Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was a Dutch metaphysician and moral philosopher born in the Sephardic Jewish community in Amsterdam. He spent his entire life in Amsterdam and surrounding towns, and never left Holland. He was expelled from the Jewish community for his unorthodox views in 1656 and supported himself largely through grinding lenses. The inhalation of glass dust may have contributed to his early death at age 44 from consumption (tuberculosis). During his life he was acquainted with the leading intellectuals of his day, including Leibiniz, Huygens and Henry Oldenberg.

Spinoza was intellectually gifted as a boy and was being groomed for a career as a rabbi. However, in 1656 he was issued the harshest writ of harem (excommunication) issued by the Sephardic community for "monstrous deeds" and "heresies." The heresies likely consisted of denial of the immortality of the soul and rejection of the notions of a transcendent, providential God (the God of Abraham) and that the Law was not literally given by God nor any longer binding on Jews. The writ was never rescinded.

Spinoza worked under almost total isolation during his life, with his major works, Ethics and Treatise on the Improvement of Understanding, unpublished until after his death. Spinoza uses the term “God, or Nature” and this identification of God with Nature is at the center of his metaphysics. This naturalized god uses deductive reasoning and has no desires or purposes, and therefore human ethics cannot properly be derived from divine command. Spinozian ethics seeks an understanding of the divine nature and expression in human nature, the way in which human beings can maximize their advantage. Spinoza's ontology, like Descartes', consists of substances, their attributes, and their modes. Unlike Descartes, Spinoza maintains there is only one substance. There is no mind-body dualism, but rather the human mind and the human body are the same thing. One's own mind comes to be identified with something that is eternal that endows the human with a kind of blessed immortality; it is not a personal immortality.

For our discussion we will read selections from the Spinoza Collection translated by R.H.M. Elwes and available as a free download from the Gutenberg Project or as a paperbound copy from online booksellers. Read Ethics parts I-V and On the Improvement of the Understanding. Excellent discussions of these texts can be found online in Wikipedia and in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as well as other sources. Consider what Spinoza means by the terms 'substance' and 'mode'? What is his concept of immortality and what is an ethical life? And is Spinoza relevant today?

Secondary resources:

Wikipedia, Baruch Spinoza

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP)

Benedict De Spinoza (1632-1677)
Benedict de Spinoza: Metaphysics
Benedict de Spinoza: Political Philosophy
Benedict de Spinoza: Epistemology

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP)

Principle of Sufficient Reason
Baruch Spinoza
Spinoza's Political Philosophy

Spinoza on “In Our Time” (Audio, BBC 4, 42:06)
Rebecca Goldstein, Spinoza's Mind (Video, YouTube, 1:08:59)
Susan James: Why Should We Read Spinoza? (Video, YouTube, 47:19)