MODERN PHILOSOPHY

Baruch or Benedict Spinoza (1632 – 1677)

Jewish philosopher born in Amsterdam.

LIFE

Spinoza's works were listed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books) by the Roman Catholic Church.

He was excommunicated by the Jewish community.

He worked grinding lenses for glasses, microscope, and telescopes.

Spinoza either died of tuberculosis. Breathing glass dust didn't cause the disease. 

PHILOSOPHY

Ethics Demonstrated in Geometrical Order

Dutch Jewish Philosopher
rationalist
Work: Ethics


He opposed Descartes mind–body dualism.

His books were burned by Protestants.

Spinoza was a lens grinder.
He died at 44 of a lung illness.
He turned down prestigious teaching positions.
Gave his family inheritance to his sister.

Philosophy


Mind and body are the same thing. Everything is one substance.
God and nature are the same thing - the same substance.
God/Nature are infinite.
God/Nature are perfect.

     The world seems imperfect because our perceptions are limited.
God/Nature are deterministic. Nothing happens by chance
There is no free will.
People assume they have free will because they are aware of their desires, but they are unaware of their causes (Letter to G. H. Schaller).

Good and evil are pleasure and pain.
All rights are derived from the State.
Three types of knowledge – opinion, reason, and intuition.