Baruch Spinoza (1632165438+1October 24th-1677 February 2nd1), a Jew, is one of the three rationalists in modern western philosophy, and enjoys the same fame as Descartes and Leibniz. His main works include Descartes' philosophical principles, theological politics, ethics and the theory of intellectual development.
Spinoza was born in Amsterdam to a Jewish family who fled from Spain to Holland. When he was young, he entered a religious school to train rabbis. Under difficult living conditions, he still insisted on philosophical and scientific research. His ideas spread to all parts of Europe through communication and won people's respect. 1677 died of tuberculosis at the age of 45.
He first put forward that "the purpose of politics is freedom", which laid the ideological and theoretical foundation for the expansion of the Enlightenment.
Chinese name: baruch de Spinoza.
Mbth: BaruchdeSpinoza
Nationality: Netherlands
Ethnic group: Jews
Place of birth: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Date of birth: A.D.1632165438+1October 24th.
Date of death: 1677 February 2 1.
Occupation: philosopher
Faith: Judaism
Main achievements: put forward "the purpose of politics is freedom" and "the theory of democracy's optimality"
Masterpieces: Theology, Politics, Ethics, and Intelligence Promotion.
Personal profile
The famous Dutch philosopher Spinoza (1632165438+1October 24th-65438+February 0677 2 1) was trained in Latin, and it was with Latin that Spinoza was able to get in touch with Descartes and others' works. The Jewish church, originally a Jew, was expelled from the country at the age of 24 for betraying its teachings, and later lived in The Hague, leading a hard life. He finally moved out of the Jewish community, grinding glasses for a living and thinking philosophically at the same time. Spinoza lived in seclusion from then on. He does not admit that God is the creator of nature, but thinks that nature itself is the embodiment of God. His theory was called "Spinoza's God", which had a great influence on French materialists and German Enlightenment in the18th century, and also promoted the transformation from idealism to materialism and from religion to science. 1673, the elector of Brandenburg invited him to be a professor of philosophy at Heidelberg University, provided that religion was not mentioned, but Spinoza declined. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 45.
The social status of the family
Spinoza's ancestors were Jews living in Espinosa, Slion province, Spain. 1492, his family fled to Portugal because of the religious and racial persecution of Jews by the Spanish government and the Catholic Church. Then fled to Holland at 1592. Grandfather Abraham de Spinoza was a respected Jewish businessman who once held an important position in the Jewish Association of Amsterdam. Father Michael Teh Spinoza inherited his father's career, engaged in import and export trade in Amsterdam, and served as the president of the Jewish Association and the principal of the Jewish church school.
all one's life
Spinoza was born in Holland. His parents make a living by doing import and export trade, and their lives are quite comfortable. Therefore, Spinoza was able to enter the local Jewish god school to study Hebrew, Talmud and medieval Jewish philosophy. The work of polishing glasses damaged his health. He inhaled a lot of selenium dust at work, which is directly related to his death.
Personal idea
Important remarks
The purpose of politics is freedom.
At that time, the Netherlands had some freedom, but it was not democratic.
Freedom of thought and law-abiding actions.
In a free country, everyone can think freely and express their views freely.
There will never be a rational life without reason.
Just as light exposes itself and the darkness around it, truth is both its own standard and a false standard.
Wisdom is not a meditation on death, but a profound reflection on life.
Democratic freedom
Spinoza believes that only democracy can guarantee freedom of thought and speech. He opposed the monarchy, saying that the monarchy maintained peace on the surface, but actually practiced slavery. He also belittled the aristocratic regime, saying that the aristocratic regime excluded outstanding people from other classes. He believes that democracy is the most superior. In a democratic country, everyone can express his opinions.
Spinoza is keenly aware of the importance of freedom of thought from her own experience.
Spinoza denounced the suppression of thought and freedom from the perspective of natural human rights. Spinoza advocated freedom of thought, but also stressed that people should abide by the law in their actions.
Moral philosophy
Spinoza's greatest work is Geometric Ethics, which was not published until Spinoza's death. This book is written by Euclid's geometric method. At the beginning, a set of axioms and various formulas are given, from which propositions, proofs, inferences and explanations are generated. His other two important works include Research on Political Theory and Research on Political Theory. The theme of theological politics is biblical criticism and political theory, while the latter only talks about political theory.
Spinoza's ethics discussed three different themes. He started with metaphysics, then turned to various psychology of lust and will, and finally expounded an ethics based on metaphysics and psychology. Metaphysics is a variant of Descartes, and psychology also carries Hobbes' legacy, but ethics is unique.
metaphysics
Spinoza's metaphysical system is a type system initiated by parmenides, which has only one entity, that is, "Nature is the incarnation of God". Descartes thinks that there are three kinds of entities: God, spirit and matter (of course, he thinks that only God is the real entity. The so-called entity, Descartes thinks, is something that can exist by itself and its existence does not need to be proved by other things. )。 Spinoza never agreed with this view. In his view, thinking and extension are attributes of God (that is, nature or entity). God has other properties of infinity, because God must be infinite everywhere. In his view, individual soul and single substance are adjectives, not reality, but some aspects of "God is present". The individual immortality that Christians believe in is nothing but the meaning of becoming more and more integrated with God. A finite thing is defined by its physical or logical state, in other words, it is not defined by something: "stipulation means negation", and there can only be a completely certain "existence", which must be absolutely infinite.
Emotional theory
This part was put behind the school discussion on the essence and origin of spirit, which later led to the amazing proposition that "human spirit has a proper understanding of the eternal, infinite and eternal nature of God". "Passion disturbs our hearts and blinds our rational understanding of the whole." According to him, "anything as long as it is comfortable, try to keep its own existence." As a result, love, hate and struggle came into being. The psychology described in the third volume is completely egoistic psychology. According to him, "self-preservation" is the fundamental driving force of all kinds of passions, but what is real and positive in ourselves is what unites us with the whole, not what preserves the outward separation. Once we realize this, self-preservation will change its nature.
Philosophical thinking
Philosophically, Spinoza is a monist or pantheist. He believes that there is only one entity in the universe, that is, the universe itself is a whole, and "God" and the universe are the same thing. His conclusion is based on a set of definitions and axioms, and is drawn by logical reasoning. "Spinoza's God" includes not only the material world, but also the spiritual world. Spinoza also believes that "God" is the "internal cause" of everything, and "God" dominates the world through "natural laws", so everything that happens in the material world has its inevitability; Only "God" in the world is completely free. Although people can try to get rid of external constraints, they will never get free will. If we can see things as inevitable, then the easier it is for us to become one with God. Therefore, Spinoza suggested that we should look at things "in the eternal stage".
In ethics, Spinoza believes that as long as a person is influenced by the outside world, he is in a state of slavery, and as long as he agrees with God, he will no longer be influenced by this, but will gain relative freedom and get rid of fear. Spinoza also believes that ignorance is the root of all evil. On the issue of death, Spinoza's famous saying is: "A free man at least thinks of death, and his wisdom is not a meditation on death, but a meditation on life."
Spinoza is a thorough determinist, and he thinks that all the things that have happened are absolutely inevitable.
Spinoza's philosophy is very similar to that of the Stoic school, but there is a sharp difference between him and the Stoic school in one important point: he completely opposes the view that their motives can overcome their emotions. On the contrary, he believes that emotions will only be replaced or overcome by another stronger emotion. He pointed out that there is a key difference between active emotions and passive emotions. The former is relatively understandable, while the latter is not. He also pointed out that knowledge with real motivation of passive emotions can be transformed into active emotions, thus foreseeing a key idea of sigmund freud's psychoanalysis.
Commemoration of future generations
Spinoza's portrait was printed as a symbol on the old series of 1000 guilders, which was the legal tender before the introduction of the euro in the Netherlands in 2002.