Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom

Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by NoB4Mouth on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @09:28AM (#17073732)

Spinoza was to the medieval Europe what Socrates had been to the Ancient Greece. Their ideas came to free human mindset from the enslavement the religious. Those ideas were a threat to the establishment of their days that were using gods to prey on the masses. No wonder Socrates has to be sentenced to death. Spinoza found refuge in the then tolerant Netherlands. Coincidence or not? Spinoza middle name is Benedictus => the Title of current Pope .... Hope the latter turns a modern days Spinoza...

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by baldfat on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @10:18AM (#17074065)

I never understand the idea that Spinoza was an atheist. Sure his ideas of God were not Judeo-Christian but he did believe in the super-natural that we see in action through nature. Spinoza was 100% a theist and wrote about God and advocated for the evidence of a God. I almost laugh when agnostics try to use him as their champion. They are ramming their own beliefs into this Philosopher that it is not respectful to Spignoza's writing. My example is since he saved Ethics to be released on his death why wasn't he clear on the rejection of God or place more on Deist statements?

Prop. 28

"The mind's highest good is the knowledge of God, and the mind's highest virtue is to know God. ...The mind is not capable of understanding anything higher than God, that is, than a Being absolutely infinite, and without which nothing can either be or be conceived; therefore, the mind's highest utility or good is the knowledge of God. Again, the mind is active, only in so far as it understands, and only to the same extent can it be said absolutely to act virtuously. The mind's absolute virtue is therefore to understand."

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by JoeAltmaier on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @10:20AM (#17074081)

Digression: I'm suspicious of philosophy because it throws around absolutes with nothing to back them. Like 'The mind is not capable of understanding blah blah'. Really? What is this supposition based upon? Its like saying there's a highest number we can understand - but what if we add 1 to that?

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by baldfat on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @10:56AM (#17074373)

Welcome to philosophy and why we are still in this mess academically in the 21st Century.

Welcome to philosophy's number one question. What can we base anything on? To Spinoza it is rationalism. Soren Kierkegaard (My son is named after him) there is nothing but faith that we must leap upon when we have no faith.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by benjohnson on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @12:28PM (#17075163)

>>I'm suspicious of philosophy because it throws around absolutes with nothing to back

Bertrand Russel had a definition of Philosophy that fits your suspicion - in that he said that Philosophy is the contested no-mans land between Theology and Science.

Hence - you're probably not going to find absolutes.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by rhizome on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @12:31PM (#17075195)

but what if we add 1 to that?

He's talking about the name of that number.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by billybatson on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @12:01PM (#17074933)

Do you think that there is no limit to human understanding?

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by whatshisface on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @12:06PM (#17074981)

Whatever it is, it's a psychological question. The only hope of answering it would be to go around measuring how much people could understand - and if that wasn't possible (due to understanding not being defined, i.e. not really meaning anything specific, or due to it just being really difficult to measure), then you'd have no chance of ever knowing.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by meric on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @10:40AM (#17074228)

By your definition once 1 is added it’s not a number we can understand.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by Retra on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @10:58AM (#17074385)

Yes, but the claim is that there is such a number, not that it can be defined.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by chrisvalleybay on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @01:11PM (#17075565)

A number is simply a state; a concept held by a state machine, such as a human. Numbers do not exist, but to the enumerator.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by Retra on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @10:46PM (#17079653)

Then it will be especially hard to argue that an inconceivable number exists.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by zambal on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @09:48AM (#17073870)

Spinoza didn't find refuge in the Netherlands, he was born there. His grandfather moved from Portugal to the Netherlands though.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by coliveira on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @10:59AM (#17074408)

I think this is in reference to his family moving due to religious persecution.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by NoB4Mouth on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @01:11PM (#17075560)

Edit: Pope Benedictus XVI served as Pope from 2005 to 2013. The current Pope is Francis. Bear with my ignorance of the world's current news. I don't watch TV, nor Facebook-too distractive-. I'm a Hacker News addict. I come here on average 5 times/day.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by krylon on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @12:32PM (#17075201)

> medieval Europe

He lived in the 1600s, that is not medieval, it's Renaissance. (Sorry for nitpicking.)

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by NoB4Mouth on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @01:22PM (#17075686)

:) i'm fine with your nitpicking! I read Spinoza in high school - a decade+ back- the accuracy of timing is so porous. @ University i opted for Social Anthropology instead of Philosophy. I still have some remorse about that choice today...

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by krylon on Thursday May 17, 2018 @11:07AM (#17091926)

FWIW, I did study Philosophy, but dropped out after just one semester. However I have not read anything written by Spinoza.

He must have been an interesting person, though. In his day job, he created lenses that powered the first microscopes and the telescope(s) that Christiaan Huygens used to observe Saturn's rings. A true Renaissance man, indeed!

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by dEnigma on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @11:16AM (#17074548)

The current pope is called Francis, or Franciscus.

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by ezequiel-garzon on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @09:39AM (#17073808)

Francis is not legit?

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Re:Spinoza’s philosophy of freedom by brain5ide on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @11:34AM (#17074713)

Yeah. It was basically like Underwood in HoC.

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