was a Dutch philosopher of the 17th century who tried to rediscover it
religion, removing it from something superstitious
and the ideas of direct divine intervention, in a discipline
which would be far more personal, almost scientific
and also, in time, comforting.
Baruch – the word means “blessed” in Hebrew,
was born in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam in 1632,
a thriving Jewish shopping center, at least, in theory. His predecessors were Sephardic Jews
who had fled the Spanish peninsula after Catholic conspiracies
deportation of 1492.
Baruch, a very intelligent researcher, took up an education
intense traditional Jewish.
He went to the local Jewish Yeshiva school and attended all the holidays
Hebrews and high rituals.
But gradually he began to distance himself from the faith of his predecessors.
“Though I educated that boy in the accepted beliefs
concerning the Scriptures “,
he later wrote with the peculiar care, “I have felt connected
embrace other perspectives. “Full views
would be expressed in his greatest work ‘Ethics’, written entirely in Latin
and published in 1677. In ‘Ethics’ Spinoza directly challenged the main principles
of Judaism in particular,
and organized religion in general. God is not a person who stands out of nature,
there is no one to hear our prayers, or to create miracles
and punish us for the mistakes. There is no afterlife,
man is not the chosen creature of God. The Bible was written only by
ordinary people. God is not a craftsman or an architect, either
A king or military strategist who invites believers to receive the Holy Sword.
God sees nothing, nor does he expect anything.
He does not judge. He does not even reward virtuosos with life after death.
Any representation of God as a person is a projection of the imagination
and everything in the traditional liturgical calendar is pure superstition
and mumbo-jumbo.
However, despite all this, Spinoza did not declare himself an atheist
He insisted that he remain steadfast, the protector of God.
God plays an absolutely central role in Spinoza’s ethics.
But it is not like God who persecutes Old Testament sites.
God of Spinoza is completely undefined and indistinguishable from what we can
call it differently
‘nature’ or ‘existence’ or ‘spirit of the world’. God is the universe and its laws.
God is the reason and the truth. God is the driving force of
whatever it is and may be. It’s not in time
and it can not be identified. Spinoza writes:
“Whatever it is, it is in God, and nothing can exist or be conceived without the Lord.”
Throughout this text, Spinoza was ready to undermine the idea
prayer. In prayer, an individual appeals to God
to change how the universe works. But Spinoza
argues that this is entirely the wrong path. The task of human beings
is to try to understand how and why the universe works just as it does
and then accept it, rather than protest the functioning of existence
sending small messages to heaven. How Spinoza says beautifully
but in a responsible manner:
“He who loves God will not seek God to love him in return.”
In other words just a deep distortion and
infant narcissism would bring someone who wants to believe in God,
to imagine that this God will have the interest to replicate
the rules of existence
to improve his or her life. Spinoza was deeply influenced by
the philosophy of ancient Stoics to Greece and Rome.
They had argued that wisdom did not stand in protest against the way things are,
but in a constant effort to understand the world
and then bend, peacefully, the necessity.
Seneca, the favorite philosopher of Spinoza, had compared human beings with dogs on the chain
which are guided by the needs of life in a number of directions.
The more we draw against what is needed, the more we can drown.
And for this reason wisdom should always try to understand, ahead of time,
how things are.
For example, what love is or how does politics work.
And then change the direction based on drowning
unnecessary.
It is this kind of stoic attitude constantly pervading the philosophy of Spinoza.
To understand God, traditionally means studying the Bible and other sacred texts.
But Spinoza now introduces another idea. The Best Way to Know God
is to understand how life and the universe function. It is through knowledge on
psychology, philosophy and natural sciences
that anyone may understand God.
In traditional religious beliefs, believers seek special favors towards God. Spinoza proposes instead
so that we can understand what God wants and we can do it in a prevailing way –
studying everything on it. By reasoning
we can move to an eternally divine prospect.
Spinoza made a distinction between the two ways of seeing life.
We can see it selfishly from our limited viewpoint.
As he said: “sub speciese durationis” (under the aspect of time)
or we can see things globally and eternally:
“sub specie aeternitatis” (under the aspect of eternity).
Our nature means that we will always be divided between the two.
Sensitive life draws us into a partial view of time.
But our reason and intelligence can give us a unique approach to a different perspective.
It can literally allow us – and here Spinoza uses lyrical beauty –
to participate in the eternal whole.
Normally we call it bad, what is bad for NE,
and good everything that enhances our strength and gives us the edge. But for Spinoza,
to be truly ethical means to grow above local concerns.
It may seem restrictive, but Spinoza predicted his philosophy
as a way for a life based on guilt,
from pain, sorrow or shame.
Happiness involves adapting our will to that of the universe.
The God of the Universe has its own projects and it is our duty
to understand, rather than to counter them.
The free person is aware of the needs that compel us all.
Spinoza writes, the wise man, the person who understands how and why things are,
possesses eternally the true complacency of the soul.
It is unnecessary to say that these ideas opened up to Spinoza
very big trouble. He was expelled from the Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1656
Rabies released a censorship known as ‘cherem’
against the philosopher. It went from the Decree of
Angels and the Commander of the Holy Man – in the Exempt, Incompatible, the Convicted
Brauk Spinoza with all the curses that are written in the book of law
of curses, both during the day and at night. Cursed when he sits
and cursed be he when he arises. Spinoza was forced to leave Amsterdam
and finally settled in The Hague, where he lived quietly and peacefully
in a plane mill,
and as a private instructor until his death in 1677. Spinoza’s work was largely forgotten
over the decades.
Hegel showed interest, as did Wittgenstein and many other philosophers
of the twentieth century.
But from many perspectives Spinoza’s work is a warning
about the failures of philosophy. Ethics is one of the most beautiful
books in the world.
It contains a calming perspective to preserve the way of life.
He substitutes with the God of superstition a wise and comforting pantheism.
And yet the work of Spinoza failed to convince the mass, but only a few,
to abandon traditional belief and go to a rational,
a wise belief system. The reasons are in one way
simple and banal. Spinoza failed to understand,
like many philosophers before him that, what leads people to religion
it’s not just the reason,
but much more important: emotion, faith, fear
and tradition. People stick to their beliefs because they like ritual,
common meals,
annual traditions, the beauty of architecture, music and beauty
of the language read in a synagogue or church.
Spinoza’s ethos probably contains much more wisdom than the Bible.
But because it comes without any of the supporting structures of the Bible
it remains a marginal work, studied here and times there
universities in the West. What traditional religion,
that Spinoza thought it was outdated in the 1670s,
continues to flourish and persuade people. If we will be
sometimes in favor of replacing traditional beliefs, we must remember how much religion has
helping to be together
from ritual, tradition, art, and desire to belong.
All that Spinoza, despite the great wisdom,
ignored him as a danger, in his bold quest, to replace the Bible.
religion, removing it from something superstitious
and the ideas of direct divine intervention, in a discipline
which would be far more personal, almost scientific
and also, in time, comforting.
Baruch – the word means “blessed” in Hebrew,
was born in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam in 1632,
a thriving Jewish shopping center, at least, in theory. His predecessors were Sephardic Jews
who had fled the Spanish peninsula after Catholic conspiracies
deportation of 1492.
Baruch, a very intelligent researcher, took up an education
intense traditional Jewish.
He went to the local Jewish Yeshiva school and attended all the holidays
Hebrews and high rituals.
But gradually he began to distance himself from the faith of his predecessors.
“Though I educated that boy in the accepted beliefs
concerning the Scriptures “,
he later wrote with the peculiar care, “I have felt connected
embrace other perspectives. “Full views
would be expressed in his greatest work ‘Ethics’, written entirely in Latin
and published in 1677. In ‘Ethics’ Spinoza directly challenged the main principles
of Judaism in particular,
and organized religion in general. God is not a person who stands out of nature,
there is no one to hear our prayers, or to create miracles
and punish us for the mistakes. There is no afterlife,
man is not the chosen creature of God. The Bible was written only by
ordinary people. God is not a craftsman or an architect, either
A king or military strategist who invites believers to receive the Holy Sword.
God sees nothing, nor does he expect anything.
He does not judge. He does not even reward virtuosos with life after death.
Any representation of God as a person is a projection of the imagination
and everything in the traditional liturgical calendar is pure superstition
and mumbo-jumbo.
However, despite all this, Spinoza did not declare himself an atheist
He insisted that he remain steadfast, the protector of God.
God plays an absolutely central role in Spinoza’s ethics.
But it is not like God who persecutes Old Testament sites.
God of Spinoza is completely undefined and indistinguishable from what we can
call it differently
‘nature’ or ‘existence’ or ‘spirit of the world’. God is the universe and its laws.
God is the reason and the truth. God is the driving force of
whatever it is and may be. It’s not in time
and it can not be identified. Spinoza writes:
“Whatever it is, it is in God, and nothing can exist or be conceived without the Lord.”
Throughout this text, Spinoza was ready to undermine the idea
prayer. In prayer, an individual appeals to God
to change how the universe works. But Spinoza
argues that this is entirely the wrong path. The task of human beings
is to try to understand how and why the universe works just as it does
and then accept it, rather than protest the functioning of existence
sending small messages to heaven. How Spinoza says beautifully
but in a responsible manner:
“He who loves God will not seek God to love him in return.”
In other words just a deep distortion and
infant narcissism would bring someone who wants to believe in God,
to imagine that this God will have the interest to replicate
the rules of existence
to improve his or her life. Spinoza was deeply influenced by
the philosophy of ancient Stoics to Greece and Rome.
They had argued that wisdom did not stand in protest against the way things are,
but in a constant effort to understand the world
and then bend, peacefully, the necessity.
Seneca, the favorite philosopher of Spinoza, had compared human beings with dogs on the chain
which are guided by the needs of life in a number of directions.
The more we draw against what is needed, the more we can drown.
And for this reason wisdom should always try to understand, ahead of time,
how things are.
For example, what love is or how does politics work.
And then change the direction based on drowning
unnecessary.
It is this kind of stoic attitude constantly pervading the philosophy of Spinoza.
To understand God, traditionally means studying the Bible and other sacred texts.
But Spinoza now introduces another idea. The Best Way to Know God
is to understand how life and the universe function. It is through knowledge on
psychology, philosophy and natural sciences
that anyone may understand God.
In traditional religious beliefs, believers seek special favors towards God. Spinoza proposes instead
so that we can understand what God wants and we can do it in a prevailing way –
studying everything on it. By reasoning
we can move to an eternally divine prospect.
Spinoza made a distinction between the two ways of seeing life.
We can see it selfishly from our limited viewpoint.
As he said: “sub speciese durationis” (under the aspect of time)
or we can see things globally and eternally:
“sub specie aeternitatis” (under the aspect of eternity).
Our nature means that we will always be divided between the two.
Sensitive life draws us into a partial view of time.
But our reason and intelligence can give us a unique approach to a different perspective.
It can literally allow us – and here Spinoza uses lyrical beauty –
to participate in the eternal whole.
Normally we call it bad, what is bad for NE,
and good everything that enhances our strength and gives us the edge. But for Spinoza,
to be truly ethical means to grow above local concerns.
It may seem restrictive, but Spinoza predicted his philosophy
as a way for a life based on guilt,
from pain, sorrow or shame.
Happiness involves adapting our will to that of the universe.
The God of the Universe has its own projects and it is our duty
to understand, rather than to counter them.
The free person is aware of the needs that compel us all.
Spinoza writes, the wise man, the person who understands how and why things are,
possesses eternally the true complacency of the soul.
It is unnecessary to say that these ideas opened up to Spinoza
very big trouble. He was expelled from the Jewish community of Amsterdam in 1656
Rabies released a censorship known as ‘cherem’
against the philosopher. It went from the Decree of
Angels and the Commander of the Holy Man – in the Exempt, Incompatible, the Convicted
Brauk Spinoza with all the curses that are written in the book of law
of curses, both during the day and at night. Cursed when he sits
and cursed be he when he arises. Spinoza was forced to leave Amsterdam
and finally settled in The Hague, where he lived quietly and peacefully
in a plane mill,
and as a private instructor until his death in 1677. Spinoza’s work was largely forgotten
over the decades.
Hegel showed interest, as did Wittgenstein and many other philosophers
of the twentieth century.
But from many perspectives Spinoza’s work is a warning
about the failures of philosophy. Ethics is one of the most beautiful
books in the world.
It contains a calming perspective to preserve the way of life.
He substitutes with the God of superstition a wise and comforting pantheism.
And yet the work of Spinoza failed to convince the mass, but only a few,
to abandon traditional belief and go to a rational,
a wise belief system. The reasons are in one way
simple and banal. Spinoza failed to understand,
like many philosophers before him that, what leads people to religion
it’s not just the reason,
but much more important: emotion, faith, fear
and tradition. People stick to their beliefs because they like ritual,
common meals,
annual traditions, the beauty of architecture, music and beauty
of the language read in a synagogue or church.
Spinoza’s ethos probably contains much more wisdom than the Bible.
But because it comes without any of the supporting structures of the Bible
it remains a marginal work, studied here and times there
universities in the West. What traditional religion,
that Spinoza thought it was outdated in the 1670s,
continues to flourish and persuade people. If we will be
sometimes in favor of replacing traditional beliefs, we must remember how much religion has
helping to be together
from ritual, tradition, art, and desire to belong.
All that Spinoza, despite the great wisdom,
ignored him as a danger, in his bold quest, to replace the Bible.
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