Baruch spinoza biography resumen de hamlet

A forerunner of the Age of EnlightenmentSpinoza significantly influenced modern biblical criticism17th-century rationalismand Dutch intellectual culture, establishing himself as one of the most important and radical philosophers of the early modern period. He received a traditional Jewish education, learning Hebrew and studying sacred texts within the Portuguese Jewish community, where his father was a prominent merchant.

As a young man, Spinoza challenged rabbinic authority and questioned Jewish doctrines, leading to his permanent expulsion from his Jewish community in Following that expulsion, he distanced himself from all religious affiliations and devoted himself to philosophical inquiry and lens grinding. Spinoza attracted a dedicated circle of followers who gathered to discuss his writings and joined him in the intellectual pursuit of truth.

Spinoza published little to avoid persecution and bans on his books. That same year he fled to the Hague, fearing persecution at the hands of a repressive faction led by the Prince of Orange. He continued, nonetheless, to work closely with the Dutch mathematician and scientist Christiaan Huygens, who published major studies in mechanics, optics, astronomy, and probability.

Spinoza died in relative peace in and was buried at the Hague. Modes of the second kind, by contrast, are transitory and finite. Since an eternal and infinite thing cannot be the cause of a transitory and finite thing, it is unclear how the modes of the second kind are supposed to be caused by God. Although Spinoza does not address the problem, a possible solution is to take finite modes to be dependent on God not individually, but as an eternal and infinite chain of causes and effects.

Spinoza also makes little effort to explain the first kind of modes. The "infinite intellect" is the mode immediately following from the attribute of thought, "motion and rest" the mode immediately following from the attribute of extension, and the "face of the whole universe [facies totius universi]" a mediate eternal and infinite mode of extension Letter The notion of "motion and rest" suggests that Spinoza has the fundamental laws of nature in mind.

The "face of the whole universe" appears to refer to the stable order of nature, since Spinoza links the notion to Ethicaii, Lemma 7, Schol. In an appendix to the first part of the Ethica, Spinoza explains the devastating consequences of his philosophical theology for popular views of God. A providential God, who interferes in the course of nature according to his free willrewards and punishes, and performs miracles, is nothing but the "refuge of ignorance [asylum ignorantiae]" of the superstitious.

While Spinoza thus avoids the problems involved in dualistic accounts of mind and body, the unity he assumes is not without obscurities of its own. He describes the mind as the idea of the body Ethicaii, Prop.

Baruch spinoza biography resumen de hamlet: More than ten years

Of particular importance for Spinoza's epistemology are the three kinds of knowledge that he distinguishes in Prop. Whereas the first kind of knowledge is fallible, the other two kinds are necessarily true Ethicaii, Prop. Although a true idea must correspond to its object Ethicai, Ax. What is decisive is if the idea is "adequate" or not, whereby an "adequate" idea is one that has the "intrinsic characteristics of a true idea" Ethicaii, Def.

As a consequence, "he who has a true idea knows at the same time that he has a true idea, and cannot doubt its truth" Ethicaii, Prop. Truth thus becomes "the standard both of itself and of falsehood [norma sui et falsi]" ibid. The third part of the Ethica contains Spinoza's psychology in form of a theory of human affects. Crucial for understanding the affects is the striving "to persist in one's being" Ethicaiii, Prop.

Only God has absolutely unlimited power in himself to attain the goal of the conatus. The power of the modes, on the other hand, depends on God and is limited to varying degrees within the order of nature, which necessarily follows from God's essence, and in which the modes are determined by God to act on one another. In human beings the conatus takes on the form of "desire [appetitus or cupiditas]" which gives rise to two further basic affects: "joy [laetitia]" and "sadness [tristitia].

The latter is caused by an object that decreases a person's power and which he or she will thus attempt to avoid Ethicaiii, Definition of the Affects 1—3. Fundamental, moreover, is the distinction between active affects, of which human beings are the "adequate cause," and passive affects that are caused by external objects. With this, Spinoza has set up the conceptual framework for a detailed account and explanation of human affects "in the geometric manner" Ethicaiii, Praef.

Spinoza's ethics is clearly egoistic: to act virtuously means "to preserve one's own being […] under the guidance of reason," which in turn means to act with a view to "one's own advantage [proprium utile]" Ethicaiv, Prop. As a consequence, goodness or badness are not inherent properties of things or actions but depend on their utility or lack of utility for attaining the objects of desire Ethicaiv, Def.

Since intellectual perfection is the highest level of power accessible to human beings, they — insofar as they are rational — desire nothing but "understanding [intelligere]" Ethicaiv, Prop. This, therefore, is "the highest good" and the "highest virtue" of the mind Ethicaiv, Prop. The power derived from understanding is manifold: it liberates human beings at least to some extent from the "bondage [servitus]" to passive affects, since next to the highest good, external things that are good or bad, but beyond their control, become less important.

Moreover, their affective reaction to what happens to them will diminish and their tranquility increase through the knowledge that all things are predetermined and that human beings are "part of the whole of nature" Appendix. By means of the better rational control over their affects, human beings become less vulnerable to external causes that toss them back and forth "like the waves of the sea when driven by contrary winds" Ethicaiii, Prop.

At the same time, intellectual activity is an active affect and entirely under our control. It thus represents the highest form of freedom in the sense of self-determination accessible to human beings. Since knowledge sub specie aeternitatis, according to Spinoza, allows the mind to participate in God's eternity, it constitutes the goal of the striving to "persist in one's being.

For "no individual thing in nature is more advantageous to man than a man who lives by the guidance of reason" Ethicaiv, Prop. Moreover, in contrast to material goods, "the greatest good," i. Solidarity and mutual help are thus good for purely utilitarian reasons. Its goal may be described as creating the conditions for the project's implementation.

Baruch spinoza biography resumen de hamlet: Spinoza is trying to

After all, a philosophical life cannot be led by someone who does not have the "freedom to philosophize [libertas philosophandi]," or whom the "prejudices of theologians" prevent from "devoting [applicare]" his life to philosophy. These, according to Spinoza, were the main reasons for working out his critique of religion in the ttp Letter The chief purpose of this critique is to show that Scripture can make no legitimate claim to truth.

This will take away both the fear felt by the potential philosopher when a demonstrated proposition conflicts with a theological doctrine and the authority of the theologian to persecute a person for holding views that disagree with the teachings of Scripture. Of crucial importance for attaining this purpose are the first two chapters of the ttp, which deal with "prophecy or revelation [prophetia sive revelation]" and with the biblical prophets.

Spinoza recurs to a distinction between intellect and imagination that was common in the Aristotelian tradition and that Maimonides had already used for explaining prophecy. According to Maimonides, the prophet has both a highly developed intellect and a highly developed imagination, whereby the latter allows him to translate his intellectual insights into a simple and vivid language that can be understood by his uneducated audience.

According to Spinoza, on the other hand, the prophet does not excel through his "more perfect intellect," but only through his "more lively imagination [potentia vividius imaginandi]" ttp 2. Prophetic discourse, therefore, has no true cognitive content; it is only persuasive through images and symbols which are adjusted to the audience's limited capacity for understanding and help securing obedience to the law.

Moreover, Spinoza intends to show through a detailed examination of the meaning of biblical terms that when the Bible describes the prophets as being filled with "the spirit of God or the holy spirit," it only intends to highlight their "exceptional virtue. Prophecy thus understood is neither specifically Jewish, nor can a claim to "election [vocatio]" be derived from it.

For Spinoza Israel's election refers only to the political success of the ancient Hebrew state based on Moses' legislation. The election ended with the state's disintegration. That the Jewish people nonetheless continues to exist he explains through its insistence to keep up "external rituals" such as the "sign of circumcision [signum circumcisionis]" through which it sets itself apart from other nations and provokes their hatred ttp 3.

Moses' legislation, in particular the "ceremonial law [ceremoniae]" ttp 5is exclusively political in nature. As a "human law [lex humana]" ttp 4 it aims only at "preserving life and the commonwealth," promising no more than "worldly happiness [temporanea foelicitas]" to those who observe it ttp 5. By contrast, the "divine law [lex divina]" aims at the "highest good, i.

Also the distinction between human and divine law Spinoza took over from Maimonides, at the same time turning it against its original intention. Whereas Maimonides identified the Torah with the divine law and presented Moses as a philosopher and lawgiver in the Platonic sense, Spinoza demotes Moses to a simple lawgiver whose legislation became obsolete after the downfall of the Hebrew state.

This reversal of the Maimonidean model is a good example for the influence of Uriel da Costa and other Jewish heterodox thinkers on Spinoza. Their denial that the immortality of the soul is a biblical doctrine presumably underlies his claim that the Mosaic Law only promises "worldly happiness," and not eternal happiness which is the reward of "the true knowledge and love of God.

The reason for the belief in miracles, according to Spinoza, is the ignorance of causal connections ttp 6.

Baruch spinoza biography resumen de hamlet: The document provides background information

The demolition of the traditional notion of revelation allows Spinoza to refute the premises of the exegesis promoted by Maimonides which attempts to harmonize philosophy and Scripture. In Spinoza's view this amounts to the "distorting and explaining away of Scripture" ttp 7 with the goal to "extract" from it "Aristotelian nonsense [nugas Aristotelicas]" ttp 1.

It allows him likewise to refute the central claim underlying the hermeneutics of the Calvinist Church: that the understanding of Scripture requires the super-rational illumination by the holy spirit. Against these approaches Spinoza calls for the unconditional acceptance of Scripture's literal sense based on the methodological principle that "the knowledge of all the contents of Scripture must be sought from Scripture alone.

The Principles of Descartes's Philosophy contain many of the characteristic elements of his later work, but Spinoza seems to have realized that a full exposition of his own philosophical views would require many years of devoted reflection. In the meantime, he turned his attention briefly to other issues of personal and social importance.

The Tractatus Theologico-Politicus A Theologico-Political Treatise is an examination of superficial popular religion and a vigorous critique of the miltant Protestantism practiced by Holland's ruling House of Orange. Spinoza disavowed anthropomorphic conceptions of god as both logically and theologically unsound, proposed modern historical-critical methods for biblical interpretation, and defended political toleration of alternative religious practices.

Christians and Jews, he argued, could live peaceably together provided that they rose above the petty theological and cultural controversies that divided them.