Salvation Through Spinoza

"The seventeenth-century Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza has long been known - and vilified - for his heretical view of God and for the radical determinism he sees governing the cosmos and human freedom. Only recently, however, has he begun to be considered seriously as a moral philosopher. In his philosophical masterpiece, the Ethics, after establishing some metaphysical and epistemological foundations, he turns to the "big questions" that so often move one to reflect on, and even change, the values that inform their life: What is truly good? What is happiness? What is the relationship between being a good or virtuous person and enjoying happiness and human flourishing? The guiding thread of the book, and the source of its title, is a claim that comes late in the Ethics: "The free person thinks least of all of death, and his wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life." The life of the free person, according to Spinoza, is one of joy, not sadness. He does what is "most important" in life and is not troubled by such harmful passions as hate, greed and envy. He treats others with benevolence, justice and charity. And, with his attention focused on the rewards of goodness, he enjoys the pleasures of this world, but in moderation. Nadler makes clear that these ethical precepts are not unrelated to Spinoza's metaphysical views. Rather, as Nadler shows, Spinoza's views on how to live are intimately connected to and require an understanding of his conception of human nature and its place in the cosmos, his account of values, and his conception of human happiness and flourishing. Written in an engaging style this book makes Spinoza's often forbiddingly technical philosophy accessible to contemporary readers interested in knowing more about Spinoza's views on morality, and who may even be looking to this famous "atheist", who so scandalized his early modern contemporaries, as a guide to the right way of living today"--

My purpose in this book is to re-interpret the philosophy of Spinoza to a new generation. I make no attempt to compete with the historical scholar ship of A. H. Wolfson in tracing back Spinoza's ideas to his Ancient, Hebrew and Mediaeval forerunners, or the meticulous philosophical scrutiny of Harold Joachim, which I could wish to emulate but cannot hope to rival. I have simply relied upon the text of Spinoza's own writings in an effort to grasp and to make intelligible to others the precise meaning of his doctrine, and to decide whether, in spite of numerous apparent and serious internal conflicts, it can be understood as a consistent whole. In so doing I have found it necessary to correct what seem to me t0' be mis conceptions frequently entertained by commentators. Whether or not I am right in my re-interpretation, it will, I hope, contribute something fresh, if not to the knowledge of Spinoza, at least to the discussion of what he really meant to say. The limits within which I am constrained to write prevent me from drawing fully upon the great mass of scholarly writings on Spinoza, his life and times, his works and his philosophical ideas. I can only try to make amends for omissions by listing the most important works in the Spinoza bibliography, for reference by those who would seek to know more about his philosophy. This list I have added as an appendix.

This study chronicles Spinoza’s German-Jewish popularity during the years of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), explaining it from the political moral and intellectual paradoxes with which Weimar Germany confronted its Jews.

This study chronicles Spinoza’s German-Jewish popularity during the years of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), explaining it from the political moral and intellectual paradoxes with which Weimar Germany confronted its Jews.

This book offers a novel interpretation of Spinoza’s basic metaphysics of God, body, and mind. It considers the fundamental question of how finite things, especially human minds, are in God. Moreover, because for Spinoza God is identical with the universe, the question becomes how finite things are in the universe. This book shows that for Spinoza finite things are closer to God than what is thought in most contemporary Spinoza studies. It claims that the essences of finite things are degrees or, in a very specific sense of the term “part,” parts of the infinite essence of God. This book also shows how Spinoza’s basic metaphysics attempts to give us the possibility to unite with God so that we can share some of God’s perspective with the world. This new knowledge, Spinoza claims, provides the mind with eternity and a kind of individual salvation that is deeply meaningful. This book is not only a study of Spinoza’s basic concepts, but it also takes seriously what kind of epistemic attitude is required for experiencing the world truly. It is difficult to see and experience oneself in Spinoza’s monistic system where God is the only existing substance. This book offers a novel and engaging interpretation of the Ethics that takes seriously the ontological experience of Spinoza’s philosophy. Spinoza, Metaphysics, and the Possibility of Salvation is an essential resource for scholars and graduate students working on Spinoza, early modern philosophy, and metaphysics.

The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) is an unusual,highly original, and influential reaction to the transition of Western cultureto the modern age. According to Spinoza, modern scientific thinking, if thoughtthrough, leads to a denial of humanity as the center of creation, willed by apersonal God. It is Spinoza who first formulated a philosophy which shows thatmodern scientific thinking, and the modern metaphysical view of humanity andthe world that it gives rise to, does not have to lead to despair. He understoodthat engaging seriously in detached philosophical thinking could lead to anunexpected form of intellectual salvation. De Dijn's comprehensive introduction to Spinoza's philosophyis based on two key texts. He first provides an in-depth analysis of Spinoza's Treatise on the Improvement of theUnderstanding, which De Dijn characterizes as his introduction tophilosophy. This notoriously difficult text is here made accessible, even inits details. This analysis is followed by a comprehensive survey of Spinoza'smetaphysics as presented in his famous Ethics. De Dijn demonstrates howSpinoza's central philosophical project as introduced in the Treatise - thelinkage of knowledge and salvation - is perfectly realized in the Ethics. In thisway the unity of Spinoza's thought is shown to consist in his preoccupationwith the ethical question of salvation. The book also containsintroductory chapters on Spinoza's life and work, the original Latin text ofthe Treatise and its new English translation by Edwin Curley, and an annotatedbibliography on the secondary literature.

The present work is intended once again to draw the attention of readers to the resources opened up by Spinoza for the elucidation of the classical problems of philosophy. Today these problems are too often taken to be merely verbal, so that answers to them so far as these are metaphysical are confidently claimed to be "nonsense." My labours will, therefore, seem to minds thus committed to have been untimely and funda mentally futile. Untimely they may have been, but unless also fu tile their untimeliness may render them the more exigent; and to judge them as futile is to claim a certainty not avaIlable to the honest sceptic. Vigorous attempts to discredit metaphysical investigation are no new thing, though the latest is, perhaps, the most thoroughgoing, and cer tainly the most self-confident. Yet it may well be argued that effective criticism of metaphysics is either itself a sort of metaphysics, or has for its foundation presuppositions that could only be metaphysically es tablished. "Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recu"et." Metaphysics survives, and can only survive as a true philosophia perennis, as the catalyst of scepsis and schism - neither as inexorable dogma "once for all de livered," nor as "a plant that cometh of the lust of the earth, without a formal seed.

This book offers a novel interpretation of Spinoza's basic metaphysics of God, body, and mind. It considers the fundamental question of how finite things, especially human minds, are in God. Moreover, because for Spinoza God is identical with the universe, the question becomes how finite things are in the universe. The book shows that for Spinoza finite things are closer to God than what is thought in most contemporary Spinoza studies. It claims that the essences of finite things are degrees or, in a very specific sense of the term "part," parts of the infinite essence of God. The book also shows how Spinoza's basic metaphysics attempts to give us the possibility to unite with God so that we can share some of God's perspective with the world. This new knowledge, Spinoza claims, provides the mind with eternity and a kind of individual salvation that is deeply meaningful. The book is not only a study of Spinoza's basic concepts, but it also takes seriously what kind of epistemic attitude is required for experiencing the world truly. It is difficult to see and experience oneself in Spinoza's monistic system where God is the only existing substance. This book offers a novel and engaging interpretation of the Ethics that takes seriously the ontological experience of Spinoza's philosophy. Spinoza, Metaphysics, and the Possibility of Salvation is an essential resource for scholars and graduate students working on Spinoza, early modern philosophy, and metaphysics.