Benedict Spinoza - A Philosopher for Our Time

We live in fearful times. All over the world renewed wars of religion are being fought. Politicians exploit our fears of one another in order to win power. 350 years ago, the philosopher Benedict Spinoza put his very, big brain to work on the problem of religion in politics. His theories led to the Enlightenment and its ideas of democracy and the separation of Church and State in the role of government. To do this he had to argue that God was not the God of the Bible. Spinoza’s reward: excommunication. But no threat could stop him imagining a new kind of liberty.

Michael Goldfarb tells the story of Spinoza with the help of philosophers and musicians in a programme that will make listeners think and reflect on the big questions of life, the universe and our place in it.

[gerardrikken]

I took note of Spinoza's philosophy only recently and discovered that my personal convictions are in consonance with Spinoza's reasoning and thinking. I feel delighted that I am not alone in my way of thinking. I have abandoned organized religion.

[CosmicFaust]

+Oppositum What a legend! One of the most underrated and IMO, one of the greatest philosophers in the entire history of the human race. So many of his ideas are still being vindicated and make perfect sense in the world we experience; and yet he lived in the 17th century and was harshly oppressed by weaker minds for the willingness to push the boundaries and not be dogmatic. I wish, I could have met the man, and also wish he could have seen the ginormous ripples his works caused; from the enlightenment, to philosophical and metaphysical revolutions and even to many scientific revolutionary ideas. He is one of the main people to have the greatest effects on my mind and the work I do today, is in many ways, a tribute to Spinoza.

*"I am utterly amazed, utterly enchanted! I have a precursor, and what a precursor!".* - Friedrich Nietzsche, in a postcard to Franz Overbeck, Sils-Maria (30 July 1881) as translated by Walter Kaufmann in The Portable Nietzsche (1954)

*How much do I love that noble man*
*More than I could tell with words*
*I fear though he'll remain alone*
*With a holy halo of his own.*
- Albert Einstein, in "Zu Spinozas Ethik" (1920), a poem written in admiration of Spinoza, as quoted in Einstein and Religion (1999) by Max Jammer "Einstein's Poem on Spinoza" (with scans of original German manuscript) at Leiden Institute of Physics, Leiden University

*"The fact is that Spinoza is made a testing-point in modern philosophy, so that it may really be said: You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all".* - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Lectures on the History of Philosophy (1896), Vol. 3, Ch. I : The Metaphysics of the Understanding, § 2 : Spinoza, p. 283

*"...thought must begin by placing itself at the standpoint of Spinozism; to be a follower of Spinoza is the essential commencement of all Philosophy".* - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, comparing Spinoza's philosophy to that of the Eleatics, in: Lectures on the History of Philosophy (1896), Vol. 3, Ch. I : The Metaphysics of the Understanding, § 2 : Spinoza, p. 257

*"Bruno and Spinoza are to be entirely excepted. Each stands by himself and alone; and they do not belong either to their age or to their part of the globe, which rewarded the one with death, and the other with persecution and ignominy. Their miserable existence and death in this Western world are like that of a tropical plant in Europe. The banks of the Ganges were their spiritual home ; there, they would have led a peaceful and honoured life among men of like mind".* - Arthur Schopenhauer, in: The World as Will and Representation (1818; 1844), Vol. I, p. 422, n. 2

*"Spinoza did not seek to found a sect, and he founded none" ; yet all philosophy after him is permeated with his thought".* - Will Durant, beginning with a quote of Sir Frederick Pollock in Life and Philosophy of Spinoza (1899)

*"Spinoza is the Christ of philosophers, and the greatest philosophers are hardly more than apostles who distance themselves from or draw near to this mystery".* - Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, What is Philosophy? (cited in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

*"The noblest and most lovable of the great philosophers. Intellectually, some others have surpassed him, but ethically he is supreme".* - Bertrand Russell, in: The History of Western Philosophy, Ch. X, p. 569

[paulhanson]

Excellent. Thank you so much. I will use this with students. You might beef up the section on music. Get a really hard hitting, explosive thinker on Spinoza/Music to bring your point home.

[davidwilkie]

"Sub-stance and under-standing" words that underpin/support attitudes and approaches of orientation toward observations, "reflected upon", => substantiation In-form-ation.

Fear of ignorance due to misinformation and disinformation could be useful.
Closed, continuous connection of eternal time leaves no substantial gaps for gods to fill or bridge, except those due to the limitations of Human Anthropogenic perception and coherent comprehension, and that's why -> Political Ideals and their Representatives are imagined.

[stephenhogg]

Spinoza writes: 'Superstition has cloaked itself in the mantle of science'. I like the corollary of this: 'The mantle of science is a cloak for superstition'.

[buddhismphilosophyscience]

When it came to Ethics and morality was Spinoza a moral egoist? Was he also a moral anti-realist by rejecting objective morality and would this have made him a moral relativist?