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. Lastly, true ideas are those ideas that perfectly match their objects, and thus they give way to common notions that enable people to know inherently what it means to be human as well as God as their ultimate cause. I am pure love. 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. As human beings do not know the causes of their behavior, they are deceived in thinking themselves free. Translated by Edwin Curley. 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. Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. 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. WebSpinoza argues for the existence of God through its perfection. Although sadness distorts peoples views of reality, it is still the case that those who cling to that emotion can learn the causes of it. It is also of great importance to address Spinozas views on the types of ideas that the mind can have, which are inadequate, adequate, or true ideas. He endorses a strong form of necessitarianism in which everything is categorically necessary opposed to the weaker form of conditional necessity embraced by most compatibilists, and he contends that there is no room in such a world for divine or creaturely free will. Thus, Spinoza is a free will skeptic. Like Einstein, we can likely use some of his soothing sense of cosmic harmony, whether or not we pay it the compliment of calling it Spinozas God. 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. Throughout the history of philosophy, many theorists have attempted to explain the meaning and cause of peoples sorrows. 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. This universe is designed around the pattern of the Divine Mother. Conclusion 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. 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. 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. Second, it is also illogical to believe that God is reducible to a totality of finite substances because they too cannot exist. Feeling grateful? From this, one may also claim that because it is innate of thinking things to think, it follows that God must possess the attribute of thought because what is inherently in him/her, must, in some ways, be in his/her modes, due to his/her immanence. Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) has long appealed to skeptics and secularists. His fellow Jews were thereafter forbidden to speak to him or even go near him. 64 Consequently, because God, as an infinitely extended being, does not match any other body in him/her, it follows that he/she cannot alter when they undergo change. Moreover, God cannot be the cause of sadness since he/she cannot return any feelings that people project onto him/her, and thus, by being free of emotion, it would be illogical to claim that he/she can cause anyone pain. Princeton: Penguin Books, 1996. I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record. 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. Express your joy! God as Perfect and Not the Cause of Sadness. 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. 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. WebTherefore, Spinoza argues that the only substance is God (Ethics, II. Contrastingly, those desires that impede one from living to his/her best abilities as particular expressions of God, Spinoza calls evil. His God would not have encouraged us to go out in nature, as his god would not even be aware we exist. Popkin, Richard H., ed. Spinoza first made his views generally known in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, published anonymously in Latin in 1670 but quickly attributed to him. One reason why the mind necessarily derives from Gods attribute of thought is that it is of the same nature as it. Baruch 2 Despite what appears to be an incongruent argument, can one still find a way to claim that Spinoza is consistent when he states that all things ultimately derive from Gods flawlessness, despite the reality of sadness? Although Einstein said he believed in Spinozas God, its certain that Einstein did not have this abstract God in mind. 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. 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. 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. His view of God was not the conventional, personal Judeo 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. 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. Spinoza believed that everything that exists is God. However, he did not hold the converse view that God is no more than the sum of what exists. God had infinite qualities, of which we can perceive only two, thought and extension. Hence God must also exist in dimensions far beyond those of the visible world. That is, only God is an infinite substance, and since that renders all other things to be finite, nothing can cause him/her to change. So dont blame me for everything they made you believe. 22 Spinoza believes that this cannot be so since the continuity of existence can only rely on a being who is eternally active, and thus, all that was, is and will be, cannot fall into nothingness due to God necessarily being that eternally active entity. 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. 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). Web1. The book was a bit too much for tolerant but still Calvinist Holland, where it was denounced as blasphemous and dangerous. WebBENEDICT SPINOZA. Moreover, Spinoza claims that sadness accompanied with the idea of the external cause of sadness is hate. Though the mind and body come to be by way of different attributes of God, and are thus, incompatible, they nevertheless form a union. [] They are all names for what is ultimate, First published Tue Aug 21, 2007; substantive revision Fri Sep 14, 2018. 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. 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. Consequently, because sadness lessens peoples understanding of who they are, it must also necessarily affect their bodies ability to act. 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. My opinion concerning God differs widely from that which is ordinarily defended by modern Christians. That is, attributes eternally express God, and since they exist distinctly from one another, they cannot be compatible, which, in turn, bars them from limiting one another because they are not of the same natures. 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. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist. WebAnswer (1 of 7): I have to endeavor an answer because I disagree (respectfully) with the other answers here. "The key to Love is sharing, [balancing] give and receive." Steven Nadlers lucid book about Spinozas shocking book takes its title from a contemporary pamphlet that described it as a book forged in hell. Nadlers own book was forged in Madison, where he is a professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin. 104 In other words, sadness exists in God, but cannot act upon him/her, because for that to occur that affect would have to exist outside of him/her, but since nothing can exist in that way, it follows that God is immune to sadness. 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. Gods perfection gives all things existence as well as essence (Spinoza, 1985, p. 87) . - The Divine Mother. 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. Furthermore, Spinoza believes that God is not free in the ordinary sense of the word, but rather an uncompelled being who cannot defy his/her set nature. All beings are birthed directly from the Heart of One. What kind of god would do that? 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. 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