SPINOZA'S GOD

When asked by a New York rabbi if he believed in God, Albert Einstein replied “I believe in Spinoza’s God.” The full quote is “I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.” 

Baruch de Spinoza, who used the name Benedictus for his scholarly writings, and was called Bento by his friends (it means “blessed,”), is recognized as the first modern philosopher, breaking fully from the ancient and medieval schools. His views are found in his two major works, Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, published anonymously in Latin in 1670, and Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order, generally referred to as the Ethics, which was first published posthumously in 1677. Tractatus Theologico-Politicus was regarded as the most dangerous book of its time, and is regarded as one of the most significant events in European intellectual history. One critic said that it was “a book forged in hell,” written by the devil himself.

Spinoza’s story is fascinating. He was a Portuguese Jew born in Amsterdam in 1661. He was a brilliant student in Hebrew school, who was excommunicated from the Jewish community and cursed at 23. Apparently, this did not bother him. He went about his life, freed from constraint by the Jewish and Christian communities, living simply, grinding optical lenses for support, and developing his philosophy. Interestingly, his virtuous life style and suspected atheism confused people. How can one be virtuous without God?

In the Ethics, Spinoza used the Euclidian geometric method and form; i.e., definitions, axioms, and propositions, to demonstrate the truth about God and the principles of the good life. It is most definitely not as easy read, unless you’re an Einstein. It contains five parts, each building on the others, in sum amounting to one argument about a proper philosophy of life.

Before he can get to the ethics parts (parts 3, 4, and 5), he must demonstrate man’s place in the world, and before he can do that, he must demonstrate the nature of the world. In Part One, “Concerning God,” through eight definitions, seven axioms, and thirty-six propositions, Spinoza presents geometric proof of the existence of God as Nature. He begins with the concept of Substance.  The whole of the universe, all that is, is but one substance. Substance is indivisible; it is only one being. It was not caused, not created by some external source. Its cause was immanent; it is self-caused, i.e., it exists through the necessity of its existence; existence is its essence, its essential attribute.  Substance is that which has no boundary, no limit. The universe in infinite; it cannot be limited by anything else. There cannot be anything beyond the universe. This is what he called God. His famous phrase, Deus sive nature, “God, or nature,” is not used until Part Four, however. God did not create the universe. God is not transcendental, not a being separate from his creation, he is his creation.

In Part Two, through seven definitions, eight axioms, and forty-nine propositions, Spinoza demonstrates the nature of minds and bodies. Substance has infinite attributes, which are the essence of substance.  We know only two, thought and extension, i.e., consciousness and material existence. Finite things, like us, and everything else in the universe – tables and chairs, mountains, planets – are simply modes of substance, modifications. In finite things, extension and thought are caused. The only thing that does not have an external cause is substance. Therefore, we are not separate substances. We are simply different aspects of the one substance Spinoza calls God or Nature. This is a very important point for his full argument. Man is not separate from nature, man is a mode of nature. We are not a “kingdom within a kingdom.”  Everything that occurs in nature is determined by the very essence of nature, its essential attributes. Everything that occurs in nature, and we are in nature, is caused by finite physical events, which in turn were caused by finite physical events, and so on to infinity. But the fact that everything is determined does not exclude our individual efforts, which are part of the causal process.

Most of the attention to Spinoza’s work is focused on Parts One and Two. The remaining parts of the work demonstrate how we can, through understanding nature and our part in it, achieve the Stoic virtue of tranquility. We acquire virtue by understanding the causes and consequences of our actions. With a life of reason, we gain clarity about the causal forces that are determining our circumstances; the causal forces at work in us physically and emotionally, and the causal forces at work in the world around us, as all a part of the one all-inclusive substance. It is by understanding the causal mechanisms of nature, and accepting them as uncontradictable, that we gain power to act and control our emotions. Acceptance brings peace of mind. Virtue, the power of living a life in accordance with reason, is its own reward. 

Recommended reading:

Spinoza, Benedictus de. The Ethics of Spinoza: the Road to Inner Freedom. Carol Pub. Group, 1995. (This version of the Ethics is edited by D. D. Runes and is very much easier to read that other more direct translations.)

Lloyd, Genevieve. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Spinoza and the Ethics. Routledge, 2010. (An excellent book for understanding Spinoza.)

Goldstein, Rebecca. Betraying Spinoza: the Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity. Nextbook, 2006. (More understanding about the man and the basis for his philosophy.)

Nadler, Steven M. A Book Forged in Hell: Spinozas Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age. Princeton University Press, 2014. (Popular book about Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, Theological-Political Treatise.)

Discussion questions:

1. If you don’t believe in an anthropomorphic god, does Spinoza’s God appeal to you?

2. Do you think you are part of nature, or apart from nature?

3. Do you find it comforting to see yourself as part of a great inclusive one, or disturbing to think that you not somehow special with a personal god who knows and loves you?

4. How does seeing yourself as a part of nature affect the idea that God has given humanity dominion over all the earth?

5. If you accept the idea that God is one all-inclusive substance, of which you are a modification, does that give you a greater identification with all the other modifications? E.g., would you be more empathetic with the other modifications in nature, say air and water, that are being harmed by your activities?