SPINOZA,
THE GREAT PHILOSOPHER
Lives of
great men are examples for intellectual beauty and the life of Spinoza is one
such example. Spinoza, born in a Jewish family, was excommunicated by his own
people because of his liberal views and critical outlook on god and religion.
He was offered 1000 florins a year to conceal his views but he refused. He was
treated as a heretic and an atheist and was thought to be a great menace to
society. Once a religious fanatic made an attempt on his life but he narrowly
escaped with a minor injury.
Spinoza was
born in the year 1632 in Spain or Portugal, lived in Holland and died in the
year 1677. How amazingly incorruptible his mind was and how indifferent he was
to money and wealth, a few examples will show. Simon De Vries, a rich merchant
of Amsterdam who had great admiration for Spinoza offered him a gift of $1000
and begged him to accept it. Spinoza did not accept it. While executing a will
later De Vries proposed to give his entire property to Spinoza. Instead of
accepting it Spinoza persuaded De Vries to bequeath all his property to his
brother. The merchant however left a will behind in which be made an
arrangement for payment of $250 a year to Spinoza. Spinoza politely declined
and said “Nature is satisfied with a little and if she is, I am also”. With
great persuation, he was made to accept $150 a year. Jan De Witt, a friend of
Spinoza and the Chief Magistrate of Dutch Republic granted him a state annuity
of $150 a year. When Luis XIV, the grand monarch, offered a substantial pension
to him with an implied condition that he should dedicate his next book to the
king, Spinoza respectfully declined the offer. This reminds us of the great
philosophers, Jhales and Socrates!
Spinoza’s
father died leaving a little fortune behind. The only sister of Spinoza tried
to grab the entire property. Then Spinoza brought an action against her and got
his share but gave the same again to his sister. In doing so he wanted to make
his sister realise that one should not be greedy.
Spinoza lived
a simple life by polishing lenses. Because of his enlightened views, lofty
thoughts and noble reasoning he was excommunicated. His life was under constant
threat. Consequently he suffered from terrible solitude. Will Durant compares
Spinoza with Jesus Christ and remarks that Nietzche, the French Philosopher
said that there was only one Christian and he was crucified but he must have
forgotten Spinoza! What a great compliment.
Spinoza’s
Philosophy liberates mankind, from the tyranny of ignorance, irrational beliefs
and misconceptions of life, for the simple reason that Spinoza expressed a
doubt about eternity, heaven and hell as they are not referred to in the Old
Testament, the entire Christian World turned against him and passed all kinds
of stringent prohibitions against him and poured on him all the maledictions
under the sky.
Spinoza’s
concept of god, nature, matter, mind and such metaphysical aspects is different
from the concept of ordinary an man.
The first
truth Spinoza spoke of was, “there is only one absolute thing which is god or
nature”. What he means by the word ‘absolute’ is, that which is real. According
to the Hindu Philosophy nature of PRAKRITI is different from god though
god is part and parcel of nature. The Christian view is that god is an
individual spirit or person or power capable of thin king like man. Spinoza’s
Philosophy is similar to ADVAITA philosophy. For a thinker it is all an intellectual feast but for
a layman it is difficult to understand that all is one and one is all.
The second
truth “Nothing finite is self sufficient”. It means individual things are
dependent. They can not exist by themselves. Take the example of a fruit. It is
a finite thing. It can not exist without a tree and a tree can not exist without
earth, water, air, heat, etc,. So also man or any other being.
The third
doctrine: “Self preservation is the fundamental motive of persons”. This is
understandable. It is the instinct or innate nature of every being that it
should survive first some how or other. All other things come next. So, the
first importance is self and without self there is no society, no life,
nothing.
The fourth
doctrine of Spinoza is: “All wrong is due to intellectual error”. Intellectual
error is almost equal to ignorance. Man has reasoning faculty, in other words
intelligence. He has the power of discrimination. He can tell what is good and
what is bad. If the power of discrimination is weak, man is bound to err. In
order to avoid error, he has to aquire the power of thinking. If he cultivates
the habit of comparing and contrasting in deciding matters he arrives at truth.
The more the intellect, the more accurate is the result. In other words
sceptical outlook and, scientific, thinking helps man in avoiding evils that arise
out of superstitions, irrational beliefs, dogmas and fanaticism which are the
consequences of ignorance or wrong reasoning.
The fifth
axiom of Spinoza; “All excellent things are as difficult as rare”. This maxim
needs no enunciation. How many Kohinoor diamonds are there in the world? How many Buddhas are there? How many
Socrateses are there and how many Christs? We don’t have many Spinozas even.
Descartes,
the first great scientific philosopher of the west, said that nature, mind and
matter are different from one another but Spinoza said that god and nature are
one and the same and matter and mind are one, and god, nature, matter and mind
are one. What a cosmic outlook!
The next
maxim of Spinoza is this: “All determination is negation”. It means to say that
this is truth, this is untruth, this is finite, this is perfect and such
assertions are wrong. Putting such limitations is to deny truth. They are the
opposites of truth. Spinoza went to the extent of saying that even time may
have its limitations. The only thing that has no limitations, according to him,
is space because is infinite, absolute and true. That is to say that all
perceivable and imperceivable things present in nature constitute god and to
take a part of god and say that it is earth. ‘It is man’, ‘It is animal’ ‘It is
air’, ‘It is cold’ and so on is untrue. The universe as a whole is one and out
of ignorance we see them different. It is indeed a great philosophy.
Spinoza gives
great importance to reason. He says, “True virtue is life under the direction
of reason”. He expects that all acts and deeds of man must be governed by
reason and reason should be our guide or god not to be worshiped but to be
followed.
Pithily
speaking the Philosophy of Spinoza is that if we do not err in our reasoning
and commit intellectual errors we will be safe from all evils. In fact
according to this Philosopher, hope and fear are the products of ignorance.
Throughout
his life Spinoza strove to liberate mankind from the evils that arise out of
the tyranny ignorance. He clearly said that our concept of god is wrong because
we believe that god is affected by the emotion of pleasure and pain, moved by
love and hatred, but infact god is not pleased by praise or displeased by its
absence. He is not like man. Finally he said that if dogs and horses are brutes
that perish, man is also a brute that perishes.
One last word
about Spinoza, Spinoza lived and died as a bachelor. The only woman he wanted
to marry refused because of his simple, stoic life with no financial status.
But one thing is true. Of all the world great philosophers, Spinoza is esteemed
to be the most lovable and the noblest.