Spinoza: A Complete Guide to Life

through anger and grief and rage what we're talking about is called mindfulness meditation and people who do it believe that it makes their brains healthier and fitter we're about to cross the threshold into a new world a buddhist monk who's been called the happiest man in the world if you ever wanted a complete scientific road map for how to live a modern philosophy to go by a lens through which to understand a complicated world a foundation for life well the 17th century dutch philosopher baruch despinoza is as good as you'll find today you'll learn how to see yourself as something bigger something infinite and awe inspiring how to see the world scientifically too what this means for reducing negative emotions leading a more content fulfilled and rational and meaningful and joyful life he asked questions like why are we so dogmatic what makes us so irrational why do we live as slaves to our emotions and other people's opinions we'll find out why some of the most influential thinkers to have ever lived admired spinoza so much einstein said if he believed in god it was spinoza's god and hegel said that you are either espionosis or not a philosopher at all we'll look at what made spinoza one of the first truly modern and radical thinkers why he was the first modern psychologist and how he revolutionized how we think about concepts like god and nature in short and i think this is no exaggeration the world we inhabit today would not be the same would not have taken the path it has without baruch spinoza this is also the story of a man lost in the forest searching for a way out statues portraits even streets bear his name he has become an icon of reason and not the solitary thinker i don't want to dwell too much on spinoza's life except to say that he has a good claim on being one of the most consequential philosophers to have ever lived but he was also as bertrand russell wrote the noblest and most lovable of the great philosophers he was one of the first enlightenment advocates for real democracy and was the first to really criticize the bible as just a text he was vilified for his perceived atheism and excommunicated from the jewish community where he lived he said that the lord will not spare him the anger and wrath of the lord will rage against this man and bring upon him all the curses however despite being ostracized from everyone he searched his entire life for what he called the true good [Music] he wanted to find out how to live an ideal and virtuous life how ultimately to be free before we get to the juicy bits we have to do the grunt work we have to map out spinoza's idea of the universe then we can understand our place in it it might sound a little bit complicated at first but bear with me if you get this or at least just let it wash over you and stick with it it will change how you think give me a few minutes to get through the complicated bits and then we'll get to the interesting stuff and it should all come together if you could condense spinoza's metaphysics his first principles into one sentence it would be this being is one put another way the many is one what that means is actually quite simple everything us the forest animals plants stars the laws of physics and many things that are part of one thing nature we forget this of course we think of ourselves as independent as separate but we also know that we're not and we know this even more in the modern period we know that we're made of atoms we know that we need food water oxygen energy from outside of us to sustain those atoms we know that we rely on wood and tools and gravity and of course each other we know about the circle of life the interdependent ecosystem that the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom lives within and we know that one thing affects another in short we know that everything is connected so how does he understand this many things in one nature truth well he wants to lay it out logically and represent it in a kind of geometrical mathematical pattern so that we can use it to build more complex ideas with so instead of just saying many things and one nature he says that there are three parts to the universe substance attributes and modes we usually think of substances as the different things in the universe air us wood deer dirt for example it's just the stuff that things are made out of attributes on the other hand are the way we experience those substances spinoza says there are two that we know of extension and thought we have actual material trees and then the idea of trees in our heads a mode is the form or shape the substance takes the substance would for example could be in the mode of a tree or a chair or a door it's the substance of wood in different forms shapes modes but wait spinoza wants to be more specific a substance he says if it's to be defined properly should be an independent thing he provides definitions by substance i understand what is in itself and is conceived through itself i.e that whose concept doesn't have to be formed out of the concept of something else so let's take a leaf is it a substance well it's only a substance if it's in itself if it's independent if it's conceived through itself if it doesn't have to be formed out of something else but of course it does it's dependent on the branch and the tree so is the tree a substance well no because it's formed out of the soil the air and the birds that disperse its seeds a substance should be an independent thing yet thinking through this thought experiment everything is in some sense determined dependent an extension of things outside of it so if we're defining substances strictly it turns out there's only one nature trees people plants animals there we're all different modes different shapes of nature of mata spinoza saw nature as god in fact he usually wrote god or nature they're one and the same thing why is this well he thought of it like this god is meant to be this infinite all-powerful omnipresent omniscient law maker and law giver but if that's the case he can't be outside of nature if he's not just part of nature if he's not everywhere at once he can't be omnipresent he can't be infinite he must to be those things be part of everything with nothing inseparable from him or her or it god couldn't be outside the universe spinoza realized he was the universe the ultimate laws were gravity mathematics the laws of physics of cause and effect so god knowing all seeing all controlling all had to not just be part of those laws but actually be those laws as if they were an extension of itself today this is called pantheism spinoza was writing at the beginning of the enlightenment and during the scientific revolution he was trying in some way to square an old universe with a new one one of science of reason of experimentation he saw that all things if you studied them carefully enough were implicated and affected by everything else everything was clearly part of one big ordered ecosystem although he didn't have that word ecosystem to use yet it was a revolutionary modern scientific view spinazer writes in nature there is nothing contingent all things have been caused by the necessity of the divine nature to exist and produce an effect in a certain way a storm pushes me one way the wind pushes my boat berries draw me towards eating them the tree grows depending on the rain and the sun the deer is frightened in a different direction when startled we all have desires we can't control we are all like billiard balls set off by causes outside of us spinoza's universe is a description of a singular timeless fact everything is connected being is one to understand ourselves we must understand the natural world we are a part of you know when you come right down to it there are only two views we can take either this all happened by accident or it's the result of design and plan you might just shrug your shoulders and say well it's just a matter of personal opinion and let it go with that you might that is but for the fact that this is an issue which vitally affects your whole life it's going to determine how you think and how you live there's a phrase that comes up often in scholars discussions about spinoza's universe it unfolds cause and effect causing effect cause an effect this is the root of everything a seed unfolds into a tree a pang of hunger unfolds into the making of a mill the desire for sex unfolds into a new human life this path unfolds through the woods and the cloud unfolds into the sky the universe since the big bang has unfolded into an infinity of different shapes and modes i shall consider human actions and appetites as if it were a question of lines planes and bodies [Music] what does this mean that we can conceptualize trace and map lines through our appetites actions and ideas they're caused by something before them and they in turn were caused by something before that and the effects of those causes go on into the future spinoza writes the infant thinks that he freely wants the milk the angry child that he freely wants vengeance and the timid one that he freely wants to flee the drunkard thinks it is from a free decision of the mind that he says things which when he sobers up he regrets having said this forces us to confront her frightening proposition are we free at all spinoza says that all the evidence points to know in the mind there is no absolute or free will but the mind is determined to will this or that by a cause which is also determined by another and this again by another and so too infinity we only think we're free because our consciousness sits between one of those causes and effect between for example the pang of hunger and the decision to eat but we see the effect of something like hunger or desire and then see that effect as a volition a choice a voluntary action let me explain i just heard a lion over there in the english countryside so i decide to go this way am i choosing freely when moving my leg this way was caused by the effect of the lion's roar everything is cause and effect however we rarely reflect on the long line of causation that came before all action is caused by something external just because we watch over our own appetites ideas and actions as they enter and leave our minds we think that we're free the french philosopher jill's delus wrote that consciousness is only a dream with one's eyes open consciousness in other words is being sat over the top of the waterfall watching mental stuff fly over it spinoza writes a body in motion moves until another body causes it to rest and a body at rest remains at rest until another body causes it to move now here's the interesting bit how things modes objects us ideas whatever it is are affected by other things depends on the natures of each thing the bird affects the tree in a different way than the rain does an idea or a sentence affects two different people in two different ways everything affects everything else in some specific way what's the scientifically minded approach to this to understand how things affect other things that's the key to the universe it is clear that we are driven about in many ways by external causes and that like waves on the sea driven by contrary winds we toss about not knowing our outcome and fate he says that we have inadequate ideas about the effects of things the trick to life of course is to have adequate ideas the way we make decisions in our democratic system has a profound effect on our welfare and happiness whether we're dealing with a personal problem or a business matter whether we are deciding on our schools our taxes or any other community problem the first thing we have to do is get the facts okay imagine for one moment those lines of cause and effect running through the universe delus calls those lines the plane of imminence the bird is something to the tree the tree to the soil the soil to the worm and so on the lion to the person running there is a line that can be drawn from my first videos to the writing of this one to me being in this forest and that line continues into the future when we think in terms of lines we realize that everything in the universe is relative to something else all is a web this again has radical consequences that should change how we think it means that nothing is good or bad in itself but only relative to something else the lion is bad for me so i run from it the berry is good for me so i'm drawn to it we tend to think of things as good or bad beautiful or ugly true or not true we attach properties to objects and think of them as being certain things this is red it's tasty or it's poisonous or that person is cheerful intelligent or interesting or that argument is a good or bad idea but we forget that it's always us that's attaching the property the goodness or badness the ugly or beautiful the wise or unwise so that these appraisals of objects ideas or people aren't actually properties that are in the thing itself but are descriptions of a relationship everything is relative and the consequences of thinking like this get even more radical if things can't be defined by properties in themselves but only by relations between things then they must be understood only in their capacities to do things to other things or the capacity to have things done to them by other things this is what spinoza calls simply their capacity to affect and be affected oh look a giraffe in the english countryside why does it have a long neck the reason is not within the giraffe itself a property of the giraffe but in its relationship to eating from trees or drinking water or fighting with other giraffes this applies to everything delus writes that beings will be defined by their capacity for being affected by the affections of which they are capable the excitations to which they react those by which they are unaffected and those which exceed their capacity and make them ill or cause them to die okay now things are getting interesting if everything is about relationships capacities to affect or to be affected cause an effect then how should we think about our relationship to the things around us what do we want to surround ourselves with what do we want to avoid the answer is quite simple we should want to surround ourselves with perfection we should try and organize our experience of the world so that we encounter things that will affect us positively the things we call good the things that our relationship with affect us positively we of course like we approve of we want more of a good shelter has the effect of sheltering us from the rain great start this is why spinoza sees goodness and perfection as synonymous but more than this he says that by perfection and goodness he just means existing what does this mean well a house that exists for a longer period is more perfect than the one destroyed in a storm a person that lives longer has a body that's more perfect than one that dies from a disease a plant that gives us more energy is more perfect to us than one that doesn't god or nature is more perfect because it exists for a longer period of time than an individual tree or a single animal things generally want to exist for as long as possible so whatever helps that thing achieve that is more perfect in its relationship with it than something that doesn't spinoza says simply whatever helps us attain that perfection we shall call good and whatever hinders are attaining it or does not assist it we shall call evil and we try to arrange our ideas of the world in this way as well in such a way as to achieve this perfection he says after men began to form universal ideas and devise models of houses buildings towers etc and to prefer some models of things to others it came about that each one called perfect what he saw agreed with the universal idea he had formed of this kind of thing i think of fire in connection with emotions because when you become stirred up when your emotions control your actions it affects not only yourself but the people around you psychologists find that control of emotions can be gained by understanding the stimulus response pattern okay so lines of cause and effect run through everything and everything has different capacities to be affected by and affect other things let's think about those affections look a gorilla in the english countryside i hear the gorilla i see the gorilla i feel fear the gorilla's capacity to beat me in an arm wrestle affects me and i'm pushed i'm affected into running spinoza says that unpleasure is a man's passing from a greater perfection to a lesser now again this applies to everything our sad angry fearful hungry annoyed stressed anxious frustrated feelings about things are signals that something is affecting us in a negative way that we're passing into a lesser state of perfection think about hunger you're literally decomposing so the hunger pushes you to eat for sustenance stress is based on the fear that i don't know if you don't finish this task you'll be judged poorly by others and it will hurt your career on the other hand he says pleasure is a man's passing from a lesser perfection to a greater like the term unfolding for the universe and lines for cause and effect our emotions and feelings are signals of the potential passage to a better or worse condition a reaction to objects we encounter in the world spinoza calls feelings emotions and passions the affects because they affect us he thinks that all affects boil down to three main ones from which all the others derive joy sadness and desire and they're all related to spinoza's idea of perfection joy is the experience of our condition being improved sadness our condition worsening anger fear hunger feeling cold are all sad effects sad passions he calls them whereas love or confidence are examples of the joyful effects but remember everything is relative the effects are always about something in that line of cause and effect so he says that a full account of the nature of each passion must bring in the nature of the external object by which the person having the passion is affected again it's the relationship we have to focus on we try to organize our lives rationally around how often we'll encounter use or avoid certain things we want the shelter for more warmth and less rain we want the good ideas about raising our children or choosing new hobbies we want to avoid the things that make us sick so how does this relate to spinoza's big idea the thing he spent his entire life trying to discover finding what he called the true good of being free the next step is to consider different opinions based on the facts and the final step is to weigh the facts and opinions with understanding and objectivity these standards apply to everyone whether it's a family planning where to take a vacation or a group of students discussing a school project or a women's club planning a charity drive or a city council debating a community problem all of them have to have the facts before they are able to reach intelligent decisions okay so we're affected by things we want to be affected by good things we want to become more perfect in spinoza's words everything's a relationship too how do we begin to bring all of this together first spinoza is an ethical egoist that means that essentially what is good and bad for us individually guides us in what we do how we think and act he said that reason demands that everyone love himself seek his own advantage and absolutely that everyone should strive to preserve his own being as far as he can he called this an organism's which he defines in various ways at various times as an organism's striving endeavor tendency force and power of acting it applies to the tree as much as it does to us every organism strives to increase its connotus to exist for longer to achieve a better state of perfection he says simply that each thing as far as it can by its own power tries to stay in existence because of our connotus we have a desire for things that increase our well-being food sex love shelter good ideas and an aversion to those things that decrease it poison violence lions gorillas but how does our connotus guide us in doing this what are we doing of course we have those natural urges and some things are of course better for us and others not but as usual with spinoza he takes the insights one step further in knowing that the lion is bad for us and the berry good we're doing something else too we're understanding those lines the affections the causes and effects in the world the connotus needs to understand to comprehend so as to increase its power of doing the right thing to live longer this is why spinoza is a rationalist understanding is the key to everything understanding is the key to freedom how can spinoza argue that we're all pushed around by affections out of our control and argue that we can be free remember he says it's clear that we are driven about in many ways by external causes and that like waves on the sea driven by contrary winds we toss about not knowing our outcome and fate it's that tossing about that he wants to address the affects passions and emotions are passive they happen to us like the wind hitting a sail a wave crashing over a ship i see cake and my mouth salivates and i eat it i feel like an idea is a good one so i do it i think the sound is bad so i run but often our ideas are mistaken about whether those effects are really helping us what we want to do is understand the real causes and effects of what we do we want to know what really caused that sound in the woods before we run if it's really harmful and where we're going if that cake is really what i want to improve my condition if that idea is really accurate spinoza says that just relying on feelings and affects is basically a state of slavery because we're pushed around by them not understanding and choosing for ourselves instead of being passive we want to be active the difference between a man who is led only by an affect or by opinion and one who is led by reason for the former whether he will or no does those things he is most ignorant of whereas the latter complies with no one's wishes but his own and only does those things he knows to be the most important in life and therefore desires vary greatly hence i call the former a slave but the latter a free man okay so what does being active actually entail someone who is active is guided by their connotus their desire for longevity for joy and perfection and they should be what spinoza calls the adequate or sufficient cause of what they're doing to do this we use our reason to study the causes and effects of those relationships between things around us we want to understand those effects on us and the effect they might have in turn on things in the future adequate ideas are clear and distinct knowledge about what increases a person's connedus because a person has studied the causes and effects of things around them okay an example inadequate knowledge is eating because you desire to because you're hungry it might have a good effect it might not this berry might actually poison me adequate knowledge however is eating in a rational way knowing the nutrients where it grows what goes into it and the effect it has on you in the long term how much it contributes to your health all the factors all the causes and effects that's why i have my foraging guide i don't know why i'm throwing my cowberry away i wonder is that actually a cayberry cabery can you see description also known as the lingamberry this is a small evergreen cadburys are acidic but can be eaten raw they're best used to make an excellent jelly commonly added to jams pies and fruit sweets spinoza writes that when a rational being is truly active and so far as he is moved by the knowledge he possesses the things he does are guided by a true understanding of what is in his own best interest and thus bring about an improvement in his condition in other words the free active reasonable person is driven by self-determination being active and reasonable requires thinking through the causes and effects of things sufficiently enough to be able to overcome our simple passions and emotions in knowing that i'm hungry or that i can store them and that the berry contributes to my vitamin c intake i've done the research i know how much i need i know where to find them and then i'm acting picking eating storing in an active way not a passive way an adequate idea of what to do takes into account all the factors and if we do this he says reason will overcome the weaker impulses or misguided ideas deluse writes that once we have attained adequate ideas we connect effects to their true causes and consciousness having become a reflection of adequate ideas is capable of overcoming its illusions forming clear and distinct ideas of the affections and effects it experiences spinoza scholar stephen nadler gives the example of the choice between staying at home and studying or going out partying with friends in the moment going out might have a stronger effect on your desire but if we consider all the factors about our finances or the job we might get from the effect of staying in studying we might come to the conclusion that it's more rational to stay in and study alternatively we might still decide we need a night off because we're overworked spinoza is not saying that one thing is better than the other only that we have to consider our options we have to really understand the effects of our choices we have to use our heads nadler writes that a person is therefore free when his adequate ideas are more powerful effectively speaking than his passions or inadequate ideas for spinoza freedom is about reason and someone who is free is someone who acts according to the dictate of reason he says that the only thing that reason makes us try to get is understanding we're going to explore several different realms of god's creation before we're finished i think you'll agree that our god is a wonderful god spinoza spends a lot of time in the ethics commenting on virtue vice emotion and feeling and trying to understand their relationship to reason he is a rationalist after all he wants to make the case that using our reason will direct us without error along the correct path advice for example is an immoderate love or desire for eating drinking sexual union wealth and esteem this might bring pleasure in the short term but they're harmful over a longer period fortitude for spinoza is a virtue above all others he says from the guidance of reason we want a greater future good and preference to a lesser present one and a lesser present evil in preference to a greater future one fortitude is the act of working hard looking forward thinking broadly investing our time in understanding how the world works so that we can reap future rewards but here's the beautiful bit everything in spinoza connects in some way remember how fuspinosa god is nature god is in everything god is perfect because nature just is it's that unfolding line of cause and effect that runs through everything it's the fact that the many a one all is one substance well he says to overcome acting passively and to choose the rational thing to live with fortitude we must look to god to nature to see what lasts what works what's most perfect and most beautiful to increase our own connotus as a species in a relationship with the rest of nature he wants to look from what he describes as the perspective of eternity god offers to create in us a new life a life of peace instead of turmoil a life of victory instead of sin and defeat the life of eternal glory instead of eternal suffering and he's great enough to do the job it will only let him [Music] think about how people give up smoking when they have kids or maybe get more humble and tolerant from traveling the world the wider the view the more long-term orientated you become the more things you consider you look at causes over the perspective of a longer period of time across a broader space [Music] looking to eternity is the most godly way of thinking looking at everything from a god's eye view from the perspective of eternity and what causes things what affects things over the long term he says perfecting the intellect is nothing but understanding god his attributes and his actions which follow from the necessity of his nature to take one more example think about growing a plant to eat we learn from god from nature by watching by experiencing by seeing what happens when it rains what soil it grows best in which nutrients and how much sunlight it needs or in building a high say we look for the strongest wood that's the best insulator and lasts the longest is the most eco-friendly spinoza says simply that everything in life works in the same way uh uses young petals have a fragrant aroma true and are worth harvesting and use if you have the patience once enough petals have been gathered use them to make a light panna cotta swirl them into a sweet cake or infuse them with a little chili in home brewed mead he says he who understands himself and his affects clearly and distinctly loves god and does so the more the more he understands himself and his affects [Music] spinoza says a few things about the free person's character and talks at length about different virtues emotions and vices but fundamentally the person led by reason and guided by understanding nature will have two things strength of character that's the fortitude the striving the will to understand the world and they'll be active choosing by reason not passive pushed around by the affections [Music] spinoza was influenced by the stoics of ancient greece and rome instead of relying on capricious and unpredictable joys like sensual pleasure and fears or anger ultimate freedom he says is grounded in reason and from this comes a joyful serenity that arises from the knowledge that doing the rational correct thing should pay off in the end joy remember is the feeling of an increase in our connotus an increase in power so spinoza's ethics is grounded in increasing and active in controlled rational joy but because we're part of the universe we'll also take joy in seeing the affections and relationships of the world for what they are being integral to it a thing within it he says a person who sees the necessity of things regards their passage with calm and composure getting frustrated and angry at the universe is the result of seeing the world through the lens of inadequate ideas imagine getting angry with the lion blaming the lion for wanting to eat you you know it's not the lion's choice not her fault she's not morally responsible spinoza just says that we should look at the rest of the world in this way too seeing from the perspective of eternity means looking at how different affections different causes and effects affect things with different levels of power so the power of the lion biting your leg has its cause in the lion's hunger we don't get angry upset or frustrated with the lion personally now imagine asking someone for directions in the street and the person ignores us we get a little frustrated but then we discover that the person speaks a different language or is deaf or is scared of us because they were harassed on the streets last week there are causes we didn't consider and have a powerful effect on the person and when we look from the perspective of eternity it becomes difficult for us to direct our negative emotions at single people ideas or objects it becomes unreasonable spinoza says if we separate an emotion affect from the thought of an external cause and join it to the other thoughts then the love or hate toward the external cause is destroyed as is the mental instability arising from these affects powerfully we should think of all of the causes of things again giving us a god's eye view but also lessening the blame or negative emotion we feel towards one isolated thing or one isolated person as stephen nadler writes this view serves to distribute the causal responsibility for the effect widely and dilute its power significantly perhaps taking away its strength altogether the intensity of the effect is weakened as it becomes less focused on one particular individual and more on a long sequence of necessitating causes the same applies to our own negative emotions our own problems we must have knowledge about their causes and effects otherwise we become slaves to them because ultimately we want to increase the joyful effects and decrease the negative ones he says so someone who was led solely by his love of freedom to moderate his affects and appetites will try his hardest to come to know the virtues and their causes and to fill his mind with the joy that comes from the true knowledge of them he will not think about men's vices or disparage men or take pleasure from putting up a show of being a free man if you observe these carefully they aren't difficult and regularly put them into practice you will soon be able to direct most of your actions according to the command of reason if you follow his advice spinoza says you'll find your way out from the confusion of the forest of affects you'll be able to see the wood through the trees you'll see the bigger picture the one from eternity the god's eye view you'll have perspective and spinoza's ethics have been applied to many areas and have only just scratched the surface here but it boils down really to this reflect on the causes of things [Music] but you might be wondering what has any of this got to do with morality his most famous work is called the ethics after all spinoza's picture of the world seems to be quite self-centered so before we end i want to touch on what spinoza says about community morality and benevolence for spinoza morals can only be grounded in the simple fact that every organism and being wants to increase their own spinoza's morality or benevolence is based on the idea that it's rationally wise to surround oneself with other people who are also rational as rational people he says will want the same things as one another he says that there is nothing more useful to a man than a man men i repeat can wish for nothing more helpful to their staying in existence than that all men should be in such harmony that the minds and bodies of them all would be like one mind and one body that altogether should try as hard as they can to stay in existence and that altogether should seek for themselves the common advantage of all the opposite of a joy grounded in understanding and an increasing connotus are a life lived under the influence of the sad passions so it's only logical to want to minimize negativity we assemble the world rationally in order to avoid the sad passions we put the effects of different things together and create assemblages of medicines technologies norms and values entertainment information family and friends as a species we have common ideas he says the body has been affected most forcefully but what is common to all men we all want to preserve the things that are good for our nature and many of these things are common to us all and if we're arguing angry suspicious and fearful rather than joyful calm and rational we're increasing our sad passions and that shouldn't be anyone's foundational goal moreover two heads are better than one when it comes to tasks and the rational person should always want to convince the other to come over to their calls to be rational too or take the example of trying to work out how to grow this bush this tree these flowers the more people working on the problem with the same goal the better it will be scholars have been critical of spinoza's view here people have different goals different values but i think his point is that we should come together positively and ground any disagreement or debate or competition in those joyful effects rather than the sad passions the negative ones i'm not going to summarize it's impossible to i'll leave you with the last few lines of the ethics the road to these things that i have pointed out now seems very hard but it can be found and of course something that is found so rarely is bound to be hard for if salvation were ready to hand and could be found without great effort how could it come about that almost everyone neglects it but excellence is as difficult as it is rare [Music] thank you so much everyone for watching this video i really really enjoyed making this one and a huge thank you to epoch philosophy for lending their voice for the spinoza quotes you can check out their great channel through the link below uh there's a video on deluz and spinoza you should watch if you liked this one so thank you to them and most of all as always thank you to my patrons all these incredible people who let me ramble through the woods and ramble on about philosophy it's my favorite thing to do if you'd like to join them get your name in the credits and access the discord server and get scripts then you can do so through the link below for as little as a dollar please do that if you can if not hit like leave a comment for engagement follow me on twitter all the rest of it it really helps me out and i'll see you next time [Music]

Channel: Then & Now

Views: 1,635,452

Keywords: spinoza, ethics, guide to life, tractatus theologico-politicus, god, philosophy, introduction, spinozas, baruch spinoza quotes, ethics and morality, steven nadler, baruch spinoza

Id: leoBccWOZfo

Length: 52min 45sec (3165 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 07 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/lewlewwaller]

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.

This video looks 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’. It explores the affects, the idea of conatus, the ‘free person’, rationalism, his stoicism, and ideas of morality and benevolence.

[u/nkerr52]

Helping me since 1971, thanks for posting.