Baruch
Spinoza was a Jewish-Dutch philosopher whose work played the key role in
formation of the modern Western thought. He paved the way to modern rationalism
because of rejecting the Descartes’ mind-body realism and the traditional presentation
of God by the Jewish and Christian traditions. The importance of his work,
however, was realized only after his premature death. His philosophy is about
Ethics, in which those who love the nature are those who believe that there
is a God. God who made all the things that we see and everything happens
follows from the nature of God. The relationship between God and Nature are one
and the same thing, it is the whole, infinite, and eternal of the life within
which everything was absolutely exist. God’s creation of nature was motivated
by a purpose. Not only the nature he created but also the human beings, so that
God is assumed to have human characteristics.
One of the great rationalists of 17th
century philosophy was a Jewish Dutch philosopher named Baruch Spinoza. He was
born into a family of Jewish emigrants fleeing persecution in Portugal in
Amsterdam in 1632. Spinoza's father,
Michael, was a successful merchant and a respected member of the community. His
mother, Hanna, the second of Michael's three wives, died in 1638, just before
Spinoza was to turn six.His masterpiece, “The Ethics”, which
questioned the traditional beliefs and conceptions of God, humans, nature, and
the entire universe as a whole, firmly established his positions as a prominent
influence on Western Philosophy and Thought. His controversial beliefs on
theology and moral practices brought him in the midst of broiling conflict and
controversy with the Jewish and Christian communities. However, in the 18th and
19th century, his work began garnering praise and approval.In
1670, Spinoza moved to The Hague, where he continued working on his political
treatise, and other essays including ‘On the Rainbow’ and ‘On
the Calculation of Chances’. He also began composing a Dutch translation of
the Bible, and another unfinished Hebrew work, which he later destroyed. In
1676, he finished compiling and published his masterpiece, “The
Ethics”. Inthe same year, his health started disappearing, and it worsened
the next year. After a prolonged struggle against lung illness, Baruch Spinoza
passed away on February 20, 1677. He was buried in the cemetery of the
Christian Neuwied Kerch in The Hague.
His philosophy is summarized in the
Ethics, a very abstract work, which openly expresses none of the love of nature
that might be expected from someone who identified God with nature. And
Spinoza's starting point is not nature or the universe, but a purely theoretical
definition of God. Spinoza believed that everything that exists is God.
However, he did not hold the converse view that God is no more than the sum of
what exists. God had infinite qualities, of which we can perceive only two,
thought and extension. Hence God must also exist in dimensions far beyond those
of the visible world. Significantly, Spinoza titled his chief work “The
Ethics”. He derived an ethic by deduction from fundamental principles, and so
his ethics were closely linked to his view of "God or nature" as
everything. The highest good, he asserted, was knowledge of God, which was
capable of bringing freedom from tyranny by the passions, freedom from fear,
resignation to destiny, and true blessedness. Spinoza was of the belief that there is no dualism between God and the nature; we need not go beyond the immediate
present experience to seek for a being outside of it. God moves and lives in
nature; the whole of it, the entire universe is God. Man, in his egotistical
way has imagined God to be like him; to be anthropomorphic in character; and,
further, man imagines that this God has a special interest in, and concern for
man. For him God does not love nor hate. The totality of God existence and the
Nature, is far above us, and is indifferent to our desires and aspirations, so
that gone is the conception of a personal God. As for the concepts of good and
evil, they exist, but only to the extent that they fit our own personal
inclinations.
In my own understanding of Spinoza’s
philosophy, he believes that everything we have
around us and what we see is because of God, many theories are asking where it
really came from, so Spinoza proved it all that he himself in the first place did
not believe in God. But because of the goodness of God who saves him, now he is
one who proves that God is true. A person who believes in God is considered as
his likeness. God lives. How can I know that God lives? I know God is alive
because I talk to him every day. I cannot hear his voice but I feel his
presence, I feel his guidance, my heart experiences his love and I seek his
blessings. There are many events in my life that can only be explained by the
living reality, God who created everything and has a will for me. A miracle
that God saved and changed me and I could not identify and praise him. He was
always there by my side to guide and he became the center of my life since he
was acquainted and accepted as a friend and savior. Ultimately, the fact that
a living God is worthy and acceptable by faith. Belief and faith in God is not
as glorious as possible in the darkness but it is a safe step toward the clear
place where salvation is present. Human nature is why we became humans. We have
the emotions and intelligence of our nature in the nature of animals and all
other creations of God. One of the unique differences between people in all
creation is our ability to reason out. No other creature has this capacity and
it is uncertain that this unique gift has been given to us by God. Our
reasoning gives us the ability to show our nature and our likeness as God as
well as the ability to understand the will of God for his creation. No one else
has created God capable of reasoning like man. Man is created by God with
intelligence and therefore he has the ability to choose, think and decide. It
reflects the intelligence and freedom of God. In times when a person invents
something or a machine, writes a book, paints a work, identifies a thing, it
reflects the fact that man is made according to his likeness.
Therefore,
I conclude that everything is created by God, especially the nature is what we
must protect, care and value the most. He created humans to care for the nature
that we see today. These humans are considered as God’s likeness because of their
ability to reason out. I believe that there is a God because even if we do not
see him in his physical form, he is always there in our side to keep us in a
good state and guide in everything. When we accept him in our hearts, it is an
instrument leading to the place where salvation exists. Spinoza says that
“Desire is the very essence of man’’. For me, this means that what the man
wants is the one he will give further appreciation. Like God, he wants us to
protect his creations, so for him it is very important because we should give
care and love our nature. Giving gratitude in something is the key to acquire
blessings from God.
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Alipala, Georgette Rhein P. ( ABM111-1A )
Arf Arf
