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Study Guide: Baruch Spinoza

Inspired by the philosophy of the ancient Greek Stoics, and in reaction to the materialistic ideas of René Descartes, Spinoza became one of the greatest thinkers of 17th-century European Enlightenment. He contributed greatly to modern biblical criticism, and modern conceptions of the individual in the universe.

"Spinoza is one of the most important philosophers—and certainly the most radical—of the early modern period."

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Rejected by the Mob

As all honest folk soon learn, those who travel farthest go alone. As a Jew living the ethical darkness of the European Middle Ages, he suffered from the simple-minded prejudices of the majority. As an uncompromisingly honest and original thinker, he suffered total ostracization from the Jewish community. On July 27, 1656, Spinoza was issued the harshest ban ever pronounced by the Sephardic community of Amsterdam. It was never rescinded.

We do not know what Spinoza’s “monstrous deeds” and “abominable heresies” were, but we can guess. No doubt he was already speaking about the ideas that later appeared in his writings—ideas that threatened the authority of both Judaic and Christian authoritarians.

Spinoza exposed uncomfortable truths about people’s ideas of God, nature, individuals, society, religion and “the good life”. For example, careful study Spinoza denied the immortality of the soul, and strongly rejected the notion of a transcendent, providential God—the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He further claimed that the Law (i.e., the Commandments in the Torah and the Bible, and rabbinic legal principles based on them) were not given by God and were not binding on Jews, nor anyone else.

Ethics

Spinoza’s masterpiece, Ethics, is an ambitious and complex work. It is a bold and audacious critique of traditional Western philosophical and theological conceptions of God, human beings, and the universe—especially how they serve to support organized religions and their moral and ceremonial rule over the people.

It is important to remember that Spinoza’s core message was highly ethical. He did not simply tear down old superstitions. He developed a highly refined form of ethics that did not rely on authoritarian appeals. He sought to show that happiness and well-being lie not in a life enslaved to passions and the transitory things we ordinarily pursue, nor in the unreflective superstitions that commonly pass as religion, but rather in a life of reason.

"Nature has no end set before it... All things proceed by a certain eternal necessity of nature. To believe otherwise is to fall prey to the same superstitions that lie at the heart of the organized religions."

— Spinoza, Ethics

Living Simply

Spinoza choose to live a simple life as an optical lens grinder, collaborating on microscope and telescope lens designs with Constantijn and Christiaan Huygens. In an effort to live honestly and not compromise his search for truth, he turned down many rewards and honors, including prestigious teaching positions that he felt would have required him to compromise his principles.

Death

Spinoza died in 1677 at the age of 44 from a lung illness, perhaps tuberculosis or silicosis exacerbated by the inhalation of fine glass dust while grinding lenses.

Legacy

Spinoza’s major work, Ethics, was published posthumously. The work opposed Descartes’ philosophy of mind-body dualism and earned Spinoza recognition as one of Western philosophy’s most important thinkers. His philosophical accomplishments and moral character prompted Gilles Deleuze to name him “the ‘prince’ of philosophers”.

Hegel, another great philosopher, said, “The fact is that Spinoza is a test-point in modern philosophy, so that: You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all.”

Nietzsche recognizing Spinoza as his precursor wrote in a letter, “I am utterly amazed, utterly enchanted! I have a precursor, and what a precursor! I hardly knew Spinoza: that I should have turned to him just now, was inspired by “instinct.” Not only is his overtendency like mine–namely to make all knowledge the most powerful affect–but in five main points of his doctrine I recognize myself.

Truth and Its Discontents

Even today not everyone is willing to accept Spinoza’s ideas. The rejection of truth has a long history, and is very much alive today. Spinoza is rarely studied in state-dominated schools—where the inculcation 1 of blind obedience to a particular nation or authority is considered the appropriate aim of education. Perhaps Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, said it best:

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."
— Joseph Goebbels

In a macabre echo someone recently installed as President of the USA made an eerily similar statement:

"If you say it enough and keep saying it, they'll start to believe you."
— Donald Trump

More Information

  1. Inculcation. noun. the act of teaching or influencing persistently and repeatedly so as to implant or instill an idea, theory, attitude, etc. Similar to the “big lie” method of influencing a population. ↩︎

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