesiastical authorities. In opposing belief in miracles, as he does in the sixth chapter of the "Tractatus," Spinoza has in mind the examples and arguments of both Maimonides and Gersonides; in the remaining part Spinoza outlines what was later known as the "higher criticism," and anticipates in a somewhat remarkable manner some of the results of the school of Kuenen and Wellhausen, declaring, for example, that the Law was introduced, if not written, by Ezra. Many of the examples of inconsistency in the Pentateuch here cited were those familiar to Spinoza from Abraham ibn Ezra (see pentateuch). Spinoza throughout argued against the connection of creed with citizenship, claiming liberty of thought, and to that extent pleading the cause of his own people; but in reality the book is an expansion in Latin of his former apologia written in Spanish for withdrawing from Jewish communion, and is opposed to ecclesiasticism of all Kinds. Hence the violence of the opposition which it found in the age of ecclesiasticism.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
His Philosophy
It has been both asserted and denied that the thoughts developed in Spinoza's short life of forty-four years, and put forth anonymously after his death with such remarkable influence on the history of European speculation for at least the last one hundred and fifty years, were derived in large measure from his Jewish training and reading. The question is a very difficult one to decide, owing to the close-linked chain of Spinoza's thought, which he designedly made in his "Ethics" a continuous course of reasoning, each proposition being dependent upon the preceding, exactly after the manner of Euclid. In order to determine the extent of his Jewish indebtedness it is necessary, therefore, to attempt some slight sketch of his whole system. Apart from this object it deserves such exposition as the most influential body of doctrine ever produced by a Jew since Philo.
The key to Spinoza's philosophic system is to be found in his method of investigation as indicated in the fragmentary "De Intellectus Emendatione." Finding that none of the ordinary objects of man's desire—wealth, power, and the like—affords permanent satisfaction, Spinoza came to the conclusion that only the attainment of truth gives that increase of power and accompanying joy which can be described as true happiness or sal vation. Turning to the search for truth, he found the powers of the mind to be of a treble nature, each particular function yielding knowledge of various degrees of adequacy: (1) imagination, yielding only confused and inadequate ideas; (2) reason, giving the essences of things, and (3) intuition, disclosing the fundamental principles uniting those essences into a system and connecting individual things with those principles. The logical foundation of his whole system lies in the denial of the validity of all relative propositions, leaving the Absolute as the sole reality of the universe. On this see B. Russell, "Principles of Mathematics" (p. 448, Cambridge, 1903), which work is so far a justification of Spinoza's method in that it proves the possibility of deducing all the principles of pure mathematics and physics from a certain number of indefinables and indemonstrables. All turns with Spinoza, as with Descartes and the scholastics, on getting true and adequate knowledge of the essences of things. All the essences, when presented to the mind, carry with them a conviction of their own truth, and, as they can not contradict one another, they form a system of truths deduced from one principle as their primary cause. Such a principle can only be God, from whose qualities all the essences of things must flow as a matter of necessity, or, in other words, be "caused," since Spinoza does not distinguish between logical dependence anddynamic causation. In this way his logic passes over into his metaphysics, and in attempting to determine the cause of things, from the contemplation of which he is to obtain salvation, Spinoza has to determine the essences of things and their relation to the Highest Reality.
Spinoza's Ethics
Spinoza's Ethics is a remarkable work in two regards:
First, it is written in an unusual style - patterned after Euclid's Geometry with Definitions, Axioms, and Propositions. The definitions are stipulated definitions of key terms used in the work. These definitions do not purport to explain ordinary uses of the words, only to specify how they are being used in the present text.
III. By substance, I mean that which is in itself, and is conceived through itself; in other words, that of which a conception can be formed independently of any other conception.
IV. By attribute, I mean that which the intellect perceives as constituting the essence of substance.
The axioms are statements about the key terms and are given as self-evident.
I. Everything which exists, exists either in itself or in something else.
II. That which cannot be conceived through anything else must be conceived through itself.
The propositions are statements that follow from the definitions, axioms and other propositions.
PROP. II. Two substances whose attributes are different have nothing in common.
Proof.--Also evident from Def. iii. For each must exist in itself, and be conceived through itself; in other words, the conception of one does not imply the conception of the other.
The result is a text that provides all of its own evidence. Every statement in the book has a clearly identified set of arguments (proofs) given for it. Sometimes when you read a technical or old text, the very language can be a challenge to overcome. With Spinoza, the main technical terms are explicitly defined. The challenge of Ethics is to follow the lines of thought directly and grasp how each point is constructed from the foundations laid in the definitions and axioms.
The second remarkable aspect of Ethics is the striking conclusions Spinoza derives in it. Most of the work revolves around his conception of God.
VI. By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite--that is, a substance consisting in infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality.
See Def.III above for the term "substance" and Def.IV for the term "attribute." Put all these together, and you have a concise picture of Spinoza's concept of God. This is significant because by his system of proofs, Spinoza derives the following conclusions (among others):
There can only be one substance in existence. That substance is God and everything that exists is part of that substance. God is nature.
God has infinite attributes, of which only two, thought and spatial extension can be known by us. The universe that we apprehend is but a limited portion of the whole.
This leads from an investigation of the structure of reality to practical propositions about how we should think about life and how we may best live it.
· Human beings are in a state of bondage, so long as they act solely from emotions.
· Freedom can be attained by understanding out own emotional processes and rationally conforming to the conditions of human existence - an acceptance of the world as it is.
On the one hand, Spinoza's reasoning builds a case against popular religion (e.g. Christianity, Judaism, Islam) as a mere reflection of human imagination. On the other hand, Spinoza's philosophy is constructive of an alternate spiritual view. The picture of God/Nature as a whole system of which we individual humans are parts, is an attractive idea for many.
Biography
Benedict De Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in 1632. He lived to the age of 42. Spinoza's father was a successful merchant, which enabled him to give Spinoza the best education.
In the Jewish community, it was assumed that Spinoza would become a leader of the community, and that he would possibly become a rabbi. As Spinoza showed brilliance in his learning skills, he became dissatisfied with the conventional and orthodox methods of teachings.
Around the age of 16, Spinoza became aware of the advanced thoughts and ideas of Descartes, Bacon, and other scholars who he studied fervently. Of course, the ideas and thoughts of these scholars were outside the beliefs and teachings of the Jewish community.
At the age of 21, Spinoza was excommunicated from the Jewish community because he could no longer follow or accept the Jewish customs and rigid beliefs. After studying Descartes and others, he began to develop his own philosophy. Spinoza began to see the possibilities for man as a being with a mind that has clear and distinct ideas. Spinoza believed that freedom comes from the understanding and the love of God, and that this love would free us from all emotions, which are passions that can lead to our ruin.
What has challenged the so called educators, even to this day, is that Spinoza proved that everything revolves around two of God's attributes, " THOUGHT AND EXTENSION," which are only two of an infinite number of attributes that express God's essence. The attribute of extension follows all the laws that govern and flow from HIS nature. Subsequently, Spinoza proves that there is no such thing as free will, and that everything that exists and happens can be explained by understanding the laws and the causes of things.
Spinoza lived his philosophy, and whoever had the honor to meet Spinoza came away with the understanding that he lived his life with a love of God and a love of human nature, and that he was a man who lived by the highest principles.
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