Questions tagged [spinoza]
Baruch Spinoza or Benedict de Spinoza (1632 – 1677) was a Jewish-Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Sephardi origin.
58
questions
3
votes
1answer
111 views
Why did Nietzsche call Spinoza his 'precursor'?
In a letter Nietzsche made the following comment about Spinoza;
"I am utterly amazed, utterly enchanted! I have a precursor, and what a precursor! I hardly knew Spinoza: that I should have turned ...
1
vote
1answer
38 views
contradictio in adjecto
Arthur schopenhauer comments on Spinoza's God accordingly:
For the word God, honestly used, means a cause such as this of the world, with the addition of personality. An impersonal God is, on the ...
0
votes
1answer
38 views
Explanation of a quote from Spinoza
Notandum, dari necessario unius cujusque rei existentis certam aliquam CAUSAM, propter quam existit. Et notandum, hanc causam, propter quart aliqua res existit, vel debere contineri in ipsa natura et ...
0
votes
0answers
12 views
Jarrett’s Argument against an intuitive interpretation of P4, Part I of Spinoza’s Ethics
On first sight, an intuitive way of understanding proposition 4, part I, of Spinoza’s Ethics, is the following:
For all x and for all y, if not x=y, then either (there is a z and a z' such that z ...
2
votes
0answers
73 views
Weakness of Spinoza's ontological argument
The ontological arguments of God are many, the weaknesses they suffer can be found in this reference.
My goal here is to focus on Spinoza’s ontological argument.
Spinoza's argument is different from ...
1
vote
0answers
68 views
Why for Spinoza is the essence of the mind eternal?
Quoted in The Oxford Handbook of Spinoza, 302.
I'm confused as to why, if we express the essence of the body under the aspect of eternity -- which for the purposes of the question I take to mean its ...
1
vote
0answers
21 views
Was the goal of Spinoza's Ethics a state of mind with intrinsic value but no existence at all?
The Untruth of Reality: The Unacknowledged Realism of Modern Philosophy
By Jure Simoniti, p148
I've not read the book, or all of the Ethics.
I wanted to know whether Spinoza means that there is ...
3
votes
1answer
57 views
Prop. 2, Part I of Spinozas “Ethics”
Spinoza's proof for Proposition 2 of part I of the Ethics, "Two substances whose attributes are different have nothing in common", is confusing. This is the proof:
1, prop 2, demo - Also evident ...
1
vote
0answers
48 views
Are there Identity Conditions for Spinoza's modes?
A common interpretation of the relation of Substance to it's modes in Spinozas states that modes are properties of the Substance [1]. Let's assume this for now: Modes are properties of Substance. I ...
4
votes
1answer
101 views
Spinoza's adequate knowledge: Can he avoid being called a dogmatist?
Within Spinoza's System (laid down in the Ethics), the difference of inadequate from adequate knowledge is crucial. Perhaps it is even the central cornerstone of his system, because adequate knowledge ...
2
votes
1answer
170 views
What does 'mode' mean in Spinoza's Ethics?
He defines 'mode' in this way:
By mode I understand the affections of a substance, or that which is in another through which it is also conceived.
But it's not clear to me what this means. Could ...
2
votes
3answers
145 views
How does Spinoza derive his ethics while keeping with his definition of an “unfree” Will
In the Ethics, Spinoza does refute any definition of Will as being free, as Will for men is an illusion which proceeds from inadequate ideas and Will for God is that of the necessity of his Being.
...
5
votes
1answer
252 views
What are some critiques of Spinoza that are generally regarded as holding weight?
I'm nearing the end of my reading Spinoza's ethics, and the philosophy that he lays out seems perfectly consistent and logical. What are some critiques of Spinoza that are regarded as potentially ...
3
votes
1answer
58 views
In Spinoza's Epistemology what role is played by his concept of 'idea'? How do the idea in 'thought' and the object in extension interrelate?
Depending on which among the diverse variety of depictions of the status and possibility of humans being in possession of 'knowledge', Spinoza's Epistemology has been described in various ways. The ...
6
votes
2answers
167 views
Spinoza à la Mode : Is Spinoza a Pantheist?
I define "Pantheism" as the position that affirms the equality between God and the whole reality (not of course equal to every single existing thing, but equal to ALL reality, the reality as a ...
2
votes
2answers
123 views
What was Spinoza's take on miracles: what are they are why think they do occur?
What was Spinoza's take on miracles: what are they are why think they do occur? I'm asking because I want to find out and this could, conceivably, be the easiest way. I've read a chapter or two of ...
2
votes
1answer
134 views
What grounds did Spinoza give for the legitimacy of government?
How exactly does Spinoza ground the legitimacy of the government in the theologo-political treatise? More specifically in Chapter 16, what is the legitimacy of the government grounded in?
1
vote
1answer
105 views
Spinoza--Why is Unity a Necessary Property of Substance?
Why does Spinoza think Unity is a necessary property of substance? Is this something he posits or is there an argument behind this?
6
votes
1answer
1k views
Is Spinoza really a determinist?
According to Spinoza humans do not have free will. It is merely an illusion. But in his political tractatus he also wrote that men should have the freedom to choose a religion. But if one has the ...
3
votes
4answers
486 views
Confused by Spinoza's Use of Substance as Infinite
Ethics 1 Proposition 8 states that "Every substance is necessarily infinite", but in Scholium 2 he states: "there exists only one substance of the same nature.
I'm confused by him saying "every" ...
3
votes
3answers
2k views
Spinoza's proof of God
Proposition 11. God, or a substance consisting of infinite attributes each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence, necessarily exists.
His argument is such:
If God didn’t exist then by ...
3
votes
1answer
445 views
Spinoza and causality
Spinoza puts causality above freedom.
As a follower of Descartes and a rationalist, in the understanding of everything he goes from simple to complex, from subject to objects.
In order to understand ...
5
votes
1answer
198 views
In what ways was Maimonides an influence on Spinoza?
As someone with an intense interest in Arabic Neoplatonism (in particular Ibn Sina), I have a passing familiarity with Maimonides. (I am considering reading The Guide for the Perplexed after I finish ...
4
votes
1answer
688 views
What is the difference between cause and reason?
I noticed that Spinoza (Ethics, proof for Prop. XI) mentions cause and reason often in the same sentence, but what is the actual difference between these terms?
Example:
"If, then, no cause or ...
2
votes
1answer
235 views
'Constituting its essence' meaning?
Spinoza's Proof to Prop.X says
"An attribute is that which the intellect perceives of substance, as constituting its essence (Def. IV.) and, therefore, must be conceived through itself Def. III.)."
...
3
votes
2answers
370 views
does 'modification' have more than one meaning in Spinoza's Ethics?
V. Per modum intelligo substantiæ affectiones sive id quod in alio est, per quod etiam concipitur.
Definition V
By mode, I mean the modifications of substance, or that which exists in, and is ...
0
votes
1answer
74 views
Spinoza Definitions VIII
Please which of the meanings CONCEIVED is used in this context:
VIII By Eternity, I mean existence itself, in so far as it is conceived necessarily to follow solely from the definition of that which ...
11
votes
1answer
2k views
What is an attribute, as used in Spinoza's Ethics?
In Spinoza's Ethics, the definitions of Part 1. include a supposedly all important term: Attribute, defined by Spinoza in the following:
"IV. By attribute, I mean that which the intellect ...
2
votes
1answer
350 views
What terms in Spinoza's Ethics have antiquated or obscure definitions?
In "The Story of Philosophy", Will Durant says the following:
Writing in Latin, [Spinoza] was compelled to express his essentially modern thought in medieval and scholastic terms; there was no ...
1
vote
1answer
310 views
Prop XI of Part 1 of Spinoza's Ethics
I'm having a rather difficult time understanding this proof. While the rest of the propositions are relatively easy to follow, I am completely lost as to how it is absurd to think that the essence ...
1
vote
2answers
219 views
How does Spinoza support the argument that there is a match between ideas and physical objects?
Spinoza argues that if God exists, He is a single continuous substance that constitutes all of reality. How does this argument go, and how does Spinoza use it to support the conclusion that there is ...
2
votes
1answer
117 views
Why did Spinoza believe that God's infinity, but not God's perfection, implied causal necessity?
Source: p 121, Philosophy: A Complete Introduction (2012) by Prof Sharon Kaye (MA PhD (Philosophy), U. Toronto)
6. For Spinoza, causal necessity is implied by which of the
following?
a) ...
9
votes
1answer
580 views
What counters are there to Spinoza's argument that acts of free will create infinite regress?
My 16-to-21-year-old self was very preoccupied with free will. When I was 21 years old I rejected the notion as ill-defined as both my reason and my inner experience told me that my will was caused ...
2
votes
1answer
260 views
Does Spinoza's God have an essence?
Referring by "God" to Spinoza's God (that is, one may substitute "God" with "Nature" following the title of this question can be "On Nature and Nature's Essence and Essence") and capitalizing this as ...
4
votes
3answers
141 views
Which aristotelian causes would no longer apply to the mechanistic view of philosophers like Spinoza or Galileo?
I'm Having trouble understanding which causes from an aristotelian point of view would no longer apply to them mechanistic philosophy of philosophers like Boyle, Spinoza, Galileo
3
votes
1answer
124 views
Prop IX of spinoza's ethics
This is the english translation I am reading from for Spinoza's Ethics Geometrically. In proposition IX of this work, spinoza states:
PROP. IX. The more reality or being a thing has, the greater ...
3
votes
1answer
425 views
Spinoza's Ethics' Axiom Seven
There seems to be a problem with Axiom VII from Spinoza's Ethics:
VII. If a thing can be conceived as non—existing, its essence does not involve existence.
How can this be axiomatic? God can be ...
8
votes
2answers
865 views
Why does Spinoza structure the ethics similarily to Euclid's geometry?
I am planning to read Spinoza's Ethics, Geometrically Demonstrated, and before I read a work I peruse throughout the work, keeping note of headings, as well as read the table of contents, to get a ...
8
votes
7answers
1k views
What is the meaning of Spinoza's first three definitions?
I've just started reading Spinoza's Ethics and I'd like to have delucidations about his first three definitions.
Definition one:
By that which is self-caused, I mean that of which the essence ...
3
votes
2answers
896 views
What is extension in Spinoza?
I assumed that extension in Spinoza, means the geometrisation of the phenomenal world; but possibly - probably this is wrong. After all, how does one geometrise something like matter? (There is, in ...
0
votes
1answer
97 views
Should it be, rather than God or Nature, Nature in God?
Spinoza's theology is sometimes represented by the phrase 'God or Nature'. However, he specifically notes that only two attributes, out of an infinity of attributes of God, are cognizable to us - mind ...
1
vote
1answer
96 views
Spinoza Ethics: if a thing could act in a different way, will it have a different essence?
Ethics part 1: PROP. 26. A thing which is conditioned to act in a particular manner, has >necessarily been thus conditioned by God; and that which has not been conditioned by God >cannot ...
5
votes
3answers
536 views
Why are the laws of nature 'always and everywhere the same'?
Spinoza wrote in his Ethics that:
the laws and rules of Nature…are always and everywhere the same
This so as to deny a categorical difference between man and nature; Spinoza affirms that man is ...
2
votes
5answers
760 views
Must infinity involve repetitions?
Infinity for Nietzsche in at least one line of argument involves the eternal return; he refers to it in the Die fröhliche Wissenschaft and Also sprach Zarathustra; most completely in his Notes on the ...
2
votes
1answer
238 views
Question about a proposition of Spinoza's Ethics
In Proposition 29 of Spinoza Ethics, he says that "In nature there is nothing contingent"
My questions: What does it mean for something to be contingent? and what follows from the claim that nothing ...
2
votes
1answer
204 views
Can an infinite be undifferentiated?
Starting in amthematics:
The infinite in mathematics must be differentiated: we have the sequence - 0,1,2,3...; where each number is distinct. The same goes for infinite ordinals and cardinals.
...
6
votes
1answer
215 views
Deleuzian finitism and Spinozian infinitism
In the IEP entry on Deluze, there is the following:
Commenting on Lucretius, Deleuze makes the following, extremely similar, remark:
"The speculative object and the practical object of ...
1
vote
2answers
316 views
What is the essence of Descartes Riddle?
In Descartes philosophy Mind & Matter are two substances which he then found difficult explain how they affected each other.
This, on the face of it seems wrong. Conventionally, one supposes one ...
3
votes
4answers
160 views
Is the world of Gods substance?
Supposing that God exists, supposing that nothing can be created out of nothing, then the world must be created out of God. That is the world is not apart from God.
Famously Spinoza argues that the ...
8
votes
4answers
760 views
Is Stephen Hawking's denial that gods exists founded on a misunderstanding?
In this days I'm following an interesting scientific TV program and yesterday I watched an interview of Stephen Hawking. He was arguing about the existence of God saying that God does not exist since ...
