A presentation on the Dutch philosopher Spinoza (1632-1677) - the man, his ideas, and his influence. Mostly visual, with photos, cartoons, and paintings, and much humor.

1. Spinoza

2. The Spin on Spinoza
by Dave Shafer
Fairfield, CT

3. • Spinoza in his time and place
(Spinoza in context)
• Spinoza the philosopher
• Spinoza the humanist
Presentation outline

4. Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

5. In 1632 Spinoza was born, then was
circumcised by the mohel of the
Portuguese Jews of Amsterdam

6. Spinoza, the man
• Born and lived in Amsterdam (1632-1677)
• Family was Portuguese Crypto-Jews, then later
reverted to Judaism when left Spain for Holland
• Mother died when he was 6 years old, father
when he was 22
• Extended family was prosperous merchants
• Education at Hebrew school, with added
secular tutors at home.

7. Spinoza was a serious student

8. Spinoza the linguist
• Knew Portuguese and Spanish from parents
• Knew Dutch from his environment
• Knew Hebrew from religious school
• Learned Latin from a tutor
• Knew some French and Italian
• Maybe some German from a German tutor
who taught him Latin
• Self- taught in some Greek

9. Born in Amsterdam, died in the Hague

10. Amsterdam in 1660

11. Spinoza lived during the
Dutch “Golden Age”. Cheap
energy from windpower fed
sawmills and made Holland a
world boat building and
shipping power (think Dutch
East Indies). This prosperity
and a society that welcomed
artists, scientists, philosophers
and religious diversity made
Holland a hotbed for new ideas
and an ideal place for Spinoza –
who pushed to the limits and
then far beyond, which ideas
could be tolerated.

12. It was a “Little Ice Age” in Europe – unusually cold, for decades

13. Amsterdam Town Hall

14. Dam Square, commerce heart of city

15. Dutch tulip mania
peaked in 1637, when
Spinoza was 5 years
old.
This particular bulb
type set a record as
selling for 10X the
annual earnings of a
skilled craftsman, for
just one bulb!

16. Dutch tulip mania – the first of
modern “bubbles” bursting

17. Amsterdam synagogue built right after Spinoza’s
death – regarded then as the 8th
wonder of the
world because of its size. Still there today.

18. Rembrandt was a Dutch contemporary
Also Vermeer

19. Rembrandt was close to the Jewish community
and used many Jewish themes and models
Saul and David
Ahasueras

20. We can see how some contemporary Jews, like Spinoza, looked and
dressed, as in this Rembrandt painting.

21. Sephardic Jewish dress in 1600’s

22. Spinoza was a lens grinder, by profession
Nobility kept ornately decorated lens grinding machines as art objects.
Spinoza made lenses for spectacles, magnifying lenses, and telescopes.
He eventually died from many years of inhaling glass dust.

23. Rembrandt painting, with a lens

24. The microscope had just been invented
by Dutch scientist Van Leeuwenhoek

25. Tiny lenses were needed for it

26. The telescope had
also been recently
invented. It and
the microscope
both need lenses
to operate

27. Spinoza made contributions to optics
His theory of the rainbow
correctly explains the role of
water drops in its creation

28. This was an age of important optical discoveries,
with the microscope and the telescope
Science and
this Age of
Reason were
opening up
new worlds to
explore, with
important
philosophical
and religious
consequences

29. New understandings about the universe and our place in
it gave new perspectives on human possibilities.

30. Maybe there was even
life on other planets, that
might visit us.
Got milk?

31. Spinoza the Philosopher
Spinoza developed the first “theory of everything”. It
is a lot to swallow in a short presentation like this
one.

32. But let’s dive in and to try to assess it

33. It would be nice if
there was a single big
answer to all of our
questions.
Spinoza took off on
a quest for the BIG
ANSWERS.

34. Spinoza knew it is
best to start simple
and build up from
there to greater
complexity.
Simplified chess game for kids

35. We will just
give the highlights
here of his
complex thoughts

36. Spinoza took a deductive approach, like Euclid’s geometry
Starting with a few premises he built up an enormous
philosophical edifice – a theory of everything, people included

37. But the whole edifice is only as strong
as those few starting premises
If these are false or unclear the whole structure gets very
unsteady, since it is resting on a very small pivot area

38. Then, like a house
of cards, the whole
thing tends to
collapse. Most
grand, expansive,
philosophical
theories are like
that. They may
contain very many
interesting ideas but
basically lack the
logical rigor that
good philosophy
requires.

39. Adding complexity to a fatally flawed
system does not make it any stronger

40. The weight of Spinoza’s huge structure could not
be supported by his weak and flawed premises

41. • Premise 1
Some things (e.g. watches) are very complicated. They contain many parts which fit and work
together in an orderly and regular manner to achieve their end (e.g. telling the time). Premise
2
This complexity is evidence of design - the parts could not have come together in this way by
chance - they must have been put together deliberately to achieve their purpose.
• Premise 3
Where there is evidence of design, there must be a designer. In the case of a watch, this is the
watchmaker.
• Premise 4
The universe shows evidence of design. Nature has many complicated parts which work
together to achieve their end (e.g. the eye, the pollination of flowers by bees, the orbits of the
planets, the conditions of the Big Bang). They could not have come together in this way by
chance.
• Conclusion
If the universe shows evidence of design, then it must have a designer. This we call God.
Therefore God exists This argument is not from Spinoza
Argument by design, for the existence of God
Premise #2 and #4 are false, so conclusion is not justified. Extremely simple
recursive rules in nature can lead to extreme complexity, in physics and in
biology. Evolution then keeps those biology results that work well. No designer
is needed.
(Flawed premises invalidate conclusion)

42. The questions are the key to fame
Most philosophers
become famous for the
questions they ask, not
for the very flawed
answers they give, like
Descartes (here) and his
“Mind-Body problem”,
or Spinoza and his
struggles with religion
and human destiny.

43. Tough questions
Descartes – “how can the physical
brain think?”
Spinoza – “Do we have free will?
(his answer – “No!”)

44. Descartes tried to doubt the existence of everything and
concluded that at least he existed (“I think, therefore I am”).
Seeing the fly here is not enough to know that it truly exists.
But then he waffled and accepted God as a given.
Spinoza was a braver
man and excluded all
supernatural content
from his system, since
it can be doubted and
is unnecessary.

45. Spinoza’s influence
• Spinoza was very important for his own ideas
• And his critique’s of the ideas of others, like
Descartes.
• But few take seriously his grand philosophical
project, a theory of everything. One modern
philosophical journal rejected a submitted
article about Spinoza, saying “we are not now,
have never been, or will we ever be interested
in Spinoza”

46. Spinoza the pioneer
Unlocking Spinoza’s
complex ideas about
ethics, nature,
psychology, emotions,
politics and biblical
criticism is not easy.
But he tackled the very
big questions and had
some shocking ideas for
his time.

47. In the world
of ideas
Spinoza was
never a
follower.
Always a
leader

48. Way before Einstein, Spinoza tackled the really hard questions

49. Some things in life are simple, like men,
but Spinoza’s thought is not one of them

50. We should try to learn from a deep thinker
like Spinoza, to help us with life choices
We are always facing both large and small issues
and have decisions to make

51. Spinoza the humanist
Getting into Spinoza’s
metaphysics is heavy
lifting, but Spinoza the
humanist is much more
accessible, and of
greater interest to our
group here.

52. We all know where we are headed, so
Spinoza’s views on religion are of
special interest

53. “Relax, honey – change is good.”
It is hard to put a good spin on death

54. What comes at the end of life – a great
adventure, something awful, or nothing?

55. Spinoza came down firmly on the side of “nothing”

56. Spinoza rejected all supernatural ideas

57. He wasn’t a real skeptic (a doubter) – instead he
completely disbelieved in anything supernatural

58. Spinoza the skeptic
A willful blindness to the
flaws in religions was not
his cup of tea. Spinoza
tried to see clearly and
bravely, starting with
“God”

59. A skeptical thinker will have a hard time with the
way God and religion are often presented

60. Spinoza rejected the anthropomorphic images
of a god, like Jupiter here, as do most skeptics

61. Today, of course, we can even joke about God,
but not at all back then.

62. Spinoza also rejected traditional ideas
about heaven and hell

63. Spinoza was
willing to
bravely set off
on a dangerous
train of thought,
with no care
about where it
might lead him.

64. Spinoza rejected a literal reading of the bible
Adam and Eve, by Von Stuck

65. These are unsophisticated religious ideas that are taught to
small children before they are old enough to know any better.

66. He valued reason way above sense
impressions, and rejected miracles

67. Spinoza was very familiar with Christian
thought and had many Christian friends
Water into wine miracle

68. Some basic truths about Spinoza
• Spinoza was a deeply religious man (this needs to
be explained, but is still quite confusing)
• He believed in a pantheistic God, a god of Nature,
who is conscious and omniscient but has no free
will or purposes, with no care for us
• He rejected free will and was a complete
determinist. Minds as well as bodies are part of
deterministic Nature
• He distanced himself a very long way from
Judaism. Jews cannot really say that he was “one
of us”, although many do say that

69. Most people find complete determinism to
be a very disturbing idea

70. The one exception
we might not mind
is romance, where
we may feel that
we were fated
(kismet) to be with
some particular
person

71. Spinoza and free will
• We think we have free will but it is an illusion. Everything is
predetermined by physics = Nature, which is the same as God
• Nature = God has no free will of its own
• All we can control, in a free will sense, is our emotions – to
some degree
• We can change our emotions some by understanding why we
feel that way (he was a very early precursor to
psychoanalysis)

72. Spinoza advised an early form of psychoanalysis

73. Spinoza ideas that shocked his contemporaries
• Spinoza thought that a mind is that part of
God’s mind that is aware of a particular body
• There is no causal connection between mind
and body, just a parallel correlation
• We are not morally responsible for our
actions, since they are determined in advance
• Both our thoughts and our bodily actions are
predetermined

74. Spinoza would accept this line of thought

75. This is a rather grim
view of the world

76. Spinoza saw that it is a dangerous place out there

77. Spinoza thought that fear is what keeps
most of us from evil deeds

78. Spinoza considered everyone to be out for themselves

79. Yet Spinoza urged a life of virtue

80. Spinoza seemed to have incompatible ideas about how
we should live a life of virtue if we also have no free will

81. It’s hard to see
how living an
ethical life can
be married to
complete
determinism

82. Spinoza’s noble
impulses were
dragged down by
the weight of his
fatalistic philosophy
of complete
determinism

83. It’s hard to put a good face on this basic flaw

84. Spinoza’s thought
Spinoza’s thought teeters
between bold radical ideas
about God, man, free will,
ethics, etc. that are clearly
expressed, and fuzzy concepts
that are supposed to ground
everything in the rigor of
logical deduction. But without
a solid basis his ideas become
just very interesting opinions,
like much of philosophy
through history.

85. Spinoza’s influence
• Many writers, artists, scientists and
philosophers have been inspired by the
boldness of his ideas, his personal courage,
and his putting reason as the source of all
knowledge
• His exemplary personal life was one of
generosity, humility, frugality, and a kind of
“saintly” disposition – a model for many
people

86. Even today Spinoza casts a big shadow

87. People were starting to hear about
Spinoza’s alarming and radical ideas

88. When heard, these were startling thoughts for his day.

89. Certainty from belief in a Holy Book
was being attacked

90. In the Age
of Reason,
religious
certainty
was about
to take a
big plunge

91. Spinoza’s heretical ideas got the authorities very upset

92. His chances of being accepted by the establishment were
about as dim as the prospects of this hitchhiker

93. Spinoza was excommunicated in 1656

94. The Church was
also trying to stamp
out heresies and
the Dutch Jews did
not want to offend
their Christian host
community by
tolerating an
atheist within the
Jewish community

95. Spinoza’s 3 top heresies
1) Angels don’t exist – they are imaginary

96. 2) God is purely material (=
Nature)
And is controlled by the laws of physics, just like everything else –
which is only natural since god = everything = pantheism

97. 3) The soul dies with the body

98. The “soul” and the body
are somehow different
aspects of a single
substance. The soul is
not “in” the body in a
normal location sense,
but it is so closely
associated with the
body that it cannot
survive the body’s
death. Hence, no
afterlife. No heaven or
hell.

99. But Spinoza did not mind being cut off by
excommunication, and had left most of Judaism behind

100. He felt he could no longer fit in the way he would like

101. For Spinoza the bible was ready for a great
fall – and he undertook a radical critique

102. Today we have
critical biblical thinkers
like Sonny and Cher,
who have benefited
from Spinoza’s efforts
hundreds of year ago.
Or not.

103. Spinoza took aim at the weaker
aspects of the bible, as a document
He thought
the Torah had
been written
by Ezra, not
Moses, and
that it was a
purely human
inspired work

104. Spinoza read the bible with
the same skepticism that we
bring to the supermarket
tabloids. My own favorite
tabloid headline =
“Skydiver eaten by starving birds”
Spinoza was a pioneer in
critical biblical scholarship

105. Spinoza was a very
brave man, like these
strollers here. He boldly
and willingly, without
any safety net,
abandoned both his
community and his
culture

106. Spinoza died in 1677 in The Hague,
with his main works yet unpublished

107. Spinoza was a mensch
• He won a legal dispute with a stepsister over his
father’s estate, yet gave her almost all of it.
• A close friend wanted to make him sole heir.
Spinoza declined and also declined a very large
money gift.
• When the friend died and left him 500 florins,
he would only accept 300.
• He was very widely liked, even by his religious
and philosophical opponents

108. The bleakness of Spinoza’s philosophy is at
odds with the warmth and appeal of the man
He thought we should seek
fulfillment in each other

109. We can help each
other towards
happiness

110. As far as we know, Spinoza never had much to do with women

111. Spinoza had many good friends, but never married.
He was a happy bachelor, married to his ideas

112. Spinoza did
not become
discouraged or
bitter over his
ideas about
life, like
nothingness
after death
and complete
determinism

113. Spinoza had an
upbeat spirit that
endeared him to
his many friends

114. Spinoza never gave in to a grumpy last stage of life.

115. He remained fully engaged with life, with his friends,
with his ideas, right up until the end.

116. Like Nietzsche, Spinoza’s thought has been
widely misrepresented and very selectively used.
Theists,
deists and
atheists have
all claimed
Spinoza as
one of their
own, by
willful
misreadings

117. This can make for some strange bedfellows

118. These days everyone is climbing on board the Spinoza bandwagon, mistakenly or
not. The diversity of his thought and his appealing personality have attracted many.

119. But now we are out of time and must close.

120. Enough already – The End

121. This slideshow presentation is online at
www.slideshare.net/operacrazy/the-spin-on-spinoza