Spinoza Slides notes Flashcards
Spinoza is a believer of what type of ideas?
a priori ideas
What century was Spinoza alive in?
17th century
Spinoza was from what community?
Sephardic jewish community
What did Spinoza flee? Where did he flee to and from?
He fled the Catholic inquisition in Portugal to Amsterdam
is Spinoza an empiricist or rationalist? What view?
rationalist with a mechanistic view
Deus Sive Natura
god or (in other words) nature
Rejection of free will
He knows we make choices but they are not free (cause and effect)
Monism
everything is one thing
Pantheism
God is nature. Nature is god. God isn’t separate from us because he is infinite.
what happened to him in relation to the Jewish community?
He was excommunicated from the Jewish community
Geometrical method parts
- Definitions
- Axioms
- Propositions
- (demonstrations)
Definitions
Starts with giving the basic definition of everything
Axiom
relates two or more terms together
Propositions
make statements ab the world
Demonstrations
Proof of the propositions being true
Proof for God’s Existence
Definition 1: “self-caused”
- Causa Sui
- Essence involves existence
- Can only be conceived as existing
Proof for God’s Existence
Definition 3: “Substance”
- in itself and conceived through itself
- exists and is thought about in total independence
Bringing together “self-caused” and “substance”
you have to be self-caused to be a substance
Proof for God’s Existence
Definition 4: “Attribute”
The essence of a substance
(Essence: nature)
Proof for God’s Existence
Definition 5: “Mode”
- Modifications of a substance
- Is in (and is conceived) through something else
Proof for God’s Existence
Definition 6: “God”
- Absolutely infinite being
- Has infinite attributes
All things are either in _____ or in _____
- All things are either in themselves or in something else.
- Are either a “substance” or a “mode.”