Spinoza on Human Bondage and Freedom + Kalam Cosmological arguement

Question 1

What are affects in the context of power and activity?

Answer 1

Changes in our power to persevere in our being (Conatus)

Affects can increase or decrease our power of activity.

Question 2

What are the three basic affects?

Answer 2

• Desire: Appetite with consciousness
• Pleasure: Transition from a less to a greater perfection
• Pain: Transition from a greater to a less perfection

Question 3

Define love as an affect.

Answer 3

Pleasure accompanied by the idea of an external cause

Question 4

Define hatred as an affect.

Answer 4

Pain accompanied by the idea of an external cause

Question 5

What is anger characterized by?

Answer 5

Desire to injure someone we hate

Question 6

Define fear as an affect.

Answer 6

Inconstant pain arising from the idea of something uncertain

Question 7

What is the difference between active and passive affects?

Answer 7

• Active affects arise from our own nature and knowledge
• Passive affects arise from external causes

Question 8

What does human bondage refer to in the context of affects?

Answer 8

Our passions, arising from external objects, make us slaves to fortune

Question 9

What is the highest good according to the text?

Answer 9

The knowledge of God

Question 10

What is considered the highest virtue?

Answer 10

To know God

Question 11

How can we conceive of things in relation to God?

Answer 11

• In relation to time and place
• As contained in God

Question 12

How does understanding things under the aspect of eternity affect passions?

Answer 12

Weakens the power of passions

Question 13

What is equanimity?

Answer 13

Self-control and calmness of mind

Question 14

What is the essence of Spinoza’s Ethics?

Answer 14

The highest good is common to all, promoting harmony and agreement among those guided by reason

Question 15

Question: State the premises of the Kalam Cosmological Argument.

Answer 15

1.Everything that begins to exist has a cause for its origin.
2.The universe began to exist.
3.Therefore, the universe has a cause for its origin.
4.No scientific explanation can provide a causal account of the origin of the universe.
5.Therefore, the cause must be God

Question 16

What does the Kalam Cosmological Argument conclude about the universe?

Answer 16

The universe has a cause

Question 17

What is the causal principle?

Answer 17

The causal principle states that everything that begins to exist has a cause. The Kalam argument relies on this principle to argue that the universe, having a beginning, must have a cause

Question 18

What claim does the argument make about the universe’s beginning?

Answer 18

The universe had a beginning, not an infinite past

Question 19

What does the argument say about scientific explanations for the universe’s origin?

Answer 19

They cannot account for the universe’s origin, as they are part of the universe itself

Question 20

Who is considered the cause of the universe according to the argument?

Answer 20

God, a being outside of the universe

Question 21

What is a criticism of the Kalam Cosmological Argument?

Answer 21

The argument relies on the controversial theory of presentism, which claims only the present moment is real. Modern physics may support an eternalist view of time, where the past and future are equally real

Question 22

What is Stephen Hawking’s view on the universe?

Answer 22

The universe is a self-contained system, with no need for an external cause. He believed that the laws of physics allow for a universe without a creator

Question 23

Question: What is virtue, and how does it relate to understanding?

Answer 23

Virtue is the ability to understand and act according to reason. The mind’s highest good is the knowledge of God, and its highest virtue is to know God

Question 24

What are two scientific models of the universe’s origin?

Answer 24

• Eternal Inflation (and the Multiverse)
• Cyclical Cosmology

Question 25

What is “conatus,” and how does it relate to human affects?

Answer 25

Conatus is Spinoza’s term for the innate striving of every thing to persevere in its being. Affects are changes in this power, for better or for worse

Question 26

Who are the key figures associated with the Kalam Cosmological Argument?

Answer 26

William Lane Craig and Abu Hamid Al Ghazali are two key figures associated with the Kalam Cosmological Argument