Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza's masterpiece Ethica, published in 1677, is a pantheistic work that examines God, the mind, emotions, and morality using the geometric method (axioms and theorems). The primary purpose of the work is to liberate man from the bondage of fleeting passions and lead him to ultimate happiness and freedom through reason.
The never-ending internal-cosmic struggle between the state of 'slavery,' where man is a captive to his blind passions, irrational external influences of nature, and superstitions, and the state of 'freedom' and 'happiness,' where he resolves these misconceptions through rational reason to grasp the knowledge of God/Nature and attain inner peace.
A multidimensional, purely mental (theoretical) philosophical landscape rising above the intricacies of the human soul, the movements of emotions, and the ontological layers of existence.
17th Century (The historical reference for when the work was written, though the conceptual plane is 'Sub specie aeternitatis', i.e., in the dimension of eternity, timelessness, and infinity).
A philosophical universe that is rational, deterministic, possesses absolute logical and geometric precision, and is contemplative and sober, illuminated by the light of reason.
An analytical first-person external and internal narrator voice that leads the reader step-by-step to undeniable truths, employing a didactic, authoritative, calm, and deductive 'more geometrico' (geometrical) method of reasoning.
No form of action can exist in the universe outside of the eternal and necessary laws of God or Nature. Man, like all other beings, is strictly bound to the chain of absolute causality, and 'free will' is an illusion. Mind and Body are the parallel and simultaneous structure of the same and single Substance (God) acting through two different attributes called Thought and Extension. There is no external purpose or goal (teleology); everything functions solely within the network of cause and effect by the necessity of its own nature.
The early Enlightenment era flourishing in 17th-century Netherlands, where the stifling effects of Scholastic medieval philosophy were dismantled, post-Renaissance Cartesian philosophy was debated, and religious fanaticism clashed with reason.
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Spinoza makes grasping the absolute Substance the focus of his life. Freeing himself entirely from passive emotions, he examines the rational laws of nature with deep awe and knowledge.
The supreme effort of the soul, its highest virtue, is to know things by a third kind of knowledge (God).
While Spinoza partially appreciates the genius of Descartes, he fundamentally dismantles his arguments regarding the mind-body distinction and the absoluteness of the will, constructing his own theory in opposition to them.
He criticizes Descartes harshly, saying, 'I cannot but wonder at the examples Descartes gave concerning the union of the human mind and body.'
Instead of pitying or mocking the tragic slavery of the ignorant man, Spinoza seeks to understand him with the cool detachment of an engineer, acting like a ruthless but useful physician who shows the path to salvation.
He shows them the right path by stating, 'I wish to turn to the discussion of those who are pleased to ridicule the affects and actions of men, rather than to understand them, without hating them.'
While the Free Man exhibits complete rational control and lives with serenity, the Slave/Ignorant Man writhes under the unstable tyranny of fear and superstition, like a leaf blown by the wind.
The ignorant, because they are dragged by external causes in many respects... can in no way attain true inner satisfaction.
The slave man thinks of God as a celestial dictator detached from nature who gets angry or rewards, so the God/Nature relationship turns into an illusion of pure fear and obedience.
Men imagine a God who resembles them, has desires, and they love Him solely because they fear for their own interests or punishment.
The Free Man perceives God/Nature in its entirety. Instead of fighting against the laws of nature, by embracing them, he rises to a fearless intellectual virtue and a smooth acceptance.
We are in joy to the extent that we know God as the cause of everything.
People who live according to Reason have the capacity for perfect solidarity and mutual benefit, as their interests do not directly conflict and they seek only universal truth.
Insofar as men live according to the guidance of Reason, they must always necessarily agree in nature.
Descartes claimed that the mind could freely shape the body through the pineal gland, thereby placing the mind's position in nature's web of causality on a completely false foundation.
Spinoza presents his critique of Descartes' proof that the mind is seated in a gland in the brain, describing it as 'nothing more than a philosopher explaining obscure matters through occult qualities.'
People who are slaves to their passions lose the common ground of reason and pursue their own egoistic desires, which plunges them into a plane of relentless competition, conflict, and hatred.
Insofar as men are subject to the affects (passions), they can be contrary to one another in nature.
The mental clarity attained by Spinoza prepares the ground for the ideal of the 'Free Man' he constructs in the text. The philosopher is, in fact, both the teacher and the embodiment of this ideal he describes and wishes everyone to achieve.
In this part (Of Human Freedom), the philosopher says, I will examine the power of reason, by showing what reason can do against the affects.
