Spinoza was born in
Amsterdam in 1632, into a
Jewish family fleeing persecution in
Portugal. Though he was trained in the
Talmudic tradition, his views took him in directions counter to the
Jewish community. Fearing renewed
persecution on charges of
atheism Spinoza was offered 1000
florins to keep quiet. Spinoza refused. At 24 he was summoned before a court of
rabbies and excommunicated.
The philosophy of Spinoza is summarized in the Ethics. This abstract work of philsophy is built up of rigorous definitions, axioms, propositions and corollaries. The Ethics starts by building a definition of God. Spinoza believed that everything that exists is God, but yet God is more than the sum of what exists.
Spinoza's philosophy is heavly influenced by Stoicism. The existance of a supreme rational thing, the acceptance of destiny, harmony with nature, and the indiffrence to humanity.
Selected quotes from the Ethics:
Whatsoever is, is in God, and without God nothing can be, or be conceived. {I.15}
Individual things are nothing but modifications of the attributes of God, or modes by which the attributes of God are expressed in a fixed and definite manner. {I.25}
The more we understand particular things, the more we understand God. {v.24}
God is without passions, neither is he affected by any emotion of pleasure or pain . . . Strictly speaking, God does not love anyone. {V.17}
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return. {V.19}
Hatred can never be good. We endeavor to destroy the man we hate; that is we endeavor to do something bad. Envy, derision, contempt, anger, revenge, and the other emotions related to hatred or arising from hatred are bad. Whatever we desire as a result of being affected by hatred is base, and, in a state, unjust.
Every man, from the laws of his own nature, necessarily seeks or avoids what he judges to be good or evil. {IV.19}
Desire arising from pleasure is, other things being equal, stronger than desire arising from pain. {IV.18}
Pleasure is not itself bad, but good. On the other hand, pain is in itself bad. {IV.41}