Spinoza (Arguments of the Philosophers)

336 Pages·1999·21.44 MB·English

by  R. J. Delahunty

SPINOZA
The Arguments of
the Philosophers
EDITOR: TED HONDERICH
The purpose of this series is to provide a contemporary assessment and
history of the entire course of philosophical thought. Each book
constitutes a detailed, critical introduction to the work of a philosopher
of major influence and significance.
Plato J. C. B. Gosling
Augmtine Christopher Kirwan
The Presocratic Philosoph Jonathan Barnes
Plotinus Lloyd P. Gerson
The Sceptics R. J. Hankinson
Socrates Gerasimos Xenophon Santas
BerIzeley George Pitcher
Descartes Margaret Dauler Wilson
Hobbes Tom Sore11
Locke Michael Ayers
Spinoza R. J. Delahunty
Bentham Ross Harrison
Hutne Barry Stroud
Butlw Terence Penelhum
John Smart Mill John Skorupski
Thottzas Reid Keith Lehrer
Kant Ralph C. S. Walker
Hege/ M. J. Inwood
Schopenbauer D. W. Hamlyn
Kierkegaard Alastair Hannay
Nietzsche Richard Schacht
Karl Marx Allen W. Wood
Gotclob Frege Hans D. Sluga
Meinong Reinhardt Grossmann
HY~SWI David Bell
G. E. Moore Thomas Baldwin
Wittgenstein Robert J. Fogelin
Russell Mark Sainsbury
William James Graham Bird
Peirce Christopher Hookway
Santaydna Timothy L. S. Sprigge
Dewy J. E. Tiles
Bergson A. R. Lacey
J. L. At&n G. J. Warnock
Karl Popper Anthony O’Hear
Ayer John Foster
Sartre Peter Caws
SPINOZA
The Aqgnments of the Phdosophers
R. J. Delahunty
London and New York
First published 1985 by Routledge & Kegan Paul plc
This edition reprinted in hardback 1999
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Roucledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Rodedge is an imprint oftbe Taylor 6 Francis Group
0 1985 R. J. Delahunty
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Ancony Rowe Led,
Chippenham, Wiltshire
Ail tights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted ot reproduced ot
utilized in any form ot by any electronic, mechanical, ot ochet means, now
known ot hereafter invented, including phorocopying and recording, or in
any information storage ot retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Pttbhcation Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congrers Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book has been requested
ISBN O-4 15-20360-o
ISBN O-4 15-20392-9 (set)
Publisher’s note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint
but points out that some imperfections in the original book may be apparent.
May not a man silence his awe or his love and take to finding
reasons, which others demand? But if his love lies deeper than
any reason to be found? Man finds his pathways.
George Eliot, Daniel Derondu, c.XL

Contents
Life page ix
. . .
Abbreviations x111
Preface and Acknowledgments xv
I Geometrical Method and Philosophic Doubt 1
1 The method of ethics 3
2 The diallelus 12
3 The tool analo y 21
4 Philosophical 6fo ubt 25
II Error and the Will 31
1 The grammar of assent 32
2 Close encounters 36
3 The nature of error 46
III Knowledge and Imagination 55
1 The varieties of knowledge 56
2 Knowledge from signs 59
3 Vagrant experience 67
4 Experience in science and metaphysics 70
5 Common notions 74
6 The distinction between reason
and intuition 78
7 Intuition and the attributes 85
IV Substance and Attribute 89
1 Substance defined 89
2 Three notions of substance 96
3 In itself and conceived through itself 101
4 Monism and pluralism 104
5 Substance: one or many? 108
vii
CONTENTS
6 Problems of the attributes 116
7 Monism revisited 123
V God or Nature 125
1 Pantheism 125
2 The Divine mind 131
3 God and omnipotence 136
4 The beginning of the Universe 143
5 God and free will 147
6 Freedom and necessity 155
165
7 Final causes
VI Minds and bodies 176
1 Cartesian man 177
181
2 Interactionism
3 The critique of interactionism 183
4 Dualism 190
5 The order and connection of ideas
and of things 197
6 Beasts and machines 205
VII Morality and the Emotions 213
1 Cartesian passions 213
2 Action and passion 215
220
3 The concept of endeavour
223
4 Egoism
5 Value 227
231
6 The passions
7 The laws of feeling 236
241
8 Of human bondage
9 The conquest of the passions 247
VIII Freedom and Reason 255
255
1 Liberation through knowledge
2 Freedom and resentment 260
268
3 Virtue
275
4 The contemplative life
IX Eternity and Immortality 279
1 Immortal longings 279
282
2 Eternity
284
3 Omnitem orality
4 The proo P of the mind’s eternity 295
300
5 The survival of the fittest
Bibliography 306
Index 312
. . .
Vlll
Life
The facts of Spinoza’s life can be recited briefly. He was born in
Amsterdam in 1632, the son of a prosperous Portuguese (or
Spanish) Jewish merchant, who had come to the Netherlands as a
refu ee. From 1639 to 1650, Spinoza was an outstanding student
at t a e new Spanish-Jewish school in Amsterdam, where he
learned Hebrew. Among his teachers may have been the learned
author Manasseh Ben Israel (1604-57), a friend of Rembrandt and
of Grotius, who negotiated with Cromwell and the revolutionary
English government for the return of the Jews to that country.
Another teacher may have been the rabbi, a ologist, and
Talmudic scholar Saul Morteira (1596-1660), who Pa ter served as
a member of the bet din which excommunicated Spinoza. A third
early influence may have been less orthodox: this was the free-
thinker and philosopher Uriel da Costa (1585-1640), twice
excommunicated by the synagogue and publicly whip ed before
the Amsterdam Jewish community in 1640. Da Costa K ad taught
that the doctrine of the immortalit of the soul was both
questionable in itself and unsupporte B by the Scriptures, that a
Divine sanction for the Mosaic law was doubtful, and that all
religions were man-made. In the early 165Os, while working (with
notable success) in the family business, Spinoza seems to have
joined the circle of young intellectuals around the Marrano
doctor Juan de Prado (1615-70), who had come from Spain to
Holland, where he proclaimed himself a Jew. Prado’s orthodoxy
was suspect, however. In 1656 he was charged with public
criticism of the Scriptures, denial of the distinctiveness of the
Jewish people, disrespect for rabbinical authority and a wrongful
doctrine of Natural Law. To avoid condemnation, Prado recanted
his heresies; nevertheless, he was excommunicated in 1657. His
ix
LIFE
friend and follower S inoza, who had fallen under similar
suspicions, was also ma B e to suffer for his beliefs. There is a story
that a fanatic from the synagogue tried to assassinate him in 1656,
attacking him one evening with a knife; Spinoza is said to have
reserved his torn coat for the rest of his life. However that may
lze , he was formally excommunicated on 27 July 1656 for
‘abominable heresies’ and ‘monstrous acts’.
Little is known with certainty of Spinoza’s activities in the
years immediately following his excommunication. He may have
s ent some time studying at the University of Leiden; he may
aP s o have learned the craft of optical instruments (in which his
work was reputedly excellent). The Spanish Inquisition issued
arrest warrants for him and for Prado in 1659: the In uisitors’
report describes them as denying the Mosaic Law and t1 e soul’s
immortality, and as maintaining that God exists only in a
philosophical sense.
In 1660 or thereabouts, Spinoza left Amsterdam for Rijnsburg,
near Leiden, and changed his given name from the Hebrew
‘Baruch’ to its Latin equivalent ‘Benedictus’. A small philosoph-
ical club in Rijnsburg formed around him: Jarrig Jelles, Peter
Balling, Simon de Vries became his pupils, assistants, friends.
Spinoza’s Short Treatise on God, Man and his Well-Being dates
from this period. In 1663, with the editorial assistance of
Ludovicus Meyer, Spinoza published his Princzples of the
Philosophy of Rene’ Descartes in Latin; Meyer wrote an
introduction, and added an Appendix containing Spinoza’s
Metaphysical Thoughts.
The early 1660s saw the writing (but not the publication) of a
Treatise on the Improvement of the Intellect and the start of
Spinoza’s master work, the Ethics. During this time, his
reputation grew. In July 1661, Spinoza received the first of many
distinguished visitors to come to his door: this was Henry
Oldenburgh (162@77), the Secretary of the newly founded Royal
Society of London, who subse uently initiated an active corres-
pondence with him on scienti 2 c and philosophical matters. In
1663, Spinoza moved to Voorburg, a su urb o The Hague; there
he became friendly with the leading statesman and Grand
Pensionary of the Netherlands, Jan de Witt. Spinoza became
closely associated with the de Witt interest (he may have
composed his first political treatise at de Witt’s request), and
accepted a modest pension from that source. De Witt’s advocacy
of republicanism and of tolerance, and his op osition to Calvinist
fanaticism and the claims of the House o P Orange, won him
Spinoza’a perfect sympathy. Spinoza’s concerns with Biblical
X