Chapter 2 Reality Modern Metaphysics Spinoza Introducing Philosophy

Chapter 2: Reality Modern Metaphysics: Spinoza Introducing Philosophy, 10 th edition Robert C. Solomon, Kathleen Higgins, and Clancy Martin

Benedictus de Spinoza (1632 -1677) • Born Baruch ben Michael, the son of Jewish refugees from the Spanish Inquisition • Grew up in Amsterdam, a haven of toleration in a world of religious hatreds • Studied to be a rabbi, making himself familiar with Christian theology as well

• Always a recluse who made a living by grinding lenses; later ostracized by his fellow Jews for his heretical beliefs • Best-known book is Ethics (1677), a reinterpretation of God as identical to the universe (pantheism) • Concerned with the uselessness of human struggle in the face of a thoroughly determined universe

In the mind there is no absolute of free will; but the mind is determined to wish this or that by a cause, which has been determined by another cause, and this last by another cause, and so on to infinity – Spinoza, Ethics

Substance • Maintains Aristotle’s notion of substance • Substances have attributes, which are essential characteristics of a substance • A mode is a modification of an attribute • The cause of itself (causa sui) is like Aristotle’s prime mover, except it is identical to the universe

Axiomatic Structure • Everything has an explanation for its existence, either by its reference to something else or by its being self-caused • Thesis: there can be only one substance • Spinoza attempts to prove that if there is more than one substance, the substances could have no possible relation to each other; therefore, there can be only one substance

Axiomatic Structure • Not worried about the idea of an infinite regress: the universe extends back in time forever, has always existed, and at no time ever came into existence • All of the things that we believe to be individual substances are in fact just attributes of the one substance

Mind and Body • Our distinctions between our bodies and the rest of the physical universe are unwarranted • There is but a single mind, and our individual minds are only part of it

God • Proposition X: Spinoza proves that God, substance, and the cause-of-itself are all identical • Next, he proves that God necessarily exists, then shows that God and universe are the same • This position is called pantheism and was considered heresy; God has no existence independent of the universe on this account, and He cannot be the creator of the universe

God • Spinoza believes in God, but he does not believe that God has a will or that God does anything • Spinoza’s strong determinism: no action whether of man or God is ever free

Mind • Mind is unextended • Thought can grasp reality • Although a radical determinist, Spinoza argues that understanding determinism can allow us to accept it gracefully