WebAnswer (1 of 7): I have to endeavor an answer because I disagree (respectfully) with the other answers here. 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. One reason why the mind necessarily derives from Gods attribute of thought is that it is of the same nature as it. What did you learn?. 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. SourceLight Seeing you home What did you enjoy the most? 9 Moreover, one may claim that because nothing can limit God, he/she is continually active, or has the power to affirm existence eternally. This universe is designed around the pattern of the Divine Mother. 407-823-2273 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. Thats where I live and there I express my love for you. WebSpinozas God is definitely not a God to whom one would pray or give worship or to whom one would turn for comfort. "The key to Love is sharing, [balancing] give and receive." 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. 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. 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. I believe in Spinozas God, who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind. Conceptual Foundations and Motivations 1.1 Definition of ultimate Brahman, the Dao, emptiness, God, the One, Reasonablenessthere, in alphabetical order, are names of the central subjects of concern in what are commonly parsed as some of the worlds religions, philosophies and quasi-religious-philosophies. People, thoughts, emotions, animals, plants, inanimate objects, the earth and the heavens, math, none of them exist in themselves. 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. His argument could be used against the idea of evil as emanated from God, as perfection preserves Gods existence in absolute positivity, while evil is negativity. What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. We are helping you. Feeling grateful? That is, there is a likeness between the immateriality of the mind and the intelligible features of the natural order, which Gods attribute of thought gives rise to, and since only things of the same kind are compatible, it follows that minds necessarily arise from that attribute due to them both being immaterial. 287 pages. Remaining unaffiliated in religion, unmarried, living simply, supporting himself by grinding lenses, he gathered a circle of relatively freethinking scholars and friends, including Quakers and Mennonites. Len Satov 83 That is, the mind and body are coherent, since they ultimately derive from one unified substance, and since that one unified substance immanently causes all things, or is innately in them, it follows that the mind would reduce to the body and the body to the mind if they existed through the right attributes. 17. 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. 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. Its clear what Spinozas God is not. 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. 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. 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. (Always) free introductory texts on Ascension, Disclosure, Abundance, and Accountability. Stop asking for forgiveness, theres nothing to forgive. WebBENEDICT SPINOZA. Spinozas instinct for statist control and his distrust of the common man are displayed in Theological-Political Treatise (published 1670). Heres some of him. Furthermore, inadequate ideas necessarily reside in God, like all other things, but they do not directly derive from him/her since those ideas are passive whereas he/she is immutably active. 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. Im an atheist but I certainly recognize the appeal of religion. 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. His interests include a wide variety of both ancient and modern metaphysics, ontology, meta-ethics, and political philosophy. 27 In other words, each attribute of God can only express one infinite and eternal aspect of him/her, and not many, because attributes are unable to affect one another since they do not rely on one another to exist. ), Responsibility begins with the willingness to take the stand that one is cause in the matter of ones life. Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. 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. Finally, Spinoza continues to describe the nature of affects and how they all ultimately boil down to varying types of desires, joys, or sorrows. Im bored being praised. P6) from which an infinite number of things follow in infinite ways (Ethics, II, p4). The best introduction to the subject in recent memory. Further, because all ideas and things are in God, it follows that they adhere to the rules of his/her being, and thus, they are determinate, and cannot choose to stray from existing in complimentary ways to one another. 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. God Department of Philosophy . Stop asking me will you tell me how to do my job? Stop being so scared of me. What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to believe in you. Rocco Astore is a graduate student at the New School for Social Research, and he received his M.A. 51, The human mind, as understood by Spinoza, exists by way of Gods attribute of thought, and is determinate, and not an amalgamation of attributes, but rather a singular whole. My opinion concerning God differs widely from that which is ordinarily defended by modern Christians. Our recommendations on other constructive news sites. Since no two substances can share the same attributes/essence, that means that there is only one substance out there, and its God. Freedom means minimizing our emotional subjection to things outside ourselves. 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. 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. 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. Gods perfection gives all things existence as well as essence (Spinoza, 1985, p. 87) . Respect your peers and dont do what you dont want for yourself. It is a declaration not an assertion, that is, it is a context from which one chooses to live. I dont want you to believe in me. 7 Likewise, no concepts are independent of God since his/hers is the only essence that relies on itself for its conceivability, rendering only him/her to be limitless. - The Divine Mother. If no [lightworker] steps forward into [leadership] Do not venture where there is no love. L ately, atheists have gone on a publishing offensive. By Steven Nadler Thursday, 31st May 2007 Originally published in 2006. Oppression is something that one group of people commits against another group specifically because of a threatening characteristic shared by the latter group. Im locked in. In responsibility, there is no. (Read more), Whats Actually Happening with Chemtrails? 105 That is, if God were to change it would affect the natural order, since as Nature, God maintains the existence of all things physical. Although Leibniz had many philosophical and intellectual interests, he was arguably most WebBenedictus (Baruch) Spinoza is one of the most important philosophersand certainly the most radicalof the early modern period. Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. 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. 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. Stop going to those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and say they are my house! 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. Jaspers, Karl. Consequently, because bodies come to be through the same attribute of God, are, in fact, compatible, it follows that they are subject to the effects of other bodies in many ways, specifically in how they have abilities to overpower one another by causing one another to move or come to a halt. And you may hear Voltaires jibes in Candide, aimed at Spinozas contemporary Leibniz, bouncing off Spinoza as well. God had infinite qualities, of which we can perceive only two, thought and extension. Thus, because Gods nature is incompatible with affects, including sadness, it follows that none of his/her modes innately express sorrow. 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! God is the efficient cause not only of the existence of things, but also of their essence. Remembering, embodying, and expressing your true Self. You are bringing to light what needs to be revealed so it doesnt destroy the fiber of your society. 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. Similarly, when God is said to be omnipresent, it is only when he is conceived of through Extension. 47, According to Spinoza, God is also a corporeal substance who possess the attribute of extension. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in the 17th century of a businessman father who was successful but not wealthy. Did you have fun? 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. 16321677 . 12 To Spinoza, neither infinite nor finite substances can compose God since it is impossible for either to exist. Throughout the history of philosophy, many theorists have attempted to explain the meaning and cause of peoples sorrows. Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. 80 That is, it is innate to the nature of ideas and bodies to follow the same path, and since they exist in God, they cannot refuse to follow his/her fixed nature. 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. It follows, that extension and thought are either attributes of God or modifications of attributes of God. 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. WebDescartes, whom Spinoza had studied and commentated, moves from the self and its ignorance to eventually apprehend the existence of God and to attain knowledge of the world. 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. WebBENEDICT SPINOZA. When you see the shadow, it defines the light. 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. God is the one and only genuine substance around. 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. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) served as the natural end of the rationalist tradition on the European continent, which included Descartes, Spinoza, and Malebranche. So many explanations? Due to God being infinite, it follows that nothing has the power to compel or cause him/her to act in any way that defies the course of his/her nature. N ear the beginning of The Family Moskat, Isaac Bashevis Singer introduces us to a young man from a distinguished rabbinic family named Asa Heschel Bannet: At five he Spinoza continues to state that joy is a persons passage from a lesser state of being to a greater one. 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. University of Central Florida Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what youve been taught about me. 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