Spinoza, the Great Philosopher

 

Lives of great men are examples for intellectual beauty and the life of Spinoza is one such example. Spinoza, born in a Jewish family, was excommunicated by his own people because of his liberal views and critical outlook on god and religion. He was offered 1000 florins a year to conceal his views but he refused. He was treated as a heretic and an atheist and was thought to be a great menace to society. Once a religious fanatic made an attempt on his life but he narrowly escaped with a minor injury.

Spinoza was born in the year 1632 in Spain or Portugal, lived in Holland and died in the year 1677. How amazingly incorruptible his mind was and how indifferent he was to money and wealth, a few examples will show. Simon De Vries, a rich merchant of Amsterdam who had great admiration for Spinoza offered him a gift of $1000 and begged him to accept it. Spinoza did not accept it. While executing a will later De Vries proposed to give his entire property to Spinoza. Instead of accepting it Spinoza persuaded De Vries to bequeath all his property to his brother. The merchant however left a will behind in which be made an arrangement for payment of $250 a year to Spinoza. Spinoza politely declined and said “Nature is satisfied with a little and if she is, I am also”. With great persuation, he was made to accept $150 a year. Jan De Witt, a friend of Spinoza and the Chief Magistrate of Dutch Republic granted him a state annuity of $150 a year. When Luis XIV, the grand monarch, offered a substantial pension to him with an implied condition that he should dedicate his next book to the king, Spinoza respectfully declined the offer. This reminds us of the great philosophers, Jhales and Socrates!

Spinoza’s father died leaving a little fortune behind. The only sister of Spinoza tried to grab the entire property. Then Spinoza brought an action against her and got his share but gave the same again to his sister. In doing so he wanted to make his sister realise that one should not be greedy.

Spinoza lived a simple life by polishing lenses. Because of his enlightened views, lofty thoughts and noble reasoning he was excommunicated. His life was under constant threat. Consequently he suffered from terrible solitude. Will Durant compares Spinoza with Jesus Christ and remarks that Nietzche, the French Philosopher said that there was only one Christian and he was crucified but he must have forgotten Spinoza! What a great compliment.

Spinoza’s Philosophy liberates mankind, from the tyranny of ignorance, irrational beliefs and misconceptions of life, for the simple reason that Spinoza expressed a doubt about eternity, heaven and hell as they are not referred to in the Old Testament, the entire Christian World turned against him and passed all kinds of stringent prohibitions against him and poured on him all the maledictions under the sky.

Spinoza’s concept of god, nature, matter, mind and such metaphysical aspects is different from the concept of ordinary an man.

The first truth Spinoza spoke of was, “there is only one absolute thing which is god or nature”. What he means by the word ‘absolute’ is, that which is real. According to the Hindu Philosophy nature of PRAKRITI is different from god though god is part and parcel of nature. The Christian view is that god is an individual spirit or person or power capable of thin king like man. Spinoza’s Philosophy is similar to ADVAITA  philosophy. For a thinker it is all an intellectual feast but for a layman it is difficult to understand that all is one and one is all.

The second truth “Nothing finite is self sufficient”. It means individual things are dependent. They can not exist by themselves. Take the example of a fruit. It is a finite thing. It can not exist without a tree and a tree can not exist without earth, water, air, heat, etc,. So also man or any other being.

The third doctrine: “Self preservation is the fundamental motive of persons”. This is understandable. It is the instinct or innate nature of every being that it should survive first some how or other. All other things come next. So, the first importance is self and without self there is no society, no life, nothing.

The fourth doctrine of Spinoza is: “All wrong is due to intellectual error”. Intellectual error is almost equal to ignorance. Man has reasoning faculty, in other words intelligence. He has the power of discrimination. He can tell what is good and what is bad. If the power of discrimination is weak, man is bound to err. In order to avoid error, he has to aquire the power of thinking. If he cultivates the habit of comparing and contrasting in deciding matters he arrives at truth. The more the intellect, the more accurate is the result. In other words sceptical outlook and, scientific, thinking helps man in avoiding evils that arise out of superstitions, irrational beliefs, dogmas and fanaticism which are the consequences of ignorance or wrong reasoning.

The fifth axiom of Spinoza; “All excellent things are as difficult as rare”. This maxim needs no enunciation. How many Kohinoor diamonds are there in the world?  How many Buddhas are there? How many Socrateses are there and how many Christs? We don’t have many Spinozas even.

Descartes, the first great scientific philosopher of the west, said that nature, mind and matter are different from one another but Spinoza said that god and nature are one and the same and matter and mind are one, and god, nature, matter and mind are one. What a cosmic outlook!

The next maxim of Spinoza is this: “All determination is negation”. It means to say that this is truth, this is untruth, this is finite, this is perfect and such assertions are wrong. Putting such limitations is to deny truth. They are the opposites of truth. Spinoza went to the extent of saying that even time may have its limitations. The only thing that has no limitations, according to him, is space because is infinite, absolute and true. That is to say that all perceivable and imperceivable things present in nature constitute god and to take a part of god and say that it is earth. ‘It is man’, ‘It is animal’ ‘It is air’, ‘It is cold’ and so on is untrue. The universe as a whole is one and out of ignorance we see them different. It is indeed a great philosophy.

Spinoza gives great importance to reason. He says, “True virtue is life under the direction of reason”. He expects that all acts and deeds of man must be governed by reason and reason should be our guide or god not to be worshiped but to be followed.

Pithily speaking the Philosophy of Spinoza is that if we do not err in our reasoning and commit intellectual errors we will be safe from all evils. In fact according to this Philosopher, hope and fear are the products of ignorance.

Throughout his life Spinoza strove to liberate mankind from the evils that arise out of the tyranny ignorance. He clearly said that our concept of god is wrong because we believe that god is affected by the emotion of pleasure and pain, moved by love and hatred, but infact god is not pleased by praise or displeased by its absence. He is not like man. Finally he said that if dogs and horses are brutes that perish, man is also a brute that perishes.

One last word about Spinoza, Spinoza lived and died as a bachelor. The only woman he wanted to marry refused because of his simple, stoic life with no financial status. But one thing is true. Of all the world great philosophers, Spinoza is esteemed to be the most lovable and the noblest.