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I never understand the idea that Spinoza was an atheist. Sure his ideas of God were not Judeo-Christian but he did believe in the super-natural that we see in a
by baldfat 8y ago
I never understand the idea that Spinoza was an atheist. Sure his ideas of God were not Judeo-Christian but he did believe in the super-natural that we see in action through nature. Spinoza was 100% a theist and wrote about God and advocated for the evidence of a God. I almost laugh when agnostics try to use him as their champion. They are ramming their own beliefs into this Philosopher that it is not respectful to Spignoza's writing. My example is since he saved Ethics to be released on his death why wasn't he clear on the rejection of God or place more on Deist statements?
Prop. 28
"The mind's highest good is the knowledge of God, and the mind's highest virtue is to know God. ...The mind is not capable of understanding anything higher than God, that is, than a Being absolutely infinite, and without which nothing can either be or be conceived; therefore, the mind's highest utility or good is the knowledge of God. Again, the mind is active, only in so far as it understands, and only to the same extent can it be said absolutely to act virtuously. The mind's absolute virtue is therefore to understand."
- JoeAltmaier 8y agoDigression: I'm suspicious of philosophy because it throws around absolutes with nothing to back them. Like 'The mind is not capable of understanding blah blah'. Really? What is this supposition based upon? Its like saying there's a highest number we can understand - but what if we add 1 to that?
- meric 8y agoBy your definition once 1 is added it’s not a number we can understand.
- Retra 8y agoYes, but the claim is that there is such a number, not that it can be defined.
- chrisvalleybay 8y agoA number is simply a state; a concept held by a state machine, such as a human. Numbers do not exist, but to the enumerator.
- Retra 8y agoThen it will be especially hard to argue that an inconceivable number exists.
- baldfat 8y agoWelcome to philosophy and why we are still in this mess academically in the 21st Century. Welcome to philosophy's number one question. What can we base anything on? To Spinoza it is rationalism. Soren Kierkegaard (My son is named after him) there is nothing but faith that we must leap upon when we have no faith.
- billybatson 8y agoDo you think that there is no limit to human understanding?
- whatshisface 8y agoWhatever it is, it's a psychological question. The only hope of answering it would be to go around measuring how much people could understand - and if that wasn't possible (due to understanding not being defined, i.e. not really meaning anything specific, or due to it just being really difficult to measure), then you'd have no chance of ever knowing.
- benjohnson 8y ago>>I'm suspicious of philosophy because it throws around absolutes with nothing to back Bertrand Russel had a definition of Philosophy that fits your suspicion - in that he said that Philosophy is the contested no-mans land between Theology and Science. Hence - you're probably not going to find absolutes.
- rhizome 8y agobut what if we add 1 to that? He's talking about the name of that number.