Personal life
(Baruch Spinoza, November 24, 1632 - February 21, 1677) Dutch philosopher. Later renamed Benedictus Spinoza, an important rationalist in the history of modern Western philosophy, as famous as Descartes and Leibniz. He was born in Amsterdam to a Jewish merchant family who fled Spain to the Netherlands. His parents made a living by operating import and export trade and lived a relatively comfortable life. Therefore, Spinoza was able to enter the local Jewish theological school and study Hebrew, Talmud, and medieval Jewish philosophy. He also received training in Latin, and it was through Latin that Spinoza was exposed to the works of Descartes and others. He gradually departed from the scope of so-called orthodox doctrine and was excommunicated in 1656 for opposing Jewish teachings. He eventually moved out of the Jewish ghetto and made a living grinding lenses while engaging in philosophical thinking. Moving to The Hague in 1670, Spinoza lived a secluded life ever since. In 1673, he was offered a teaching position in the philosophy department of the University of Heidelberg on the condition that he could not mention religion, but Spinoza declined. He died at the age of 45.
Philosophical Thought
Philosophically, Spinoza was a monist or pantheist. He believed that there was only one entity in the universe, the universe itself as a whole, and that God and the universe were one and the same. His conclusion was derived through logical reasoning based on a set of definitions and axioms. Spinoza's God includes not only the material world, but also the spiritual world. He believed that human wisdom is an integral part of God's wisdom. Spinoza also believed that God is the "internal cause" of everything. God dominates the world through natural laws, so everything that happens in the material world has its inevitability; only God has complete freedom in the world. Although people can try to remove external constraints, they can never gain free will. The easier it is for us to become one with God if we can see things as inevitable. Therefore, Spinoza proposed that we should see things "sub specie aeternitatis" (sub specie aeternitatis).
Spinoza proposed an autophonic materialist worldview centered on entities, attributes and patterns. It has a certain materialist perspective and is cloaked in pantheism. It is also rich in dialectical elements. It emphasizes that everything in nature is inevitable and advocates that "knowledge of necessity" is freedom. It is one of the main representatives of materialist rationalism to believe that perceptual knowledge is unreliable and that only through rational intuition and reasoning can we obtain truly reliable knowledge.
In ethics, Spinoza believed that as long as a person is subject to external influence, he is in a state of slavery, and as long as he agrees with God, people are no longer subject to this influence , and can gain relative freedom, and thus get rid of fear. Spinoza also believed that ignorance is the root of all evil. Regarding the issue of death, Spinoza's famous saying is: "A free man thinks least of death. His wisdom is not the meditation on death, but the contemplation of life." His life also thoroughly practiced this motto, Death has been faced with great calm.
The significance of Spinoza’s philosophical system to the subsequent scientific movement in the 17th century lies in its deterministic explanation, which provided a blueprint for subsequent scientific integration. He had an influence on later philosophers, such as Schelling, Feuerbach, Marx and others.
Main Works
The greatest of Spinoza's works is "Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata" (Ethics for short), which lasted until It was not published until after Spinoza's death. The book is written in the manner of Euclid's geometry, beginning with a set of axioms and various formulas from which propositions, proofs, inferences, and explanations are generated.
His other important works include Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Tracta Atus Politicus', Principles of Philosophy, Intellectual Improvement, etc. The themes of "Theological and Political Tractatus" are biblical criticism and political theory, while the latter only talks about political theory.
Commemorative article
Attachment: "Giant of Western Thought (1): Spinoza"
Author: Anonymous
In commemoration On the 200th anniversary of his death, people began to collect donations to build a full-length statue of him. Donations came from educated people from all over the world. Never has a monument been built on such a broad base of love!
After the Spanish Moors were captured by Ferdinand in 1492, they left the Iberian Peninsula and implemented a policy of expelling pagans. In Spain, the Jews began to be expelled from the temple again. The great migration of ethnic groups since the destruction of China. These people found a home in the tolerant Netherlands. One of these people came from a Portuguese family whose name was E. Spinoza.
In 1598, Jews built the first synagogue in Amsterdam. 75 years later, they built the most magnificent church in Europe. Their Christian neighbors were still helping them. Uriel A. Costa, a passionate young man, influenced by the skepticism of the Renaissance, wrote a paper violently attacking the belief in an afterlife. This does not necessarily violate ancient Jewish teachings, but the Jewish church forces them to deny their views so as not to offend the local Christian church. The way to repent was to ask the proud young man to lie down at the door of the synagogue and let the assembled congregation step over him in turn. Uriel returned home, wrote a suicide note condemning his persecutors, and then committed suicide.
This happened in 1640, when Baruch Spinoza—the “greatest Jew” and greatest philosopher of modern times—was still an eight-year-old boy. Children are also beloved students among the Jewish people.
Baruch Spinoza’s father was a well-run businessman, but Baruch Spinoza liked to spend his time in the synagogue, learning the religion and culture of his nation. history. The elders agreed that he was the new Judge: the Messiah!
He was deeply impressed by Moses' idea that God and the universe were one, and Crescas also believed that the physical universe was the form of God. Averroes believed that eternity was impersonal. The more Spinoza read and thought, the more his simple certainty turned into more and more doubts.
His curiosity led him to read Christian thinkers about God and human destiny. He began studying Latin with a Dutch scholar named van den Ende. His new teacher had a beautiful daughter, and he stole Spinoza's affection from Latin; under the temptation of such a beautiful woman, today's college students will not bother to study Latin. But this young lady loves money more than love. She lost interest in Spinoza when another suitor arrived bearing expensive gifts. There is no doubt that Spinoza became a philosopher at that moment.
At that time, the "Three Hundred Years War" in philosophy had begun, with Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, and Kant joining successively. This war both promoted and trampled modern philosophy. Descartes believed that after the initial impetus given by God, astronomy, geography, and all non-spiritual processes could be replaced by a homogeneous entity that initially existed in a dispersed form (like the "nebula hypothesis" of Laplace and Kant) To explain; and, the movement of various living things is a kind of mechanical movement. The whole world and every body is a machine. But there is God outside the world, and there is a soul within the body.
Descartes stopped here; Spinoza moved forward full of desire.
In 1656, he was summoned before the elders of the Jewish church on charges of heresy. The elders promised him an annuity of 500 pounds and asked him to promise to be at least outwardly loyal to his church and religion. He refused the offer, and on July 27, 1656, he was excommunicated according to the grim procedures of the Hebrew rite.
Spinoza calmly accepted the reality. His father urged him to leave the family, and his sister wanted to defraud him of the meager inheritance rights. Some believers, eager to show off their piety, attempted to kill him. He moved to a dark garret in Otter de Kru, outside Amsterdam, and initially made a living teaching at Van den Ende's school. Later he switched to polishing optical lenses. Five years later he moved to Rheinsberg near Leiden, where the street is now named after the philosopher. He lived a simple life there, thinking all the time. Many times I stayed in my room for two or three days without seeing anyone.
During his five years in Rhinesburg, Spinoza wrote "On the Improvement of Intellect" and "Ethics Proved by Geometric Methods". It was ten years after his death that "Ethics" was published. There are also his "On Politics" and "On the Rainbow".
The only books Spinoza published during his lifetime were "Descartes' Principles of Philosophy" and "Theological and Political Ethics", which were banned as soon as they were published, but people disguised them as medical books and historical stories. Many people have written long books to criticize him. Klenos also mentioned a book that criticized him, saying it was an "indelible and priceless treasure" - but now this comment is all that remains.
Baruch Spinoza was constantly publicly criticized and received numerous letters of criticism. But there is also good news: intellectual elites such as Huygens, Leibniz, Ottenberg, and Scheinhaus paid tribute to him, a wealthy businessman insisted on bequeathing his property to him, and French Emperor Louis XIV wanted to give him a gift. The Dutch consul gave him an annuity of 50 pounds.
In 1665, at the request of new friends, Baruch Spinoza moved to Voorburg, near The Hague. He formed a profound friendship with the Chief Consul of the Netherlands, de Wit. When France invaded in 1672, Prince Condé, the commander-in-chief of the French army, invited Spinoza to be a guest in his military tent. Spinoza thought that it was nothing important to go to the enemy's tent. After returning, the simple philosopher was considered a traitor. It seems that it is easy to become a traitor.
Baruch Spinoza died in 1677 at the age of 44. Many people mourned his death, just as the elite admired his wisdom and the simple people liked his gentleness. Philosophers and government officials joined the mourners, people of all faiths gathered around the pagan's grave, and the traitor found peace.
Nietzsche said: The last Christian has died on the cross! But he forgot Spinoza!
Celebrity Comments
It is not easy to achieve Spinoza’s philosophical achievements, and it is impossible to achieve Spinoza’s personality. ――Hegel