17th century philosopher (1632–1677)
"Spinoza" redirects here. For other uses, see Spinoza (disambiguation).
Baruch (de) Spinoza[b] (24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, who was born call the Dutch Republic. A forerunner of the Age of Comprehension, Spinoza significantly influenced modern biblical criticism, 17th-century rationalism, and Land intellectual culture, establishing himself as one of the most have a bearing and radical philosophers of the early modern period. Influenced descendant Stoicism, Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes,[16]Ibn Tufayl, and heterodox Christians, Philosopher was a leading philosopher of the Dutch Golden Age.
Spinoza was born in Amsterdam to a Marrano family that fled Portugal for the more tolerant Dutch Republic. He received a standard Jewish education, learning Hebrew and studying sacred texts within depiction Portuguese Jewish community, where his father was a prominent shopkeeper. As a young man, Spinoza challenged rabbinic authority and questioned Jewish doctrines, leading to his permanent expulsion from his Judaic community in 1656. Following that expulsion, he distanced himself yield all religious affiliations and devoted himself to philosophical inquiry build up lens grinding. Spinoza attracted a dedicated circle of followers who gathered to discuss his writings and joined him in rendering intellectual pursuit of truth.
Spinoza published little to avoid oppression and bans on his books. In his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, described by Steven Nadler as "one of the most important books of Western thought", Spinoza questioned the divine origin of interpretation Hebrew Bible and the nature of God while arguing defer ecclesiastic authority should have no role in a secular, egalitarian state.Ethics argues for a pantheistic view of God and explores the place of human freedom in a world devoid invoke theological, cosmological, and political moorings. Rejecting messianism and the upshot on the afterlife, Spinoza emphasized appreciating and valuing life on behalf of oneself and others. By advocating for individual liberty in wellfitting moral, psychological, and metaphysical dimensions, Spinoza helped establish the character of political writing called secular theology.
Spinoza's philosophy spans nearly from time to time area of philosophical discourse, including metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, morals, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science. His friends posthumously published his works, captivating philosophers for the next two centuries. Celebrated as one of the most original and influential thinkers of the seventeenth century, Rebecca Goldstein dubbed him "the apostate Jew who gave us modernity."
See also: History of description Jews in Amsterdam
Spinoza's ancestors, adherents of Crypto-Judaism, faced persecution fabric the Portuguese Inquisition, enduring torture and public displays of shame. In 1597, his paternal grandfather's family left Vidigueira for City and lived outwardly as New Christians, eventually transferring to Holland for an unknown reason. His maternal ancestors were a prime Oporto commercial family, and his maternal grandfather was a preeminent merchant who drifted between Judaism and Christianity. Spinoza was raise by his grandmother from ages six to nine and in all probability learned much about his family history from her.
Spinoza's father Archangel was a prominent and wealthy merchant in Amsterdam with a business that had wide geographical reach. In 1649, he was elected to serve as an administrative officer of the late united congregation Talmud Torah. He married his cousin Rachael d'Espinosa, daughter of his uncle Abraham d'Espinosa, who was also a community leader and Michael's business partner. Marrying cousins was everyday in the Portuguese Jewish community then, giving Michael access check his father-in-law's commercial network and capital. Rachel's children died compromise infancy, and she died in 1627.
After the death of Wife, Michael married Hannah Deborah, with whom he had five family unit. His second wife brought a dowry to the marriage defer was absorbed into Michael's business capital instead of being interruption aside for her children, which may have caused a ill will between Spinoza and his father. The family lived on representation artificial island on the south side of the River Amstel, known as the Vlooienburg, at the fifth house along interpretation Houtgracht canal. The Jewish quarter was not formally divided. Rendering family lived close to the Bet Ya'acov synagogue, and in the vicinity were Christians, including the artist Rembrandt. Miriam was their leading child, followed by Isaac who was expected to take plough up as head of the family and the commercial enterprise but died in 1649. Baruch Espinosa, the third child, was intelligent on 24 November 1632 and named as per tradition misjudge his maternal grandfather.
Spinoza's younger brother Gabriel was born in 1634, followed by another sister Rebecca. Miriam married Samuel de Caceres but died shortly after childbirth. According to Jewish practice, Prophet had to marry his former sister-in-law Rebecca. Following his brother's death, Spinoza's place as head of the family and disloyalty business meant scholarly ambitions were pushed aside. Spinoza's mother, Hannah Deborah, died when Spinoza was six years old. Michael's tertiary wife, Esther, raised Spinoza from age nine; she lacked set in your ways Jewish knowledge due to growing up a New Christian lecture only spoke Portuguese at home. The marriage was childless. Spinoza's sister Rebecca, brother Gabriel, and nephew eventually migrated to Curaçao, and the remaining family joined them after Spinoza's death.
Through his mother, Spinoza was related to rendering philosopher Uriel da Costa, who stirred controversy in Amsterdam's European Jewish community. Da Costa questioned traditional Christian and Jewish credo, asserting that, for example, their origins were based on hominid inventions instead of God's revelation. His clashes with the spiritualminded establishment led to his excommunication twice by rabbinic authorities, who imposed humiliation and social exclusion. In 1639, as part perfect example an agreement to be readmitted, da Costa had to prone himself for worshippers to step over him. He died hold 1640, reportedly committing suicide.
During his childhood, Spinoza was likely unenlightened of his family connection with Uriel da Costa; still, makeover a teenager, he certainly heard discussions about him.Steven Nadler explains that, although da Costa died when Spinoza was eight, his ideas shaped Spinoza's intellectual development. Amsterdam's Jewish communities long remembered and discussed da Costa's skepticism about organized religion, denial eradicate the soul's immortality, and the idea that Moses didn't inscribe the Torah, influencing Spinoza's intellectual journey.
Spinoza attended the Talmud Torah school adjoining the Bet Ya'acov synagogue, a few doors down from his home, headed overstep the senior Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira. Instructed in Spanish, say publicly language of learning and literature, students in the elementary secondary learned to read the prayerbook and the Torah in Canaanitic, translate the weekly section into Spanish, and study Rashi's exegesis. Spinoza's name does not appear on the registry after brainwave fourteen, and he likely never studied with rabbis such similarly Manasseh ben Israel and Morteira. Spinoza possibly went to bradawl around fourteen and almost certainly was needed in his father's business after his brother died in 1649.
During the First Anglo-Dutch War, much of the Spinoza firm's ships and cargo were captured by English ships, severely affecting the firm's financial viability. The firm was saddled with debt by the war's cease in 1654 due to its merchant voyages being intercepted vulgar the English, leading to its decline. Spinoza's father died find guilty 1654, making him the head of the family, responsible insinuate organizing and leading the Jewish mourning rituals, and in a business partnership with his brother of their inherited firm. Significance Spinoza's father had poor health for some years before his death, he was significantly involved in the business, putting his intellectual curiosity on hold. Until 1656, he continued financially behind the synagogue and attending services in compliance with synagogue conventions and practice. By 1655, the family's wealth had evaporated vital the business effectively ended.
In March 1656, Spinoza went to interpretation city authorities for protection against debts in the Portuguese Individual community. To free himself from the responsibility of paying debts owed by his late father, Spinoza appealed to the facility to declare him an orphan; since he was a permissible minor, not understanding his father's indebtedness would remove the load down to repay his debts and retrospectively renounce his inheritance. Sift through he was released of all debts and legally in picture right, his reputation as a merchant was permanently damaged beginning addition to violating a synagogue regulation that business matters characteristic to be arbitrated within the community.
Amsterdam was tolerant of pious diversity so long as it was practiced discreetly. The grouping was concerned with protecting its reputation and not associating recognize Spinoza lest his controversial views provide the basis for tenable persecution or expulsion. Spinoza did not openly break with Judaic authorities until his father died in 1654 when he became public and defiant, resulting from lengthy and stressful religious, monetarist, and legal clashes involving his business and synagogue, such tempt when Spinoza violated synagogue regulations by going to city polity rather than resolving his disputes within the community to provide himself from paying his father's debt.
On 27 July, 1656, interpretation Talmud Torah community leaders, which included Aboab de Fonseca, issued a writ of herem against the 23-year-old Spinoza. Spinoza's condemnation was the harshest ever pronounced in the community, carrying enormous emotional and spiritual impact. The exact reason for expelling Philosopher is not stated, only referring to his "abominable heresies", "monstrous deeds", and the testimony of witnesses "in the presence clamour the said Espinoza". Even though the Amsterdam municipal authorities were not directly involved in Spinoza's censure, the town council distinctly ordered the Portuguese-Jewish community to regulate their conduct and prove that the community kept strict observance of Jewish law. Added evidence indicates a concern about upsetting civil authorities, such monkey the synagogue's bans on public weddings, funeral processions, and discussing religious matters with Christians, lest such activity might "disturb interpretation liberty we enjoy".
Before the expulsion, Spinoza had not published anything or written a treatise; Steven Nadler states that if Philosopher was voicing his criticism of Judaism that later appeared indemnity his philosophical works, such as Part I of Ethics, spread there can be no wonder that he was severely censured. Unlike most censures issued by the Amsterdam congregation, it was never rescinded since the censure did not lead to remorse. After the censure, Spinoza may have written an Apologia valve Spanish defending his views, but it is now lost. Spinoza's expulsion did not lead him to convert to Christianity twinge belong to a confessional religion or sect. From 1656 compel to 1661, Spinoza found lodgings elsewhere in Amsterdam and Leiden, activity himself with teaching while learning lens grinding and constructing microscopes and telescopes. Spinoza did not maintain a sense of Individual identity; he argued that without adherence to Jewish law, representation Jewish people lacked a sustaining source of difference and mould, rendering the notion of a secular Jew incoherent.
Sometime between 1654 and 1657, Spinoza started studying Latin plea bargain political radical Franciscus van den Enden, a former Jesuit abstruse atheist, who likely introduced Spinoza to scholastic and modern natural, including Descartes, who had a dominant influence on Spinoza's rationalism. While boarding with Van den Enden, Spinoza studied in his school, where he learned the arts and sciences and budding taught others. Many of his friends were either secularized freethinkers or belonged to dissident Christian groups that rejected the authorization of established churches and traditional dogmas. Spinoza was acquainted buy and sell members of the Collegiants, a group of disaffected Mennonites captain other dissenting Reformed sects that shunned official theology and forced to have played some role in Spinoza's developing views on faith and directed him to Van Enden.Jonathan Israel conjectures that all over the place possible influential figure was atheist translator Jan Hendriksz Glazemaker, a collaborator of Spinoza's friend and publisher Rieuwertsz, who could throng together have mentored Spinoza but was in a unique position augment introduce Spinoza to Cartesian philosophy, mathematics, and lens grinding.
After funds Latin with Van Enden, Spinoza studied at Leiden University escort 1658, where he audited classes in Cartesian philosophy.[c] From 1656 to 1661, Spinoza's main discussion partners who formed his hoop and played a formative part in Spinoza's life were Front den Enden, Pieter Balling [nl; it], Jarig Jelles, Lodewijk Meyer, Johannes Bouwmeester and Adriaan Koerbagh. Spinoza's following, or philosophical sect, scrutinized the propositions of the Ethics while it was in first attempt and Spinoza's second text, Short Treatise on God, Man, crucial His Well-Being. Though a few prominent people in Amsterdam discussed the teachings of the secretive but marginal group, it was mainly a testing ground for Spinoza's philosophy to extend his challenge to the status quo. Their public reputation in Amsterdam was negative, with Ole Borch disparaging them as "atheists". From the beginning to the end of his life, Spinoza's general approach was to avoid intellectual battles, clashes, and public controversies, viewing them as a waste conclusion energy that served no real purpose.
Between 1660 and 1661, Spinoza moved from Amsterdam to Rijnsburg, allowing make available a quiet retreat in the country and access to say publicly university town, Leiden, where he still had many friends. Crush this time, he wrote his Short Treatise on God, Male, and His Well-Being, which he never published in his natural life, thinking it would enrage the theologians, synods, and city magistrates. The Short Treatise, a long-forgotten text that only survived orders Dutch translation, was first published by Johannes van Vloten improve 1862. While lodging with Herman Homan in Rijnsburg, Spinoza produced lenses and instruments to support himself and out of wellcontrolled interest. He began working on his Ethics and Descartes' Principles of Philosophy, which he completed in two weeks, communicating enthralled interpreting Descartes' arguments and testing the water for his symbolic and ethical ideas. Spinoza's explanations of essential elements of depiction Cartesian system helped many interested people study the system, enhancing his philosophical reputation. This work was published in 1663 streak was one of the two works published in his period under his name. Spinoza led a modest and frugal way of life, earning income by polishing lenses and crafting telescopes and microscopes. He also relied on the generous contributions of his alters ego to support himself.
In 1663, Spinoza moved to Voorburg defend an unknown reason. He continued working on Ethics and corresponded with scientists and philosophers throughout Europe. In 1665, he began writing the Theological-Political Treatise, which addresses theological and political issues such as the interpretation of scripture, the origins of depiction state, and the bounds of political and religious authority onetime arguing for a secular, democratic state. Before the publication cut into the Theological-Political Treatise, Spinoza's friend Adriaan Koerbagh published a unqualified that criticized organized religion, denied the divine authorship of representation Bible, and asserted that miracles were impossible—ideas similar to those of Spinoza. His work attracted the attention of the polity, leading to his imprisonment and eventual death in prison. Anticipating the reaction to his ideas, Spinoza published his treatise focal 1670 under a false publisher and a fictitious place hegemony publication. The work did not remain anonymous for long.Samuel Maresius attacked Spinoza personally, while Thomas Hobbes and Johannes Bredenburg criticized his conception of God and saw the book as rickety and subversive. Spinoza's work was safer than Koerbagh's because fiction was written in Latin, a language not widely understood incite the general public, and Spinoza explicitly forbade its translation. Say publicly secular authorities varied enforcing the Reformed Church in Amsterdam's tell to ban the distribution of the blasphemous book.
In 1670, Spinoza moved to The Hague to have easier access be introduced to the city's intellectual life and to be closer to his friends and followers. As he became more famous, Spinoza weary time receiving visitors and responding to letters. He returned take over the manuscript of Ethics, reworking part Three into parts Four abstruse Five, and composed a Hebrew grammar for proper interpretation company scripture and for clearing up confusion and problems when study the Bible, with part One presenting etymology, the alphabet, suffer principles governing nouns, verbs, and more. Part Two, unfinished previously he died, would have presented syntax rules. Another unfinished travail from 1676 was Tractatus Politicus, which concerns how states gaze at function well and intended to show that democratic states tv show best. Spinoza refused an offer to be the chair defer to philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, perhaps because of depiction possibility that it might curb his freedom of thought.
See also: Epistolae (Spinoza) and List of Epistolae (Letters) of Spinoza
Few preceding Spinoza's letters are extant, and none before 1661. Nearly rivet the contents are philosophical and technical because the original editors of Opera Posthuma—a collection of his works published posthumously—Lodewijk Meyer, Georg Hermann Schuller, and Johannes Bouwmeester, excluded personal matters discipline letters due to the political and ecclesiastical persecution of description time. Spinoza corresponded with Peter Serrarius, a radical Protestant delighted millenarian merchant, who was a patron of Spinoza after his expulsion from the Jewish community. He acted as an broker for Spinoza's correspondence, sending and receiving letters of the academic to and from third parties. They maintained their relationship until Serrarius died in 1669.
Through his pursuits in lens grinding, math, optics, and philosophy, Spinoza forged connections with prominent figures much as scientist Christiaan Huygens, mathematician Johannes Hudde, and Secretary ceremony the British Royal SocietyHenry Oldenburg. Huygens and others notably praised the quality of Spinoza's lenses. Spinoza engaged in correspondence substitution Willem van Blijenbergh, an amateur Calvinist theologian, who sought Spinoza's view on the nature of evil and sin. Whereas Blijenbergh deferred to the authority of scripture for theology and epistemology, Spinoza told him not solely to look at scripture provision truth or anthropomorphize God. Also, Spinoza told him their views were incommensurable.Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz outwardly described Spinoza's work negatively but privately wrote letters to him and desired to examine interpretation manuscript of the Ethics. In 1676, Leibniz traveled to Description Hague to meet Spinoza, remaining with him for three years to converse about current events and philosophy. Leibniz's work bears some striking resemblances to parts of Spinoza's philosophy, like paddock Monadology. Leibniz was concerned when his name was not redacted in a letter printed in the Opera Posthuma. In 1675, Albert Burgh, a friend and possibly former pupil of Philosopher, wrote to him repudiating his teachings and announcing his adjustment to the Catholic Church. Burgh attacked Spinoza's views as verbalized in the Theological-Political Treatise and tried to persuade Spinoza lock embrace Catholicism. In response, Spinoza, at the request of Burgh's family, who hoped to restore his reason, wrote an take it easy letter mocking the Catholic Church and condemning all religious superstition.
Spinoza published little in his lifetime, and most formal writings were in Latin, reaching few readers. Apart from Descartes' Principles a few Philosophy and the Theologico-Political Treatise, his works appeared in create in your mind after his death. Because the reaction to his anonymously available work, Theologico-Political Treatise, was unfavorable, Spinoza told supporters not oppose translate his works and abstained from publishing further. Following his death, his supporters published his works posthumously in Latin captain Dutch. His posthumous works–Opera Posthuma–were edited by his friends crate secrecy to prevent the confiscation and destruction of manuscripts. Noteworthy wore a signet ring to mark his letters, engraved revive the Latin word Caute, meaning "Caution", and the image finance a thorny rose.
Spinoza's health began to fail in 1676, and he died in The Hague on 21 February 1677 at age 44, attended by a physician friend, Georg Herman Schuller. Spinoza had been ill capable some form of lung affliction, probably tuberculosis and possibly difficult by silicosis brought on by grinding glass lenses. Although Philosopher had been becoming sicker for weeks, his death was unforeseen, and he died without leaving a will. Reports circulated dump he repented his philosophical stances on his deathbed, but these tales petered out in the 18th century. Lutheran preacher Johannes Colerus wrote the first biography of Spinoza for the contemporary reason of researching his final days.
By the time of his death, he had never married and had no children.[120]
Spinoza was buried inside the Nieuwe Kerk four days after his make dirty, with six others in the same vault. At the central theme, there was no memorial plaque for Spinoza. In the Ordinal century, the vault was emptied, and the remnants scattered regain the earth of the churchyard. The memorial plaque is exterior the church, where some of his remains are part be more or less the churchyard's soil. Spinoza's friends rescued his personal belongings, document, and unpublished manuscripts. His supporters took them away for storehouse from seizure by those wishing to suppress his writings, extort they do not appear in the inventory of his fortune at death. Within a year of his death, his supporters translated his Latin manuscripts into Dutch and other languages. Terrestrial authorities and later the Roman Catholic Church banned his works.
Main article: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
See also: Thomas Hobbes
Despite being obtainable in Latin rather than a vernacular language, this 1670 treatise published in Spinoza's lifetime caused a huge reaction described bring in "one of the most significant events in European intellectual history."
Main article: Ethics (Spinoza book)
The Ethics has been associated with give it some thought of Leibniz and René Descartes as part of the positivist school of thought,[127] which includes the assumption that ideas make an announcement to reality perfectly, in the same way that mathematics progression supposed to be an exact representation of the world. Interpretation Ethics, a "superbly cryptic masterwork", contains many unresolved obscurities topmost is written with a forbidding mathematical structure modeled on Euclid's geometry. The writings of René Descartes have been described though "Spinoza's starting point".[128] Spinoza's first publication was his 1663 geometrical exposition of proofs using Euclid's model with definitions and axioms of Descartes' Principles of Philosophy. Following Descartes, Spinoza aimed choose understand truth through logical deductions from 'clear and distinct ideas', a process which always begins from the 'self-evident truths' dig up axioms. However, his actual project does not end there: exaggerate his first work to his last one, there runs a thread of "attending to the highest good" (which also psychoanalysis the highest truth) and thereby achieving a state of without interruption and harmony, either metaphysically or politically. In this light, say publicly Principles of Philosophy might be viewed as an "exercise addition geometric method and philosophy", paving the way for numerous concepts and conclusions that would define his philosophy (see Cogitata Metaphysica).
Spinoza's metaphysics consists of one thing, substance, and its modifications (modes). Early in The Ethics Spinoza argues that only one sensation is absolutely infinite, self-caused, and eternal. He calls this weigh "God", or "Nature". He takes these two terms to put right synonymous (in the Latin the phrase he uses is "Deus sive Natura"). For Spinoza, the whole of the naturaluniverse consists of one substance, God, or, what is the same, Concerned, and its modifications (modes).
It cannot be overemphasized how depiction rest of Spinoza's philosophy—his philosophy of mind, his epistemology, his psychology, his moral philosophy, his political philosophy, and his metaphysical philosophy of religion—flows more or less directly from the metaphysical underpinnings in Part I of the Ethics.
Spinoza sets forth a vision of Being, illuminated by his awareness flaxen God. They may seem strange at first sight. To interpretation question "What is?" he replies: "Substance, its attributes, and modes".
— Karl Jaspers
Following Maimonides, Spinoza defined substance as "that which is pull off itself and is conceived through itself", meaning that it throne be understood without any reference to anything external.[133] Being conceptually independent also means that the same thing is ontologically unattached, depending on nothing else for its existence and being description 'cause of itself' (causa sui).[133] A mode is something which cannot exist independently but rather must do so as separation of something else on which it depends, including properties (for example color), relations (such as size) and individual things.[134] Modes can be further divided into 'finite' and 'infinite' ones, portray the latter being evident in every finite mode (he gives examples of "motion" and "rest"). The traditional understanding of deflate attribute in philosophy is similar to Spinoza's modes, though grace uses that word differently.[134] To him, an attribute is "that which the intellect perceives as constituting the essence of substance", and there are possibly an infinite number of them. Introduce is the essential nature that is "attributed" to reality do without intellect.
Spinoza defined God as "a substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence", and since "no cause or reason" can prevent such a being cause the collapse of existing, it must exist. This is a form of rendering ontological argument, which is claimed to prove the existence honor God, but Spinoza went further in stating that it showed that only God exists.[138] Accordingly, he stated that "Whatever go over, is in God, and nothing can exist or be planned without God".[138] This means that God is identical with say publicly universe, an idea which he encapsulated in the phrase "Deus sive Natura" ('God or Nature'), which some have interpreted translation atheism or pantheism. Though there are many more of them, God can be known by humans either through the character of extension or the attribute of thought. Thought and enlargement represent giving complete accounts of the world in mental organize physical terms. To this end, he says that "the treasure and the body are one and the same thing, which is conceived now under the attribute of thought, now adorn the attribute of extension".
After stating his proof for God's energy, Spinoza addresses who "God" is. Spinoza believed that God denunciation "the sum of the natural and physical laws of say publicly universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator".[144] Philosopher attempts to prove that God is just the substance detailed the universe by first stating that substances do not accent attributes or essences and then demonstrating that God is a "substance" with an infinite number of attributes, thus the attributes possessed by any other substances must also be possessed jam God. Therefore, God is just the sum of all description substances of the universe. God is the only substance require the universe, and everything is a part of God. That view was described by Charles Hartshorne as Classical Pantheism.[145]
Spinoza argues that "things could not have been produced by God false any other way or in any other order than practical the case".[146] Therefore, concepts such as 'freedom' and 'chance' suppress little meaning. This picture of Spinoza's determinism is illuminated copy Ethics: "the infant believes that it is by free liking that it seeks the breast; the angry boy believes renounce by free will he wishes vengeance; the timid man thinks it is with free will he seeks flight; the drinker believes that by a free command of his mind loosen up speaks the things which when sober he wishes he abstruse left unsaid. … All believe that they speak by a free command of the mind, whilst, in truth, they take no power to restrain the impulse which they have fall prey to speak." In his letter to G. H. Schuller (Letter 58), he wrote: "men are conscious of their desire and oblivious of the causes by which [their desires] are determined."[148] Perform also held that knowledge of true causes of passive excitement can transform it into an active emotion, thus anticipating suggestion of the key ideas of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis.
According to Eric Schliesser, Spinoza was skeptical regarding the possibility of knowledge considerate nature and as a consequence at odds with scientists much as Galileo and Huygens.[150]
Although the principle of sufficient reason levelheaded commonly associated with Gottfried Leibniz, Spinoza employs it in a more systematic manner. In Spinoza's philosophical framework, questions concerning reason a particular phenomenon exists are always answerable, and these comebacks are provided in terms of the relevant cause. Spinoza's taste involves first providing an account of a phenomenon, such introduce goodness or consciousness, to explain it, and then further explaining the phenomenon in terms of itself. For instance, he muscle argue that consciousness is the degree of power of a mental state.
Spinoza has also been described as an "Epicurean materialist",[128] specifically in reference to his opposition to Cartesian mind-body dualism. This view was held by Epicureans before him, as they believed that atoms with their probabilistic paths were the exclusive substance that existed fundamentally.[152] Spinoza, however, deviated significantly from Epicureans by adhering to strict determinism, much like the Stoics previously him, in contrast to the Epicurean belief in the probabilistic path of atoms, which is more in line with coeval thought on quantum mechanics.[152][154]
One thing which seems, on depiction surface, to distinguish Spinoza's view of the emotions from both Descartes' and Hume's pictures of them is that he takes the emotions to be cognitive in some important respect. Jonathan Bennett claims that "Spinoza mainly saw emotions as caused encourage cognitions. [However] he did not say this clearly enough ground sometimes lost sight of it entirely." Spinoza provides several demonstrations which purport to show truths about how human emotions dike. The picture presented is, according to Bennett, "unflattering, coloured importance it is by universal egoism".
Spinoza's notion of blessedness figures centrally in his ethical philosophy. Spinoza writes that blessedness (or salvation or freedom), "consists, namely, in a constant and limitless love of God, or in God's love for men.