Colletia spinoza biography
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He does this not from altruistic motives but egoistic ones: he sees that it is in his own best interest to be in communion with other rationally virtuous individuals. Therefore, by axiom 7 [‘If a thing can be conceived as not existing, its essence does not involve existence’], his essence does not involve existence. This extraordinary shrub is renowned for its unique structure and fascinating ecology.
It is the “most natural” form of governing arising out of a social contract—since in a democracy the people obey only laws that issue from the general will of the body politic—and the least subject to various abuses of power. Spinoza, therefore, explains these emotions—as determined in their occurrence as are a body in motion and the properties of a mathematical figure—just as he would explain any other things in nature.
The friends who, after his death, published his writings left out the “or Nature” clause from the more widely accessible Dutch version, probably out of fear of the reaction that this identification would, predictably, arouse among a vernacular audience.
There are, Spinoza insists, two sides of Nature. By contrast, Spinoza’s God is the cause of all things because all things follow causally and necessarily from the divine nature.
There is some debate in the literature as to whether God is also to be identified with Natura naturata. On the one hand, they are determined by the general laws of the universe that follow immediately from God’s natures. This insight can only weaken the power that the passions have over us. For insofar as we understand, we can want nothing except what is necessary, nor absolutely be satisfied with anything except what is true.
3, 60: 132 (1916)
(In other words, if two substances differ in nature, then they have nothing in common).
Proposition 3: If things have nothing in common with one another, one of them cannot be the cause of the other.
Proposition 4: Two or more distinct things are distinguished from one another, either by a difference in the attributes [i.e., the natures or essences] of the substances or by a difference in their affections [i.e., their accidental properties].
Proposition 5: In nature, there cannot be two or more substances of the same nature or attribute.
Proposition 6: One substance cannot be produced by another substance.
Proposition 7: It pertains to the nature of a substance to exist.
Proposition 8: Every substance is necessarily infinite.
Proposition 9: The more reality or being each thing has, the more attributes belong to it.
Proposition 10: Each attribute of a substance must be conceived through itself.
Proposition 11: God, or a substance consisting of infinite attributes, each of which expresses eternal and infinite essence, necessarily exists.
It is possible that Spinoza, as he made progress through his studies, was being groomed for a career as a rabbi. We can never eliminate the passive affects entirely. (For this reason, it is misleading to proclaim Spinoza as a proponent of the separation of church and state.)
On the other hand, dominion over the “inward worship of God” and the beliefs accompanying it—in other words, inner piety—belongs exclusively to the individual.
Everything that is extended follows from the attribute of extension alone. For the method of interpreting Nature consists essentially in composing a detailed study of Nature from which, as being the source of our assured data, we can deduce the definitions of the things of Nature.