It can be said that words weighted by action tend to leave a much greater impression and
I think we would be hard pressed to find one more faithful to their stated ideal than was
Spinoza.
While it is true that he did not call on others to adhere to the path which he so devoutly
followed, it was part of his nature to offer, lovingly, a helping hand to all those who
wished to see and understand things as he did.
It was a firmly held belief of his that “the truth will make us free.
But it was truth that we understood, not truth that was forced upon us.”
As with much Spinoza’s thought what he believed in regard to the suffering of man cannot be
simply understood with the declaration of some Maxim or with simply looking to the finished
product.
Each part of his general philosophy depends on some preceding part without which complete
understanding would be near impossible.
There is also the issue of terminology, but worry not as while unraveling his thoughts
we will cover these terms as is necessary.
With that being said I hope to bring some light to an otherwise abstrusive philosophy
and to illuminate further a great and wise man’s thoughts regarding the nature of human
suffering.
“The impotence of man to govern or restrain the emotions I call bondage, for a man who
is under their control is not his own master, but is mastered by fortune, in whose power
he is, so that he is often forced to follow the worse, although he sees the better before
him.”
With those of you familiar with the stoics you will undoubtedly hear their echo in these
words written in “The Ethics” of Spinoza.
These emotions or passions as we will frequently here them called play an essential role in
keeping man bound in chains.
He identifies three as primary; these being joy, sadness, and desire, and how they keep
man in chains begins with what they in fact are, inadequate ideas.
To gain an understanding of the passions let us first make the distinction between an adequate
and inadequate idea.
The primary distinction between the two forms of ideas is in the type of knowledge which
they are derived from.
The inadequate idea arises from sense perception, or in other words from the action of an external
body upon one or another of the sensory organs of one’s own body.
This becomes an issue because the knowledge of any particular effect on the body depends
upon one’s ability to know its causes and since it is impossible that the mind know
all the causes of a particular external body our knowledge of that body will always be
incomplete or inadequate.
Adequate ideas, on the other hand, arise from a type of knowledge which comes from common
things present in the lives of all human beings and are not contingent depending upon the
individual who they affect.
These ideas, not being subject to change are complete and adequate, they are eternal, a
perception of things sub specie eternitatis – in their eternal aspects and relations.
It is through this form of knowledge that the mind better perceives the laws and eternal
relations behind things and events.
An example of this type of knowledge would be geometry.
Before we proceed on there is but one more concept integral to our purposes, this is
what is known as The Conatus Principle.
It states that “Each thing, as far as it can by its own power, strives to preserve
in being.”
What he means here is that each mode, mode being “any individual thing or event, any
particular form or shape which reality transiently assumes”, acts to prevent its destruction
or diminution so far as its power allows.
Instinct is developed for this very purpose, “Everything, in so far as it is in itself,
endeavors to persist in its own being; and the endeavor wherewith a thing seeks to persist
in its own being is nothing else than the actual essence of that thing.”
This principle is of great Importance in determining how we come to live by the guidance of reason.
This principle is in play regardless of if the mind strives to preserve its being by
adequate or by inadequate ideas, this is to say whether it strives actively or passively.
The path of inadequate ideas is passive in so far as the individual has little self-control
over what happens to them and is pushed about at random.
“We are tossed about by external causes in many ways, and like waves driven by contrary
winds, we waver and are unconscious of the issue and our fate.”
Since we are only able to perceive parts of an inadequate idea our reaction to such an
idea can only meet part of the situation.
As said by Spinoza “The emotions by which we are daily assailed have reference rather
to some part of the body which is affected beyond the others, and so the emotions as
a rule are in excess, and detain the mind in the contemplation of one object so that
it cannot think of others.”
And a life decided by fortune, one where we are forced to follow the path which is worse
when we see the better, is life in bondage.
Alas Spinoza offers us a way out of these chains; though it is not complete freedom
that he offers us as is such in the stoic ideal.
He suggests that the mind, being a finite mode existing within an infinite number of
modes cannot hope to fully unfasten itself from their sway.
There is also the fact that the mind acting alone through reason cannot at times overcome
the strength of the passions since the passive affects of the passions through their external
causes are often stronger.
What he is suggesting is “passion coordinated by reason, put into place by the total perspective
of the situation.”
“The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole of
nature.
. . . The more the mind knows, the better it understands its forces and the order of
nature; the more it understands its forces or strength, the better it will be able to
direct itself and lay down the rules for itself; and the more it understands the order of nature,
the more easily it will be able to liberate itself from useless things; this is the whole
method.”
We will make it our task to further elaborate on this method.
The level of freedom we manage to achieve corresponds directly with the amount of adequate
ideas we are able to obtain.
In other words “the power of the mind is defined by knowledge alone, whereas lack of
power, or passion, is judged solely by the privation of knowledge, that is, by that through
which ideas are called inadequate.”
When our mind acquires adequate ideas through the process of active reason we are henceforth
liberated from the passions which had previously dominated us.
“To be great is not to be placed above humanity, ruling others; but to stand above the partialities
and futilities of uninformed desire, and to rule one’s self” – Durant.
The life of freedom is a life lived under the dictates of reason, what does this mean,
let Spinoza speak, “Since reason demands nothing contrary to Nature, it demands that
everyone love himself, seek his own advantage, what is really useful to him, want what will
really lead a man to greater perfection, and absolutely, that everyone should strive to
preserve his own being as far as he can.”
We must keep the Conatus principle which we reviewed earlier in mind throughout this section.
We are to seek what reason prescribes, that is we are to seek what is useful to our ends
and what better helps us to preserve our own being.
This does not mean that we must be hostile to others or step over them to achieve our
ends since reason holds that what is good for man is to nurture harmonious social relationships
and to ensure the stability of the society that they are a part.
It is only when human beings act under the sway of the passions do they come into conflict
with one another.
“The greatest good is the knowledge of the union which the mind has with the whole nature.”
This is of course to say its union with God.
The true striving spoken of in the Conatus Principle is in essence the striving for understanding,
an understanding that all things follow by the eternal decrees of God.
An individual’s mind who has come to truly know this “is fixed upon true being” and
“has no time to look down upon the little affairs of men, or to be filled with jealousy
and enmity in the struggle against them; his eye is ever directed towards fixed and immutable
principles, which he sees neither injuring nor injured by one another, but all in order
moving according to reason; these he imitates, and to these he would, as far as he can, conform
himself.”
This state is what Spinoza would come to know as “The Intellectual love of God,” it
is this love that most sincerely constitutes the mark of a free and blessed individual.
To escape the grasp of the passions is anything but an easy task, but Spinoza assures us that
it is possible.
He tells us “if the way I have shown to lead to these things now seems very hard,
still, it can be found.
And of course, what is found so rarely must be hard.
For if salvation were at hand, and could be found without great effort, how could nearly
everyone neglect it?
But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare.”
If the philosophy of Spinoza seems to you of some interest then I encourage you to take
the time to view this earlier video I published which may give a more general overview of
his thoughts and beliefs, if not then I hope you were able to gain as I have from this
gentle philosopher.
As always, thank you for talking philosophy with me, until next time.