Salvation from Despair: A Reappraisal of Spinoza’s Philosophy

281 Pages·1973·20.514 MB·English

by  Errol E. Harris (auth.)

SALVATION FROM DESPAIR
ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES
INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
59
ERROL E. HARRIS
SALVATION FROM DESPAIR
A REAPPRAISAL OF SPINOZA'S PHILOSOPHY
Directors: P. Dibon (Paris) and R. Popkin (Univ. of California, La Jolla)
Editorial Board:J. Aubin (Paris) ;j. Collins (St. Louis Univ.); P. Costabel (Paris); A. Crom
bie (Oxford); 1. Dambska (Cracow); H. de la Fontaine Verwey (Amsterdam); H. Gadamer
(Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris); T. Gregory (Rome); T. E.jessop (Hull); P. O. Kristeller
(Columbia Univ.); Elisabeth Labrousse (Paris); S. Lindroth (Upsala); A. Lossky (Los
Angeles); j. Orcibal (Paris); I. S. Revaht (Paris); j. Roger (Paris); H. Rowen (Rutgers
Univ., N.Y.); G. Sebba (Emory Univ., Atlanta); R. Shackleton (Oxford); j. Tans (Gro-
ningen); G. Tonelli (Binghamton, N.Y.).
ERROL E. HARRIS
Professor of Philosop~p in the Northwestern University
SALVATION FROM DESPAIR
A REAPPRAISAL OF SPINOZA'S PHILOSOPHY
MARTINUS NIjHOFF / THE HAGUE / 1973
© 1973 by Martinus NijhojJ, The Hague, Netherlands
Soflcaver reprint oft he hardcover Js t edition J9 73
All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form
ISBN-I3: 978-94-010-2497-6 e-ISBN-I3: 978-94-010-2495-2
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-2495-2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface IX
Frontispiece XI
PART I
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1. CONTEMPORARY DESPAIR AND ITS ANTIDOTE 3
1. Forebodings 3
2. Reactions against the Past 4
3. Groundspring of Philosophy 8
4. Spinoza's Scientific Attitude 11
CHAPTER II. GEOMETRICAL METHOD 15
1. The Primacy of Knowledge 15
2. Critics of Spinoza's Method 19
3. Deduction 21
4. Geometry and Metaphysics 28
PART II
GOD
CHAPTER III. THE ABSURDITY OF ATHEISM 33
1. Is Spinoza an Atheist? 33
2. The Conception of God 35
3. The Existence of God 39
4. Dismissal of the Indictment 46
CHAPTER IV. GOD'S CREATIVITY 48
1. Natura Naturans and Natura Naturata 48
2. Attributes and Modes 50
3. Modes, Infinite and Finite 55
4. The Causality of God 57
VI TABLE OF CONTENTS
5. Interpretations, Comment and Criticism 58
6. Solution of the Problem 64
7. Residual Difficulties 69
PART III
MAN
CHAPTER V. BODY AND MIND 77
1. The Material World 77
2. Mind as Felt Body 80
3. Substantial Identity 82
4. Rejection of Parallelism 84
5. Alleged Ambiguity of 'Idea' 85
6. Idea Ideae 87
7. Passivity and Activity 89
8. Imaginatio 93
9. The Common Order of Nature - Time, Measure and Number 98
10. Adequate Knowledge 103
CHAPTER VI. PASSION AND ACTION 110
1. Affects Ito
2. Conatus 110
3. Primary and Secondary Affects 113
4. Active Emotions 118
5. 'Human Nature' 119
6. Freedom 122
7. Teleology 126
8. The Will and Human Responsibility 132
PART IV
HUMAN WELFARE
CHAPTER VII. GOOD AND EVIL 141
1. Aids to the Imagination 141
2. True Good and Supreme Good 143
3. Perfection 144
4. One coherent Doctrine 145
5. Spinoza and Plato on the Good and the Expedient 147
6. Moral Weakness 149
7. The Reality of Evil 152
CHAPTER VIII. THE MASTERY OF FATE 160
I. Of Human Bondage 160
2. The Mastery over the Passions 166
TABLE OF CONTENTS VII
3. The Dictates of Reason 172
4. Selfishness and Self-sacrifice 174
5. Vice and Virtue 176
CHAPTER IX. THE STATE AND POLITICS
1. Ethics, Politics and History 181
2. Philosophical Roots 182
3. Natural Law, Natural Rights and the State of Nature 183
4. Sovereignty and Law 188
5. The Rights and Powers of the Sovereign 191
6. Limitations on the Power and Action of the State 193
7. Political Freedom 196
8. Practical Considerations 197
CHAPTER X. RELIGION 201
1. Philosophy and Religion 201
2. The Intellectual Love of God 202
3. The Tractatus Theologico-Politicus 205
4. Revealed Religion and Superstition 207
5. Biblical Criticism 210
6. Prophecy 215
7. The Election of the Jews 219
8. Miracles 221
9. The True and Universal Religion 222
10. Spinoza's Attitude to Christianity 225
CHAPTER XI. HUMAN IMMORTALITY 227
I. The final Problem 227
2. Traditional Ideas of Immortality 228
3. A Common Interpretation of Spinoza 231
4. Difficulties and Criticisms 232
5. Idea as Transcendent 235
6. Time and Eternity 237
7. Mind as Idea of Body 239
8. Misinterpretations and Misconceptions 243
9. Blessedness 246
Epilogue 247
Chapter XII Spinoza in Retrospect 249
Bibliographical Appendix 259
Index 263
PREFACE
My purpose in this book is to re-interpret the philosophy of Spinoza to a
new generation. I make no attempt to compete with the historical scholar
ship of A. H. Wolfson in tracing back Spinoza's ideas to his Ancient,
Hebrew and Mediaeval forerunners, or the meticulous philosophical
scrutiny of Harold Joachim, which I could wish to emulate but cannot
hope to rival. I have simply relied upon the text of Spinoza's own writings
in an effort to grasp and to make intelligible to others the precise meaning
of his doctrine, and to decide whether, in spite of numerous apparent and
serious internal conflicts, it can be understood as a consistent whole. In
so doing I have found it necessary to correct what seem to me t0' be mis
conceptions frequently entertained by commentators. Whether or not I
am right in my re-interpretation, it will, I hope, contribute something
fresh, if not to the knowledge of Spinoza, at least to the discussion of what
he really meant to say.
The limits within which I am constrained to write prevent me from
drawing fully upon the great mass of scholarly writings on Spinoza, his
life and times, his works and his philosophical ideas. I can only try to
make amends for omissions by listing the most important works in the
Spinoza bibliography, for reference by those who would seek to know
more about his philosophy. This list I have added as an appendix. Here
I shall, at the outset, mention only Spinoza's own philosophical writings
and the abbreviations I have used in referring to them in footnotes:
K.V. Korte Verhandeling van God, de Mensch, en deszelfs
Welstand (Short Treatise on God, Man and Human
Welfare).
P.P.C. Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae, More Geometrico
Demonstratae (Principles of Cartesian Philosophy, demon
strated geometrically).
x PREFACE
Cog. Met. Cogitata M etaphysiea (Metaphysical Reflections).
TdIE. Traetatus de Intellectus Emendatione (Treatise on the
Improvement of the Intellect).
T.Th.P. Tractatus Theologieo-Politicus (Theologico-Political Trea
tise).
T.P. Tractatus Politicus (Political Treatise).
Ethics Ethiea, Ordine Grometrico Demonstrata (Ethics, demon
strated in Geometrical Order).
Epp. Epistolae doctorum quorundum virorum ad B.d.S. et
Auctoris Responsiones (Letters of certain learned men to
B.d.S. and the Author's answers).
V.V.L. Benedicti de Spinoza Opera Quotquot Reperta Sunt, J.
van Vloten and J. P. N. Land, The Hague, 1914.
My thanks are due to the American Philosophical Society for financial
assistance, and acknowledgements to The Monist, The Canadian Journal
0/ Philosophy, and Idealistic Studies for permission to reprint those
portions of Chapters IV, VI and XI which have appeared as articles in
those journals.
FRONTISPIECE
If Wolfson's conviction is correct, "that much of the criticism levelled
at Spinoza is due to lack of knowledge regarding the personality and
character of this rare man," 1 an account of his philosophy ought to be
preceded by a character study and a history of his life and times. To be
well done this would require the expertise of a qualified historian, and
that I cannot claim. The best I can do is to select from the work of others
more competent and refer the reader to sources (see Appendix) where,
as he wishes, he can find more adequate and reliable information.
Truth to say, not very much is reliably known of Spinoza's life, possibly
because he was very modest and retiring and sought neither fame nor
notoriety, possibly because during his lifetime he was anathematized, his
opinions were attacked as pernicious and heretical, and his person and
doctrine vilified by his theological and philosophical opponents, so that
in an age of intolerance those who knew and admired him feared to
defend him, or to give any public account of his activities. Mter his death
several, including Leibniz, who had benefited by studying his ideas, used
them without acknowledgement, and he was remembered, if at all, only
as the despised propagator of an abominable creed. Hume, in his Treatise
of Human Nature describes Spinoza's doctrine as a "hideous hypothesis"
for which he is "universally infamous" - a theory which is "the funda
mental principle of atheism." 2
It was not until approximately two centuries after his death that interest
in his philosophy was revived and its merits were fully appreciated, and,
by then, much of the historical documentation of his biography had dis
appeared. Consequently, obscurities persist as to certain periods and
events in his life, and the earliest biographies are still among the best:
1 A. Wolfson, Spinoza, A Life of Reason (New York, 1969), p. xiii.
! Op. cit., I, iv, 5. Selby-Bigge Edn., (Oxford, 1888), pp. 240 ff.