" The Ethics " by Baruch Spinoza

      

       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 17^th 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 18^th and 19^th 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.

    - Alipala, Georgette Rhein P. ( ABM111-1A )