Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza (1632- 1677)

Life

Benedict (Baruch) Spinoza (1632-1677) was the son of a Jewish merchant from Amsterdam. His father and grandfather were originally Spanish crypto-Jews -- that is, Jews who were forced to adopt Christianity in post-Islamic Spain, but secretly remained Jewish. He was educated in traditional Jewish Curriculum. His father died when he was 21, after which he was embroiled in a lawsuit with his stepsister over his father's estate. Spinoza won the suit, but nevertheless handed virtually all of it over to his stepsister. Shortly after, Spinoza's budding theological speculations prompted conflict with Jewish leaders. Spinoza publicly contended that the scriptures do not maintain that God has no body, that angels exist, or that the soul is immortal. After failed attempts to silence him, he was excommunicated in 1656. For a time Spinoza was associated with a former Jesuit who ran a school for children. Spinoza used this as an opportunity to further his own education and to supplement his income by teaching in the school. At this time he also learned the trade of lens grinding for glasses and telescopes.

In his late twenties, he supervised a discussion group on philosophical and theological issues. As his own ideas developed, he went on retreat from Amsterdam for three years to formulate them in writing. At a cottage in Rijnsburg, he wrote A Short Treatise on God, Man and his Well-Being, and On the Improvement of the Understanding. He also composed a geometric version of Descartes' Principles of Philosophy, which friends encouraged him to publish. Part of the purpose of the work was to pave the way for publishing his own thoughts which were critical of Cartesianism. By producing such a work, he could not be accused later of not understanding Descartes. The work appeared in 1663 and was the only writing of Spinoza's published with his name on it during his life. Further developing his own ideas, over the next two years Spinoza composed his greatest work, The Ethics. In 1663 Spinoza left Rijnsburg and moved near The Hague. Hoping to publish the Ethics, and anticipating controversy, he wrote and published anonymously his Tractatus Thologico-Politicus (1670) which defends the liberty to philosophize in the face of religious or political interference. After a self- initiated and failed diplomatic mission to France, Spinoza and he was forced to give up hopes of publishing the Ethics. He died in 1677 from a lung disease, the result of breathing dust from lens grinding.

Spinoza's Pantheism and Method in the Ethics

As directed in Spinoza's Will, the Ethics was published posthumously along with some of his other works (1677). The Ethics is about 200 pages in length and in five parts:

1. Concerning God

2. The Nature and Origin of the Human Mind

3. The Nature and Origin of the Emotions

4. Human Bondage, or the Strength of the Emotions

5. The Power of the Understanding, or Human Freedom

Its most visibly distinguishing feature is its style of composition modeled after Euclid's geometry. Each of the five parts opens with a brief list of definitions and axioms, and from these a series of propositions (or theorems) are deduced. Spinoza initially composed the first parts of the Ethics in dialog form, but rejected this for the more precise -- and unfortunately more difficult -- geometric method. In general, geometric proofs are designed so that if we accept the definitions and axioms at the outset, and deductions from these are properly made, then we must accept the concluded propositions. However, as Leibniz observed, even though Spinoza's system follows this style, it nevertheless lacks mathematical rigor. Consequently, we must look at the content of Spinoza's complete system and accept or reject it on its own merits, rather than from the success of the various deductions.

In Part One of the Ethics, "Concerning God," after presenting a short list of definitions and axioms, Spinoza deduces 36 propositions which explain the nature of God. The most important of these is Proposition 14, which expresses Spinoza's pantheism: "Besides God, no substance can be granted or conceived." The term "pantheism" (literally all-God) means that God is identical to the universe as a whole. For example my car, my house, and even I myself are all parts of God. Other Western philosophers before Spinoza advocated pantheism, including Xenophanes, Parmenides, Plotinus, and Meister Eckhardt. However, the vast majority of Western philosophers and theologians strongly rejected this view in favor of a transcendent concept of God which holds that God is distinct from his creation. Indeed, some theologians maintained that God has the attribute of separateness thus being completely separate from the rest of the universe, including the physical world and humans. Spinoza's argument for pantheism in Proposition 14 is as follows:

Proposition 5. There cannot exist in the universe two or more substances having the same nature or attribute.
Proposition 11: God (defined as a substance consisting of infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality) necessarily exists.
Therefore, Proposition 14: Besides God, no substance can be granted or conceived.

The intuition behind Spinoza's argument above can be expressed simply. Two separate substances cannot share the same attributes (P 5). God has every actual and possible attribute (P 11). Thus, no other substance can exist. To illustrate Spinoza's point, imagine an infinitely long list of qualities such as "consiousness" and "three-dimensionality." For Spinoza, each attribute on this list can be assigned to only one substance or thing. So, substance 1 might exclusively have the attribute of "consciousness," and substance 2 might exclusively have the attribute of "three- dimensionality." However, God has already been assigned all attributes on the list, and no attributes are left to assign to other substances. Since a substance can't exist if it doesn't have any attributes, then God is the only substance which exists.

As noted, Spinoza opens part one of the Ethics with a list of definitions and axioms. His list of definitions are as follows:

1. By that which is self-caused, I mean that of which the essence involves existence, or that of which the nature is only conceivable as existent.

2. A thing is called finite after its kind, when it can be limited by another thing of the same nature; for instance, a body is called finite because we always conceive another greater body. So, also, a thought is limited by another thought, but a body is not limited by thought, nor a thought by body.

3. By substance, I mean that which is in itself, and is conceived through itself: in other words, that of which a conception can be formed independently of any other conception.

4. By attribute, I mean that which the intellect perceives as constituting the essence of substance.

5. By mode, I mean the modifications of substance, or that which exists in, and is conceived through, something other than itself.

6. By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite -- that is, a substance consisting in infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality....

7. That thing is called free, which exists solely by the necessity of its own nature, and of which the action is determined by itself alone. On the other hand, that thing is necessary, or rather constrained, which is determined by something external to itself to a fixed and definite method of existence or action.

8. By eternity, I mean existence itself, in so far as it is conceived necessarily to follow solely from the definition of that which is eternal.

Initially, the most important of the definitions below are those of substance, attribute, and mode. Substance, for Spinoza, turns out to be the totality of the universe. An attribute is an all- encompassing property of the universe, such as being three dimensional. Spinoza commentators give various explanations of "attribute" and its relation to "substance." Jonathan Bennett notes that that "An attribute for Spinoza is a basic way of being -- a property which sprawls across everything... [that pertains to that substance]." Edwin Curley notes that for Spinoza the totality of a thing's attributes constitutes its substance. A mode (or modification) is a more confined property of the universe, or how an attribute appears on a smaller level. For example, the shape of a tree is a modification of the universe's larger attribute "three-dimensionality."

Like definitions, axioms are also foundational elements from which propositions are derived. Rather than defining key terms, though, Spinoza's axioms stipulate some foundational fact about the world.

1. Everything which exists, exists either in itself or in something else.

2. That which cannot be conceived through anything else must be conceived through itself.

3. From a given definite cause and effect necessarily follows; and, on the other hand, if no definite cause be granted, it is impossible that an effect can follow.

4. The knowledge of an effect depends on and involves the knowledge of a cause.

5. Things which have nothing in common cannot be understood, the one by means of the other; the conception of one does not involve the conception of the other.

6. A true idea must correspond with its ideate or object.

7. If a thing can be conceived as non-existing, its essence does not involve existence.

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