Spinoza – the destiny of a philosopher

What philosophy is and what possible benefits it can provide for modern individuals is not very obvious and understandable today. However, if we study it with a bit of humility, we will be able to see in it the original spirit of the search for wisdom. This means changing oneself, despite uncertainty and fear, developing inner life and personal criteria in accordance with the nature of human beings. Therefore, it is necessary to accept the attitude that philosophy is not just “thinking about thinking,” but a journey and ascent towards the wisdom of universal humanism, i.e. human potential, and that it is precisely through the effort to improve oneself and collaborate with others that we can build a better and happier world.

Spinoza’s house in Rijnsburg

Synagogue of Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam

Baruch de Spinoza was born on November 24, 1632, in Amsterdam, into a wealthy Jewish family of Portuguese origin. Raised in the spirit of the Talmud, he studies Jewish philosophy and theology with the intention of becoming a rabbi. He also studies scholastic philosophy, and until

This text talks about lies associated with Spinoza’s contact and Protestantism. His work, “Theological-Political Treatise,” provoked strong reactions due to his understanding of the nature of God and interpretation of biblical books. It was immediately banned when it was published, and Spinoza himself was excommunicated from the Jewish community on July 27, 1656. Almost the entire intellectual and theological community stood against him, confirming the historical truth that what is true and correct is often contrary to the majority’s opinion – a conclusion that Socrates also reached when questioning the Athenians about who the wisest man is, realizing in the end that it is the one who is most aware of his own ignorance. After these events, which took place in the Netherlands, known as the freest country in Europe during the 17th century, Spinoza accepts the name “Benedict” (the Latin equivalent of the name “Baruch”) and dedicates himself to the study of Cartesian philosophy. He lives in various parts of the Netherlands, leads a withdrawn life, and dies of tuberculosis on February 21, 1677. Is it better in life to gain more than to have God/Nature revealed to you?
J.W. Goethe in honor of Spinoza
Descartes
Furthermore, he draws conclusions related to politics, where he claims that it is impossible to transfer one’s power, and thus one’s right, to another person. No one can transfer their ability for free thinking and judgment to another, nor can they be forced to do so. The ultimate goal of the state is freedom. In it, people should have the opportunity to develop all their abilities by using a free mind, without competing with each other in hatred, anger, and deceit, and without unjustly treating each other. It implies freedom of philosophizing, thinking, and speaking, as long as it is done with the mind and not with the intention of introducing something based solely on someone’s authority into the state.
Influences on the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza
Maimonides
Spinoza’s work The Principles of Descartes’ Philosophy
Seneca
Spinoza was greatly influenced by Judah Leon Abravanel (1465-1523). ), a well-known representative of European Renaissance Platonism, who in his Dialogue on Love compares the difference between love and desire to the difference between true knowledge of the Good and false, superficial knowledge.

In the spirit of Plato’s philosophy and Plotinus’ mysticism, Abravanel states that the world has emerged from God (the Creator, the Primal Cause) and that it returns, reintegrates into unity with the Source, i.e., God, through the Spirit. Thus, Creator and World are connected through the elevation of the spirit in man. The most important aspect for man on this path of elevation is the knowledge and experience of the Good through the power of love connected to higher reason-intuition. This illuminates our path and enables us to remain human despite all temptations, without turning into bitter victims and observers of unpredictable life circumstances. The merging of the human soul with God, who represents the highest Good for man, is the source of the most sublime bliss and signifies a way of life that is difficult for us to understand today, for which we pay a high price in enormous growth Anja, both individual and collective alienation and unhappiness on all levels.
Leon Abravanel: A Dialogue on Love
The Significance and Influence of Spinoza
The term pantheism is attributed to the English philosopher John Toland (1670-1722) who used it to describe Spinoza’s philosophy. It denotes one of the oldest and richest philosophical traditions, and refers to the conception of the world in which God is understood as the substantial, fundamental unity of the world, or as the totality of all visible and invisible essences and movers of this unique World-Nature. Spinoza presents his teachings using the geometric method. Inspired by Descartes’ method in constructing geometry, he starts with definitions and basic statements (axioms) in order to prove philosophical claims (theorems) through pure deduction. He believed that the precision and logic inherent in geometry also apply to the laws that exist in the cosmos, that is, the created and organized world.
Ethics: The Power of Reason, or about Human Oh freedom

Setting XLI
Even if we didn’t know that our spirit is eternal, we would still consider morality and religiosity to be the most important things, just like everything we showed in the fourth part that belongs to the strength of will and nobility.

Namely, it seems that many people think they are free to the extent that they are allowed to listen to their desires, and that they give up their right to the extent that they are forced to live according to divine law. So, they consider morality and religiosity, and everything related to the strength of spirit, to be a burden, which they hope to get rid of after death and receive payment for their slavery, namely, for morality and religiosity. But not only that hope, but also primarily fear of being punished with terrible punishments after death, inspires them to live according to divine law, if their weakness and feeble soul allow it. And if there was no such hope and fear in people, and if, on the contrary, they believed that spirits perish with the body, and Happy and exhausted by the burden of morality, they would have no further life – then they would return to their previous way of life and would want to arrange everything according to their desires, and would rather submit to fickle happiness than to themselves. – This doesn’t seem any less absurd to me than if someone – because they don’t believe that they will sustain their body with good food forever – would rather want to be filled with poisons and deadly substances; or if someone, because they see that the spirit is not eternal or immortal, would rather want to be insane and live without reason: this is so absurd that it hardly deserves mention.

According to Baruch de Spinoza, Ethics, Belgrade, 1983.

A critical review of Spinoza’s work and his ideas, both contemporaries and immediate followers, contained accusations of vulgar libertinism, insidious deism, and most commonly, direct atheism, and he was declared the most dangerous opponent of morality and religion. Although precisely Spinoza’s philosophy, with its pantheistic spirit, asks us to embrace the highest form of rationality, it has been misunderstood and criticized throughout history. news of participation in an enriched world of which we are a part and whose potential we possess both visibly and invisibly, it will encounter condemnation from institutional monotheism.

The fear of what Spinoza taught and advocated is evident from the text in which the Jewish community in Amsterdam excommunicates him at the age of twenty-four. The excommunication is accompanied by a curse that is rarely matched in history in terms of its intensity.

The accusation of atheism by leading thinkers of the time is associated with the dominant belief of that era, deeply rooted in monotheism since the Middle Ages, of an anthropomorphic God as a separate persona from Nature and the World, which Spinoza definitively rejects. In his philosophy, he emphasizes the constant and unchanging order that governs nature, its universal laws and the causal interconnectedness of its creations on both the material and rational and intelligible plane, the complete unity of Nature and God. At the same time, Spinoza was fearless. far from equating God with material things perceived by the senses in a literal sense, thus reviving the ancient vision of a living Cosmos in which there is no spirit without matter, nor matter without spirit. When Spinoza claims that human bliss and happiness consist of intellectual love for God, we can recognize this as a way of life in which a person strives with all their might to align their life with the archetypal expressions of the divine, i.e., the good, the beautiful, the just, and the true.

Spinoza had the greatest influence on classical German philosophy – Kant, Hegel, Fichte, Schelling, and through them, on Goethe, the greatest German poet. Leading thinkers of the German Enlightenment and philosophers such as Hegel and Schleiermacher helped remove the stigma of Spinoza as an irredeemable atheist and to deepen the understanding of his pantheism as a teaching on the unity of man, nature, and God – a teaching that deserves the deepest respect precisely because it calls for acceptance of responsibility and participation. In such an interconnected world, a single human being is of immense importance.

Historically speaking, exceptional and dedicated individuals who are willing to confront both small and large challenges and temptations have had a greater impact on the world than large masses of people. They often fall victim to the misunderstanding of the masses, who are terrified of change and feverishly avoid self-awareness, instead embracing countless forms of banality and superficiality. Thus, being a philosopher in the truest sense, living what one learns and applying it primarily to oneself, is a demanding and responsible task that cannot be popular on a mass scale.

In line with the spirit of the 17th century and the growing enthusiasm and optimism for the renewal of human reason and a critical approach towards past authorities, prejudices, and medieval mentality, Spinoza contributes with his decisive and uncompromising views in which he promotes the liberating and enlightening power of sound reasoning and the natural inclination towards enlightenment of the human mind. At the same time, he rejects… The foundation of materialism, i.e. the entire sensory experience as superficial, illusory, and unreal, which only nourishes our passions and ignorance.
The philosophical ideal, which Spinoza authentically affirmed through his life, is evident in the concluding words of his Ethics:
A wise person, if considered as such, hardly experiences spiritual unrest, but because they are aware of themselves, God, and things, they never cease to exist by an eternal necessity, but always possess true spiritual peace. If the path I have indicated to lead to this seems too difficult, it can still be found. Indeed, what is so rarely found must necessarily be difficult. Wouldn’t it be possible that if salvation were within easy reach and found effortlessly, almost everyone would neglect it? But everything that is perfect is just as difficult as it is rare.