Spinoza: A Complete Guide to Life

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Description:

Thank you to @epochphilosophy for lending their voice for this video.

If you’ve ever wanted a complete scientific roadmap for how to live, a modern philosophy to go by, a lens through which to understand a complex world, a foundation, the 17th century Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza is as good as you'll find. He asked questions like: why are we so dogmatic? What makes us irrational? Why do we live as slaves to our emotions and others opinions.

He was one of the first Enlightenment advocates for real democracy, and was the first to really criticise the bible as just a text. He was vilified for his perceived atheism and excommunicated from the Jewish community where he lived.

I look at Spinoza’s most influential text, The Ethics, look at what his ideas about god were and why he was a Pantheist, ask what substances, modes, and attributes are, and why he argues that the ‘many is one’. We look at the affects, the idea of conatus, the ‘free person’, rationalism, his stocism, and ideas of morality and benevolence.

Sources:

Steven Nadler, Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die

Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightening: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750

Giles Deleuze, Spinoza: Practical Philosophy

Baruch Spinoza, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus

Baruch Spinoza, The Ethics

Beth Lord, Spinoza’s Ethics

Anthony Gottlieb, The Dream of Enlightenment

Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy

[metallicity]

I don't normally comment, but this video is so good that I want to increase its engagement. Great work!

[Buzzoit]

Amazing how Spinoza spent his entire life on this concept and we have it at the free range of our fingertips; further more, the person creating this video and breaking it down to a more understandable concept, is truly luxurious. Thank you so much for your video!

[vana]

I've watched your video to the it's full extent, this is what the internet should be all about, creating and sharing knowledge for the good of everyone. Most valuable one hour I have spent during the whole week. Thank you so much ! ! !

[zacharyjones]

This is a phenomenal introduction to Spinoza for anyone interested in his ideas. And it was knitted together beautifully with sound and vision. Thank you for this. I've watched it twice, now.

[nsdrums]

This is one of the most complete videos I've ever seen on Spinoza, damn incredible dude.

[lingy]

I’m a practicing Buddhist from Asia and when I was studying Western philosophy in Uni, the only person that really spoke to me was Baruch Spinoza.

[AmirGTR]

When I found out about Spinoza, I felt a huge relief. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who idolizes such a mindset. What a beautiful way to see the world. Absolutely incredible job on this video.

[vivimontaner]

Hello, I am a chilean teacher of English who lives in Brazil and fell in love with this channel. It's so good to find a treasure like this, that I consider it my Christmas present.

[queenofclips]

I’m so happy that my tripping experiences are now documented in such a clear manner ie this video

[michaelkalish]

A very well presented overview of historically difficult material. Well done and thank you.

[joostvandenbrink]

There is not so much good content on YouTube about Spinoza for beginners, and this video fills that void. Thank you for the good work

[lauraruseno]

This is so good! I' ve been in my life bubble for days, and this video made me realizes how I had reacted to many affects in my life, and this made me changed my perspective towards it. I'm getting interested in the work of Spinoza, thanks for making this video!

[andymartell]

I’ve watched dozens of videos on Spinoza, read dozens of books… including the Ethics. This video is the only time I’ve ever really (really) understood what Spinoza was trying to articulate in his writings. Thank you.

[unpopularnotion]

I don't believe in the idea of a "life changing video" but this has to be an exception.
And the way you have explained and taught Spinoza's ideas is awe-inspiring.

[eth]

In my 7+ years on YouTube I don't think I've ever before immediately replayed a video longer than 10 minutes to which I was fully paying attention. The ideas expressed here are so profound and line up so beautifully with so many of the mini-philosophies I've formed over the course of my years as a fully self-aware human being. I'm sure I would've eventually learned about Spinoza one way or another but this is the most compelling introduction I could've possibly asked for. Thank you for putting this out into the world.

[finkofinkofinko]

I'm only 15 minutes into this and am blown away at how well you put this together. It is a pleasure to watch!

[epochphilosophy]

This genuinely turned out so well. This really is one of your best. I definitely didn't expect this to be so in-depth and so representative of the subtextual context with Spinoza! Reading the Ethics alone, in my mind, still doesn't get his objectives across, and you nailed those objectives here. Truly, again, did not expect this video to turn out so well. Even happier that I was able to be apart of this. Thanks for allowing me to be apart of this! (Sorry in advance to everyone, Lewis's voice is much better than mine. My voice kind of sucks. But, you need the bad to recognize the good, yeah?)

[jamesbarlow]

What I love about this vid is that I vividly remember when at 15-16 wandering a pine woods in Wisconsin, pausing to read Epictetus beneath trees, observing everything, that much the same conclusions as those of Spinoza came to me---modes of things intrinsically interconnected. But all was forgotten soon enough!
How odd to rediscover it here. In Mod.Philo. at college we only touched on Spinoza briefly as a response to Descartes (---sad.)!&
At 15, "infinite causality" for me was a revery, and daydream. Now such for me is free will....

[valetesi]

Thanks for making this video. Spinosa was always on my list of philosopher but very hard to read and understand without a teacher or explanations. I finally had a great introduction to his way of thinking, which are truly beautiful and inspiring. I find my self agreed with him in most of his reasoning.

[chloegrant]

Thank you for articulating Spinozas philosophies so well, your breakdowns were really digestible and easy to understand!