Spinoza said: "Men are deceived because they think they are free, and the only reason that makes them think so, that is, because they are aware of their own actions, and do not know the reasons that determine them." ......There is no absolute or free will in the mind, and the will or will of the mind is determined by one cause, which in turn is determined by another, and this cause is likewise determined by other causes, and so on and so forth, to infinity. ”
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Modern philosophy is either Spinozaism or not philosophy
Original debut).
The rationalist philosopher Benedict de Spinoza was born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1632 to Jewish refugees from Portugal. His grandfather and father were wealthy merchants and had always been in the upper echelons of Jewish society. He attended a Jewish school, where he studied the writings of Jewish philosophers, the Bible, and Hebrew literature, and studied several European languages outside of school. In 1656, he was excommunicated from the Synagogue for his pagan views, and with the death of his parents, he lost his attachment to Jewish society and had to make a living by grinding optical lenses, sometimes teaching at schools and sometimes as a private teacher. Most of his friends were Friends of the Friends of the College and Cartesians, and some of their members formed a study group under his direction. Each member of the group gave him a 500 florin annuity, but he was only willing to receive 300 florin at most. In 1660, he moved to Rhinsburg, near the headquarters of the student school, and in the same year published The Principles of Descartes' Philosophy, which gave a geometric explanation of the first two parts of Descartes' Principles of Philosophy.
Actually, Spinoza was not a Cartesian, but he had to teach Cartesian philosophy in order to make a living. At the same time, he also wrote a number of works expressing his philosophical thoughts, such as "A Short Treatise on God, Man and His Happiness" and "A Treatise on Intellectual Improvement". In 1665, his most important work, the Ethics, was nearing completion, but circumstances did not favour its publication. At that time, under the influence of Calvinist clergy and monarchists, an atmosphere of intolerance to heresy prevailed. So he decided to write a book defending freedom of thought and speech, refuting the alleged biblical support for clerical intervention in secular and political affairs. In 1670 his Theological and Political Treatise was published anonymously, causing such an uproar that he dismissed any further publication of any treatise, but continued to writeIn the same year, he moved to The Hague. In 1673 he was offered a professor of philosophy at the University of Heidelberg, but he declined. Spinoza died in The Hague in February 1677 at the age of 45, and his posthumous work was published the same year with the help of friends.
Spinoza's philosophy can be said to be the fullest expression of the modern trend of thought that is independent of itself, not aided or constrained by any "authority". In Spinoza's view, the real world is a real universe, an all-encompassing and closely connected universe, in which matter, spirit, man and god all have their place, and everything is not unpredictable or random and accidental, but everything is in an orderly manner according to the laws of eternity.
Spinoza's worldview can be briefly described as follows. In order to understand any object or event, it is necessary to refer to a myriad of other objects or events associated with it, each of which in turn depends on an innumerable number of others. Each finite object or event has an innumerable tendril, supported by a large number of sources, spreading influence in many directions. The whole reality is not made up of such dependent things and events, but as the basis of all dependent things, there must be some free, independent or absolute God. Spinoza, however, does not see this absolute foundation of reality as the Creator. He refuses to see God as the last link in a chain of cause and effect made up of different links, but rather as the whole system of reality as its own inner foundation, as both nature and God. This leaves no place for the supernatural;Nor does it require supernatural intervention to connect the spiritual and the material, since nature is both spiritual and material.
Spinoza's philosophy is therefore pantheistic, naturalistic, and rationalistic: pantheism consists in its assertion that God is all that is, the whole universe, and that everything is God;Naturalism consists in excluding supernatural influences by elevating nature to the level of the universe and equating both of them with God;Rationalism consists in its rejection of everything arbitrary, unpredictable, or merely accidental, and its insistence that laws and order exist in the universe in general, even where man has not yet succeeded in discovering them. Nowadays, people often mistakenly regard naturalism and materialism as one and the same, and Spinoza's naturalism certainly does not belong to materialism, because it not only recognizes but emphasizes the reality of God, spirit, and matter.
Historians of philosophy almost unanimously agree that Spinoza's philosophical ideas are essentially expressed in his work Ethics, that is, this is Spinoza's most important philosophical work. In this way, there is also a doubt: Spinoza's worldview is "metaphysical", and isn't it a philosophical mistake to put metaphysical things under the name of "ethics"?- Whether on the basis of Aristotle's division of philosophical categories, or according to the conventions of modern historians of philosophy on the division of philosophical fields, the objects of metaphysics and ethics are by no means the same or subordinate. We cannot find an answer to this question in all the current history books that interpret Spinoza's philosophy.
Strictly speaking, Spinoza did not "satisfactorily" complete the writing of the Ethics during his lifetime, at least not to the extent that he did not write a preface to it. Therefore, how to make a distinction about the theme of this work is still a "historical blank". Next, we try to fill this historical gap.
As Spinoza put it, Ethics is a philosophical treatise that expounds the doctrine of will. However, he did not give a clear definition of what the "doctrine of will" was, and there is no explanation of this doctrine in the history of philosophy. Based on the reading of this book, we may be able to understand it as follows: the doctrine of will, located at the intersection of speculative philosophy and ethical philosophy, is based on the nature and origin of the human mind, focusing on revealing the origin, essence and "unity" of several "opposites" in the field of human cognition, such as thinking and existence, freedom and necessity, imagination and reason, as well as good and evil, slavery and freedom, emotion and reason in the field of human behavior. This understanding is in response to Spinoza's statement in the summary of the second part of the book: "The knowledge of this doctrine is really indispensable for philosophical speculation and wisdom in guiding life." Therefore, we believe that the doctrine of the will, expounded in this book, is the theoretical essence of Spinoza's philosophical thought.
Ethics is divided into five sections. The first part deals with "God" or "nature" and focuses on the nature of God or nature, and concludes with a refutation of natural teleology. The second part, "The Nature and Origin of the Mind," deals primarily with those knowledge that must be derived from the nature of God or eternal infinite existence and which is sufficient to lead us to the attainment of the human mind and its highest happiness, and summarizes the utility of the doctrine of will. The third part, "The Origin and Nature of Emotions," discusses the causes of mood fluctuations in the many emotions and moods that are composed of the three primitive emotions of desire, pleasure, and pain, and explains them from their first causes. The fourth part deals with "the shackles of human nature or the power of emotions", which mainly discusses the reasons for man's weakness in controlling and restraining emotions, and the good and evil of emotions - the title of the book "The Shackles of Human Nature" by Maugham of England is taken from. The fifth section, "The Power of Reason or the Freedom of Man," deals primarily with the power of reason, points out what power reason can restrain the feelings, and points out what is the freedom or happiness of the mind.
According to the English philosopher Russell, Spinoza's Ethics mainly "deals with three different themes." It begins with metaphysics, then moves on to the psychology of passions and wills, and finally expounds an ethical outlook based on the preceding metaphysics and psychology. ”
In fact, in our view, this work mainly answers the following three questions: first, how to know the nature of God or nature, which is the first part of the book;The second is how to understand the nature of man, which is the second part of this bookThe third is how to regulate people's emotional activities, that is, the third to fifth parts of this book. Obviously, this work "weaves" a "cognitive chain" of emotional activity from nature to man and then to man.
In the following, we will focus on a summary of the main ideas of the metaphysics of the work Ethics.
Spinoza first used the terms entity, property, and form to describe the structure of the universe. At the beginning of the book, he introduced a very important concept, namely "self-cause". The essence of "self-cause" includes existence, that is, self-production of self and self-being the cause of self-existence, and what has this nature is called "substance". He deduces from the definition of "entity" that there is only one entity in the universe, and that this entity is absolutely infinite – infinity means that this entity has an infinite number of "attributes", each of which represents the essence of eternal infinity;Each attribute has an infinite number of "styles," i.e., "distinctions," in which the style of each attribute contains the concept of that attribute and not the concept of the other attributes—the absolutely infinite entity that exists, that is, God or Nature.
According to Spinoza's reasoning, we can know the eternal and infinite nature of God or nature by following the nature of the entity, the attributes of the entity, the pattern of the entity—that is, the way from the universal to the particular, from the particular to the individual. The physical nature, which is "unique" in terms of the universal existence of God or nature, and the "eternal infinity" is its nature. The physical attributes, as far as the special existence of God or nature are concerned, have a "duality", i.e., they are either "extensive" i.e., "existent" or "thinking" i.e. "thinking". Physical forms, as far as the individual existence of God or nature is concerned, they are all determined by God or nature. In short, in Spinoza's view, God is one: "all things are in God and depend on God, and therefore neither exist nor be understood without God", and "all things are predetermined by God"—that is, "all things come out of the absolute perfection and eternal necessity of nature."
Based on this theory of natural necessity, i.e., natural determinism, Spinoza focuses on four aspects of the problem: proving the substance of the unity of mind and body;denying the absoluteness of freedom of the will;refutes the purposefulness of natural existence;Point out the preconceptions of good and evil.
First, the mind and body are one, but they are separated. According to Spinoza, the essence of man is constituted by the mental attributes of God. The object of the idea of constructing the mind is only a broad form of the body or some kind of reality that exists. The entity of thought and the entity of extension are the only and the same entity, but sometimes through this attribute, sometimes through that attribute. So, whether we know nature by extension, or by thought, or by any other property, we will always find the same causal order or the same causal connection, in other words, we will always find the same continuity of things in every point of view. It follows that the body cannot determine the mind and make it think, nor can the mind determine the body and make it move or be still. The mind and the body are one and the same thing, but sometimes they are understood through the attributes of the mind, sometimes by the attributes of the extensive.
Second, there is no absolute freedom of the will, because the mind is driven by desire. Spinoza said: "Men are deceived because they think they are free, and the only reason that makes them think so, that is, because they are aware of their own actions, and do not know the reasons that determine them." ......There is no absolute or free will in the mind, and the will or will of the mind is determined by one cause, which in turn is determined by another, and this cause is likewise determined by other causes, and so on and so forth, to infinity. Spinoza, according to Spinoza, also teaches us that the command of the mind is nothing but desire itself, which varies according to the condition of the body. Because what everyone does is based on his emotions.
Third, the purpose of nature is nothing but an illusion of the human heart. According to Spinoza, the reason why people think that all things in nature, like man, act for a certain purpose is because people are born ignorant of the causes of things;People have a desire to pursue what is good for them, and they are aware of that desire. Nature itself has no predetermined purpose, and all ends are nothing but illusions of the human mind. "All things follow the absolute perfection and eternal inevitability of nature. This kind of teleology turns nature upside down. For this statement is a reversal of cause and effect, and reversal of effect is cause;Treat what is first in nature as something second, and instead consider the highest and most perfect thing to be the least perfect. ”
Fourth, the concept of good and evil stems from the prejudice against nature. Spinoza said: "As long as men believe that all things exist for the use of man, they must consider the most valuable of those who are most useful to him, and attach the most importance to those who are most comfortable." Because people interpret natural things with this preconception, they form concepts of good and evil, disordered order, hot and cold, beauty and ugliness, etc.;And because of the stereotype that man is free, concepts such as praise and disparagement, merit and sin have arisen. In Spinoza's view, people judge things only by their psychological state, and they prefer things to be imagined rather than intellectually understood. It is not surprising that people have different opinions, and that they end up in skepticism. The ideas to which the average man is accustomed to explain nature are but the product of imaginationThese ideas have names, as if to denote things that exist independently of the imagination, when in fact they are imaginary beings, not rational beings.
As we have already stated in the article "Interpreting Descartes and His First Philosophical Meditations", the relationship between soul and body was a matter of great concern to Descartes, but he did not really satisfactorily address the issue – in Descartes, the soul and the body were "dualistic separation". Perhaps it was in an attempt to overcome this difficulty that Spinoza proposed that the expanse and the mind are two coexisting properties of substance, a new interpretation of the relationship between the soul and the body, in Spinoza's case, the soul and the body are "naturally one." In Spinoza's schema of the universe, man is a finite form of God, and therefore has both the attributes of extension and thought, and functions in both physical and spiritual ways. Solving the problem in this way also means that everything has life, albeit to varying degrees. In general, Spinoza's metaphysics can be seen both as a completion and as a variant of Cartesian philosophy.
Hegel once said: "The greatness of Spinoza's thought lies in the ability to abandon all that is definite and particular, to take refuge in the only entity, and to worship only the only entity."It's a grand idea, but it can only be the basis of all true insights. "So" Spinoza is the focus of modern philosophy: it is either Spinozaism or not philosophy. ”
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