Very recently, I have read a
new book about the philosopher Benedict Spinoza, known as ‘The Spiritual
Automaton - Spinoza's Science of the Mind’ (ISBN: 9780199675531), by Professor
Eugene Marshall. It is a nice updated book about Spinoza’s ideas, and I highly
recommend this to anyone who enjoys knowledge. I have always had an intense
admiration on Spinoza, and although he was someone who existed like 400 years
ago, his brilliant ideas seem to manage to connect well with our age. Therefore
I will talk about Spinoza this time.
Upon an examination of a
portrait of Spinoza, one can easily develop an impression that Spinoza was a
humble, friendly sort of person. Indeed, after he has become a private scholar,
he lived quietly in a small room as a lens grinder, and throughout the years
developed and wrote his original philosophy. He was known to decline a
professorship from a university, because he felt that could compromise his
free-thinking status through a private scholarship. Thus, one may assume that
Spinoza’s philosophical ideas are about how to be a great guy and so on, right?
Spinoza as a cold rationalist
No! If you read through
Spinoza’s philosophy, you will find that to be extremely – cold. What the
reassurance you want from Spinoza, he does not give you any. His Magnum opus,
‘Ethics’, a book supposed to show us how to live an ‘ethical’ existence, was
written in an abstract and geometrical manner. In Spinoza’s view, there is not
a God who comes from another universe, behaves like a Superman, and has a score
book to weigh the good and bad of humans and judges who should be punished. God is not a friendly dude, by the way. Spinoza
believes that we are all selfish – but he has placed no moral considerations in
this thorny word. What he means is that the most important human action is
self-preservation, and so a normal person should behave in a self-directed
manner. And, for us to live a happy life, Spinoza feels that we do not need
religion or sentiment. What we need is an intellectual understanding of our
real self and to develop a love of Nature. If this is the real face of Spinoza,
then why is he considered inspirational, and why should I celebrate such an
apparently heartless blockhead here?
Spinoza’s teachings may sound
abstract and cerebral, yet I guess the most important thing to get out from
that is to see that his ultimate aim is to encourage us to explore and confront
the reality of human existence. To do this, we have to unveil the appearances
that have been presented to us, or fed to us, though value judgments, religion,
authority, or the so-called ‘common sense’. Spinoza has the faith to see human
beings are rational, and because a sense of truthful well-being can be attained
in our lives, we first have to understand our places in the universe, and how
our minds interact with our surroundings. Spinoza was an academic of incredible
integrity – he did not rely on story-telling or rhetoric to convince his
readers. Instead, he demonstrated (in a mathematical sense), in a logical and
rational manner, the metaphysics of humanity, so that we can work through and
see the consequences by ourselves. By defining God, Mind and other important
terms, Spinoza led us through a journey of wisdom.
If we ask Spinoza whether he
believes in the existence of God or not, he will likely first ask you for a
clear definition of God. Because his understanding of ‘God’ is very different
from the traditional ‘God’ present in religion. In Spinoza’s words, his God is
equivalent to ‘God / Nature’, the slash suggesting the two words are interchangeable.
Therefore, Spinoza’s God is an impersonal one, and there is no ‘Daddy’ element
at all in his interpretation of the ultimate deity. His God can be seen more as
a force of nature, or the order that governs the things in the world. His
concept of God is indeed an abstract one.
Over the centuries,
philosophers have provided many proofs and discussions on the existence of an
ultimate deity. Spinoza, who was among one of these wise men, did believe in
the existence of God! Yet, what was most original about his idea is that,
first, his conception of God was very different from any of his predecessors –
he was considered an atheist by many due to his stunning conception of the ‘Big
Boss’. And, in his Magnum opus ‘Ethics’, Part 1, Proposition 11, stands the
ultimate statement about God. It is long and detailed, yet it can neatly
summarize in 3 words – ‘God Necessarily Exists’. Curiously, it is the central
word, ‘necessarily’, that is the most important and defines Spinoza’s thoughts.
Spinoza believes that in a rational universe, things happen by necessity, thus
reality is constructed through a chain of causes and effects.
What can Spinoza’s God, which
is also equated with Nature, offer to humanity? Spinoza’s naturalistic
conception of God shows us that God is not a transcendent being - that means it does not come from another
realm, like the Platonic forms, and not inaccessible like those cases. Rather,
it is immanent, meaning that it is in ourselves, it is part of our world. Of
course, that seems to strike with Nietzsche’s outlook in general. For both
Spinoza and Nietzsche, when one needs to solve a problem of human nature, there
is no point to ask for God’s help from another world. Rather, all the answers
can be found ‘in this world’. Therefore, for Spinoza, humanity is part of
nature – and to appreciate this position in the universe is essential before we
continue to understand the working of our minds and the way to enhance our
well-being through our existences.
Two further implications are
evident from Spinoza’s conception of the universe. First, it suggests the world
is operating in a deterministic manner, which is also in tune in the
contemporary scientific development such as Cartesian or Newtonian mechanics. Because
things happen by necessity, so the actions are linked through chains of defined
causes and effects. And, it also suggests the train of action is moving on a
single route – there are no other possible ways to go further. Spinoza’s God is
not anthropomorphic or benevolent - it is a deterministic system that cannot
feel or commit to any sort of sentiment.
Second, Spinoza’s philosophy is mechanical in nature. Those the causality of events, the universe operates as a mechanism, just like the demonstration of mathematical concepts, when they are linked by necessity. Spinoza was considered as one of the mechanical philosophers of the 17th century, though he has made himself clear that he was not a materialist or an atomist, for which a number of other mechanical philosophers, such as Boyle and Hobbes, were associated with.
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by Ed Law
14/9/2016
