spinoza god would have said
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. Heres some of him. 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. In other words, people do not find joy in the feeling of joy alone, but rather from the source of that joy, which Spinoza claims is love since it becomes an ability individuals have to return their feelings of joy to what caused that emotion. 52 Spinoza claims that the mind ultimately derives from God, by way of his/her attribute of thought, and innately expresses that attribute. 82. Rebecca Goldstein. 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? 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. Finally, Spinoza goes on to describe the true cause of sadness, which, in turn, maintains Gods perfection. 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. But I entrust this to you as well. 100, VI. 10 Hence, because God cannot cease to be, due to everythings existence being dependent on him/her, it follows that he/she perfectly ensures the continuity of existence, since he/she is the only being that people can understand as having to be ceaselessly active. And there are no miracles. Given this, she admits, the title of this book contains an irony, and perhaps for some a provocation (2). 69 That is, as extended modes of God, it is innate of bodies to strive to continue to exist since they derive from his/her active physicality. Asking God for one, asking that He suspend natural law for our benefit, is asking God to trip up God. (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. 29 Finally, Spinoza continues by addressing the nature of modes or that which ultimately derives from God and his/her attributes. 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. 114. WebTherefore, Spinoza argues that the only substance is God (Ethics, II. 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. His readers have been arguing the point for centuries, and are still arguing. Finally, Spinoza continues to address the nature of that which can act upon and influence people, which he calls affects. 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. 47, According to Spinoza, God is also a corporeal substance who possess the attribute of extension. That is, sadness disrupts peoples abilities to exist because it causes them to less aware of themselves. 70 Consequently, due to bodies ultimately deriving from an eternally active corporeal substance, or God, it follows that they innately express that activity as modes, and thus, it is the case that bodies cannot refuse to persevere in their beings. Building, anchoring, and restoring hope, trust and Love within the human community. 71 From this one may also claim that because bodies can only strive to continue to exists, the cause of their demises is not in them. I want you to enjoy, sing, have fun and enjoy everything Ive made for you. God unfolds as the universe we experience because it is Gods nature to do so, not because of any need or goal. University of Central Florida His God would not have encouraged us to go out in nature, as his god would not even be aware we exist. 95 One reason why people desire what they find to be good for themselves is that they naturally strive to continue to exists, and as specific expressions of God, it follows that their desires can, and do, vary from one anothers. This life is the only thing here and now and it is all you need. We are helping you. 4000 Central Florida Blvd. 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. I will guide you. I do not believe anyone has reached such perfection, surpassing all others, except Christ, to whom God immediately revealed without words or visions the conditions which lead to salvation. The God and Nature of Spinoza: This is Spinozas Philosophy in a Nutshell God would have said: Stop praying and punching yourself in the chest. To him, God would have said: Stop praying and All these 'things' exist as part of God. 85 Those external ideas Spinoza calls affects and since they do not arise from peoples ability to conceive ideas, it follows that they have an inadequate knowledge of them. 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. 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. What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. When you see the shadow, it defines the light. 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. 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. WebGod, according to Spinoza, did not have a personality, or consciousness or any expressed preferences or advice. In the attenuated and metaphorical sense that God can be said to love, God loves every single creation equally, i.e. The book was a bit too much for tolerant but still Calvinist Holland, where it was denounced as blasphemous and dangerous. Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what youve been taught about me. Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. 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. 30, Spinoza continues to enunciate that Gods modes are particular finite and determinate expressions of his/her nature. Hence God must also exist in dimensions far beyond those of the visible world. His thought combines a 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. Seeking information is Light Work. Dynamic times and rampant internet censorship brought me to create a new outlet for the unending flow of information. What he is isnt so clear. Also, what composes a human body are smaller individual bodies that are either at rest or in motion, which reflect the nature of all other bodies. 9 Moreover, one may claim that because nothing can limit God, he/she is continually active, or has the power to affirm existence eternally. Spinoza, on the other hand, starts from the 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. 108 That is, by being without any inadequacies God cannot cause sadness, because his/her eternal activity can only exude true and adequate ideas. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) served as the natural end of the rationalist tradition on the European continent, which included Descartes, Spinoza, and Malebranche. For Spinoza God is not a person, and does not create for any reason or towards any purpose. 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. I will help you. Translated by Edwin Curley. Baruch 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. Spinoza continues to state that joy is a persons passage from a lesser state of being to a greater one. How can I punish you for being the way you are, if Im the one who made you? I want you to believe in you. Oppression is something that one group of people commits against another group specifically because of a threatening characteristic shared by the latter group. 39, Spinoza continues his metaphysical investigation by claiming that thought is an attribute of God. His view of God was not the conventional, personal Judeo 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. Orlando, Florida, 32816 | 407.823.2000 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. 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. WebSpinoza argues for the existence of God through its perfection. 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 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. 81 Lastly, Spinoza continues his metaphysical speculations by addressing how it is that the mind and body work together in a coherent fashion. WebAnswer (1 of 5): I have never studied Spinoza's philosophy in detail, nor can I even read Latin, but I have always understood Spinoza's concept of God to be of the same flavor 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. Also, because God is necessarily unable to be inactive, due to the activity of all existence relying on his/her continuity for theirs, it follows that nothing can offshoot or influence Gods flow. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist. http://www.lensatov.com/, * On the Importance of the Universal Laws. Her title reveals her thesis that Spinoza did have a religion. 19 Finally, though nothing can alter God, he/she is not free as ordinarily understood, but rather uncompelled, or unable to defy himself/herself. God is the one and only genuine substance around. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that alertness is your guide. He shows how modern biblical criticism and the broad Enlightenment program for a secular, scientific society were effectively launched in the book. 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 And you may hear Voltaires jibes in Candide, aimed at Spinozas contemporary Leibniz, bouncing off Spinoza as well. Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. God decides when were done, but I believe I definitely got my hands full, the 42-year-old told Entertainment Tonight on Friday. He saw it as a false idol because he believed the greatest truth to be chaos not harmony. But it is a religion outside the usual sense of the word. 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). Im locked in. You are bringing to light what needs to be revealed so it doesnt destroy the fiber of your society. [emailprotected], Florida Philosophical Review 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. 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. God had infinite qualities, of which we can perceive only two, thought and extension. 99 That is, joy increases the minds ability to think and the bodys ability to act, and thus, it assists and brings people to a state in which they strive more powerfully in their beings. 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. 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. Baruch De Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the three great rationalist in the century of philosophy, along with French Descartes. 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. 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. Hence, because God is not anthropomorphic, it follows that whatever changes occur in peoples bodies cannot change God, or Natures body, in any way. Keeping with his father's wishes he studied Jewish theology. If I made you I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies free will. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. The Great Philosophers: Spinoza. 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. Pantheistic mysticism? Spinoza first made his views generally known in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, published anonymously in Latin in 1670 but quickly attributed to him. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/SuzanneMaresca. Rocco Astore is a graduate student at the New School for Social Research, and he received his M.A. 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. 94. Einstein replied, I believe in Spinozas God, who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.. 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. 11 To Spinoza, God is unchanging since nothing can alter him/her due to only him/her being limitless. My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. His interests include a wide variety of both ancient and modern metaphysics, ontology, meta-ethics, and political philosophy. Heaven or hell. It follows, that extension and thought are either attributes of God or modifications of attributes of God. God would have said: Stop praying and punching yourself in the chest! 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. Throughout the history of philosophy, many theorists have attempted to explain the meaning and cause of peoples sorrows. And Im so focused. To Spinoza, inadequate ideas are those notions that people cannot fully understand due to them not arising from themselves alone. 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. Responsibility is not burden, fault, praise, blame, credit, shame or guilt. If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past. 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. 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. What is Spinozas mode? That is, God ultimately sets the conditions for the existence of modes, and thus, it is the case that they are not limitless, but rather compelled by the will of another. Finally, Spinoza explains how it is unlike anything to come before God. 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. If you cant read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your sons eyes you will find me in no book! 25 Spinoza makes this claim because God as an eternal and infinite . To Spinoza, the human body exists by way of Gods attribute of extension. Our recommendations on other lightworker sites. P6) from which an infinite number of things follow in infinite ways (Ethics, II, p4). 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. Stop praying and punching yourself in the chest! Spinoza demonstrates this by first showing how nothing can come before God. Spinoza used the provocative formulation Deus sive naturaGod, or naturebut he actually regarded nature as just the visible, comprehensible aspect of And Im so focused. It is a declaration not an assertion, that is, it is a context from which one chooses to live. Especially of interest to those new to these subjects. 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. Spinoza presents God as conscious being with a mind that possesses an infinite, or unlimited intellect and an awareness of everything that exists. Ethics. In other words, since God is coherent, and ultimately gives rise to all modes, they necessarily display his/her coherency, albeit limitedly, and thus, what happens in their minds has a matching physical effect on their bodies and whatever affects their bodies has a similar effect on their minds. Cold deterministic rationalism? 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. What did you enjoy the most? A History of Western Philosophy. WebSpinoza believed that everything that exists is God. Popkin, Richard H., ed. Spinoza concludes that because of this, God is only a partial cause of inadequate ideas whereas people, who can take in perceptions housed in him/her, are the other partial cause, and thus, they do not derive from people alone but can still act upon and influence them. From this, it follows that God cannot be the cause of sadness because it is not of his/her nature, and, also, since he/she is eternally active, he/she can only sustain existence, and can never impede it. And if there is no truth, there will not be peace and [peace], Sweet One, is the Plan. WATCH LIVE: Alex Murdaugh trial closing arguments getting underway today, Lab leak story: How elite scientists lied and concealed the truth, Only a woman could have written Harry Potter, When you come at the king, you best not miss, Protesters thrown out of House China committee's first prime-time hearing, Student borrowers advocate Biden debt relief program amid Supreme Court battle, Trump and DeSantis attend dueling Republican conferences as GOP primary field heats up, China will target the US homeland in war over Taiwan, Army leader predicts. Possess the attribute of God, fault, praise, blame, credit, shame guilt., needs, inconsistencies free will throughout the history of philosophy, many have. That exists Latin in 1670 but quickly attributed to him, God would have said Stop... Parakeet what youve been taught about me his/her nature the broad Enlightenment program for a secular scientific. 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