Spinoza: A Complete Guide to Life

through anger and grief

and rage what we're talking about is

called mindfulness meditation and people

who do it believe that it makes their

brains healthier and fitter we're about

to cross the threshold into a new world

a buddhist monk who's been called the

happiest man in the world

if you ever wanted a complete scientific

road map for how to live a modern

philosophy to go by a lens through which

to understand a complicated world a

foundation for life well the 17th

century dutch philosopher baruch

despinoza is as good as you'll find

today you'll learn how to see yourself

as something bigger something infinite

and awe inspiring how to see the world

scientifically too

what this means for reducing negative

emotions leading a more content

fulfilled and rational and meaningful

and joyful life

he asked questions like

why are we so dogmatic

what makes us so irrational

why do we live as slaves to our emotions

and other people's opinions we'll find

out why some of the most influential

thinkers to have ever lived admired

spinoza so much einstein said if he

believed in god it was spinoza's god and

hegel said that you are either

espionosis or not a philosopher at all

we'll look at what made spinoza one of

the first truly modern and radical

thinkers

why he was the first modern psychologist

and how he revolutionized how we think

about concepts like god

and nature

in short

and i think this is no exaggeration

the world we inhabit today

would not be the same would not have

taken the path it has

without baruch spinoza

this is also the story of a man

lost in the forest searching for a way

out

statues portraits even streets bear his

name he has become an icon of

reason and not the solitary thinker

i don't want to dwell too much on

spinoza's life except to say that he has

a good claim on being one of the most

consequential philosophers to have ever

lived but he was also as bertrand

russell wrote the noblest and most

lovable of the great philosophers

he was one of the first enlightenment

advocates for real democracy and was the

first to really criticize the bible as

just a text he was vilified for his

perceived atheism and excommunicated

from the jewish community where he lived

he said that the lord will not spare him

the anger and wrath of the lord will

rage against this man and bring upon him

all the curses however despite being

ostracized from everyone he searched his

entire life for what he called the true

good

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he wanted to find out how to live an

ideal and virtuous life

how

ultimately to be free

before we get to the juicy bits we have

to do the grunt work we have to map out

spinoza's idea of the universe

then

we can understand our place in it

it might sound a little bit complicated

at first but bear with me if you get

this

or at least just let it wash over you

and stick with it

it will change how you think

give me a few minutes to get through the

complicated bits and then we'll get to

the interesting stuff and it should all

come together

if you could condense spinoza's

metaphysics his first principles into

one sentence it would be this

being

is one

put another way the many

is one

what that means is actually quite simple

everything

us the forest

animals plants

stars the laws of physics and many

things that are part of one thing

nature

we forget this of course we think of

ourselves as independent as separate

but we also know that we're not and we

know this even more in the modern period

we know that we're made of atoms we know

that we need food water oxygen energy

from outside of us to sustain those

atoms we know that we rely on wood and

tools and gravity and of course each

other we know about the circle of life

the interdependent ecosystem that the

animal kingdom and the plant kingdom

lives within and we know that one thing

affects another

in short we know that everything is

connected

so how does he understand this many

things in one nature truth well he wants

to lay it out logically and represent it

in a kind of geometrical mathematical

pattern so that we can use it to build

more complex ideas with so instead of

just saying many things and one nature

he says that there are three parts to

the universe

substance attributes and modes

we usually think of substances as the

different things in the universe

air

us

wood

deer

dirt for example

it's just the stuff that things are made

out of

attributes on the other hand are the way

we experience those substances

spinoza says there are two that we know

of

extension

and thought

we have actual material trees

and then the idea of trees in our heads

a mode is the form or shape the

substance takes the substance would for

example could be in the mode of a tree

or a chair or a door

it's the substance of wood in different

forms shapes

modes

but wait spinoza wants to be more

specific

a substance he says

if it's to be defined properly should be

an independent thing he provides

definitions

by substance i understand what is in

itself and is conceived through itself

i.e that whose concept doesn't have to

be formed out of the concept of

something else

so

let's take

a leaf

is it a substance well it's only a

substance if it's in itself if it's

independent if it's conceived through

itself if it doesn't have to be formed

out of something else

but of course

it does

it's dependent on the branch and the

tree

so is the tree a substance well no

because it's formed out of the soil the

air and the birds that disperse its

seeds

a substance should be an independent

thing yet thinking through this thought

experiment everything is in some sense

determined dependent an extension of

things outside of it

so if we're defining substances strictly

it turns out there's only one

nature

trees people plants animals there we're

all different modes different shapes of

nature

of mata

spinoza saw nature as god in fact he

usually wrote god

or nature

they're one and the same thing

why is this well he thought of it like

this

god is meant to be this infinite

all-powerful omnipresent omniscient law

maker and law giver but if that's the

case he can't be outside of nature if

he's not just part of nature if he's not

everywhere at once he can't be

omnipresent he can't be infinite he must

to be those things be part of everything

with nothing inseparable from him or her

or it

god couldn't be outside the universe

spinoza realized he was

the universe

the ultimate laws were gravity

mathematics the laws of physics of cause

and effect so god knowing all

seeing all controlling all had to not

just be part of those laws but actually

be those laws as if they were an

extension of

itself

today this is called pantheism

spinoza was writing at the beginning of

the enlightenment and during the

scientific revolution he was trying in

some way to square an old universe with

a new one one of science of reason of

experimentation

he saw that all things if you studied

them carefully enough were implicated

and affected by everything else

everything was clearly part of one big

ordered ecosystem although he didn't

have that word ecosystem to use yet it

was a revolutionary

modern scientific view

spinazer writes in nature there is

nothing contingent all things have been

caused by the necessity of the divine

nature to exist and produce an effect in

a certain way

a storm pushes me one way the wind

pushes my boat

berries draw me towards eating them

the tree grows depending on the rain and

the sun

the deer is frightened in a different

direction when startled we all have

desires we can't control

we are all like billiard balls set off

by causes outside of us spinoza's

universe is a description of a singular

timeless fact

everything is connected

being is one to understand ourselves we

must understand the natural world we are

a part of

you know when you come right down to it

there are only two views we can take

either this all happened by accident or

it's the result of design and plan

you might just shrug your shoulders and

say well it's just a matter of personal

opinion and let it go with that

you might that is but for the fact that

this is an issue which vitally affects

your whole life

it's going to determine how you think

and how you live

there's a phrase that comes up often in

scholars discussions about spinoza's

universe

it unfolds

cause and effect causing effect cause an

effect

this is the root of everything

a seed unfolds into a tree a pang of

hunger unfolds into the making of a mill

the desire for sex unfolds into a new

human life this path unfolds through the

woods and the cloud unfolds into the sky

the universe

since the big bang has unfolded into an

infinity of different shapes and modes

i shall consider human actions and

appetites as if it were a question of

lines planes and bodies

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what does this mean

that we can conceptualize trace and map

lines through our appetites actions and

ideas they're caused by something before

them and they in turn were caused by

something before that and the effects of

those causes go on into the future

spinoza writes the infant thinks that he

freely wants the milk the angry child

that he freely wants vengeance and the

timid one that he freely wants to flee

the drunkard thinks it is from a free

decision of the mind that he says things

which when he sobers up he regrets

having said

this forces us to confront her

frightening proposition

are we free at all

spinoza says that all the evidence

points to know

in the mind there is no absolute or free

will but the mind is determined to will

this or that by a cause which is also

determined by another and this again by

another and so too infinity we only

think we're free because our

consciousness sits between one of those

causes and effect between for example

the pang of hunger and the decision to

eat but we see the effect of something

like hunger or desire and then see that

effect as a volition a choice a

voluntary action

let me explain

i just heard a lion over there in the

english countryside

so i decide to go this way

am i choosing freely when moving my leg

this way was caused by the effect of the

lion's roar

everything is cause and effect however

we rarely reflect on the long line of

causation that came before all action is

caused by something external

just because we watch over our own

appetites ideas and actions as they

enter and leave our minds we think that

we're free

the french philosopher jill's delus

wrote that consciousness is only a dream

with one's eyes open

consciousness in other words is being

sat over the top of the waterfall

watching mental stuff fly over it

spinoza writes a body in motion moves

until another body causes it to rest and

a body at rest remains at rest until

another body causes it to move

now

here's the interesting bit

how things modes objects us ideas

whatever it is are affected by other

things depends on the natures of each

thing the bird affects the tree in a

different way than the rain does

an idea or a sentence affects two

different people in two different ways

everything affects everything else in

some specific way what's the

scientifically minded approach to this

to understand how things affect other

things that's the key to the universe

it is clear that we are driven about in

many ways by external causes and that

like waves on the sea driven by contrary

winds we toss about not knowing our

outcome and fate

he says that we have inadequate ideas

about the effects of things the trick to

life of course is to have

adequate ideas

the way we make decisions in our

democratic system has a profound effect

on our welfare and happiness

whether we're dealing with a personal

problem or a business matter

whether we are deciding on our schools

our taxes or any other community problem

the first thing we have to do is get the

facts

okay imagine for one moment those lines

of cause and effect running through the

universe delus calls those lines the

plane of imminence the bird is something

to the tree the tree to the soil the

soil to the worm and so on

the lion to the person running

there is a line that can be drawn from

my first videos to the writing of this

one to me being in this forest and that

line continues into the future

when we think in terms of lines we

realize that everything in the universe

is relative to something else all is a

web

this again has radical consequences that

should change how we think it means that

nothing is good or bad in itself but

only relative to something else the lion

is bad for me so i run from it

the berry

is good for me so i'm drawn to it

we tend to think of things as good or

bad beautiful or ugly true or not true

we attach properties to objects and

think of them as being certain things

this is red it's tasty or it's poisonous

or that person is cheerful

intelligent or interesting or that

argument is a good or bad idea

but we forget that it's always us that's

attaching the property

the goodness or badness the ugly or

beautiful the wise or unwise so that

these appraisals of objects ideas or

people aren't actually properties that

are in the thing itself but are

descriptions of a relationship

everything is relative

and the consequences of thinking like

this get even more radical

if things can't be defined by properties

in themselves but only by relations

between things then they must be

understood only in their capacities to

do things to other things or the

capacity to have things done to them by

other things this is what spinoza calls

simply their capacity to affect and be

affected

oh look a giraffe

in the english countryside

why does it have a long neck

the reason is not within the giraffe

itself

a property of the giraffe but in its

relationship to eating from trees or

drinking water or fighting with other

giraffes

this applies to everything

delus writes that beings will be defined

by their capacity for being affected by

the affections of which they are capable

the excitations to which they react

those by which they are unaffected and

those which exceed their capacity and

make them ill or cause them to die

okay now things are getting interesting

if everything is about relationships

capacities to affect or to be affected

cause an effect then how should we think

about our relationship to the things

around us what do we want to surround

ourselves with

what do we want to avoid

the answer is quite simple we should

want to surround ourselves with

perfection we should try and organize

our experience of the world so that we

encounter things that will affect us

positively

the things we call good the things that

our relationship with affect us

positively we of course like we approve

of we want more of

a good shelter has the effect of

sheltering us from the rain great start

this is why spinoza sees goodness and

perfection as synonymous

but more than this he says that by

perfection and goodness he just means

existing

what does this mean

well a house that exists for a longer

period is more perfect than the one

destroyed in a storm a person that lives

longer has a body that's more perfect

than one that dies from a disease a

plant that gives us more energy is more

perfect to us than one that doesn't

god or nature is more perfect because it

exists for a longer period of time than

an individual tree or a single animal

things generally want to exist for as

long as possible so whatever helps that

thing achieve that is more perfect in

its relationship with it than something

that doesn't spinoza says simply

whatever helps us attain that perfection

we shall call good and whatever hinders

are attaining it or does not assist it

we shall call evil

and we try to arrange our ideas of the

world in this way as well in such a way

as to achieve this perfection

he says after men began to form

universal ideas and devise models of

houses buildings towers etc

and to prefer some models of things to

others

it came about that each one called

perfect what he saw agreed with the

universal idea he had formed of this

kind of thing

i think of fire in connection with

emotions because when you become stirred

up

when your emotions control your actions

it affects not only yourself but the

people around you

psychologists find that control of

emotions can be gained by understanding

the stimulus response pattern

okay so lines of cause and effect run

through everything and everything has

different capacities to be affected by

and affect other things

let's think about those affections

look a gorilla

in the english countryside

i hear the gorilla i see the gorilla i

feel fear the gorilla's capacity to beat

me in an arm wrestle affects me and i'm

pushed i'm affected

into running

spinoza says that

unpleasure is a man's passing from a

greater perfection to a lesser

now again this applies to everything our

sad angry fearful hungry annoyed

stressed anxious frustrated feelings

about things are signals that something

is affecting us in a negative way that

we're passing into a lesser state of

perfection

think about hunger you're literally

decomposing so the hunger pushes you to

eat for sustenance

stress is based on the fear that i don't

know if you don't finish this task

you'll be judged poorly by others and it

will hurt your career on the other hand

he says pleasure is a man's passing from

a lesser perfection to a greater

like the term unfolding for the universe

and lines for cause and effect our

emotions and feelings are signals of the

potential passage to a better or worse

condition a reaction to objects we

encounter in the world

spinoza calls feelings emotions and

passions the affects because they affect

us he thinks that all affects boil down

to three main ones from which all the

others derive joy

sadness and desire

and they're all related to spinoza's

idea of perfection

joy is the experience of our condition

being improved sadness our condition

worsening anger fear hunger feeling cold

are all sad effects sad passions he

calls them whereas love or confidence

are examples of the joyful effects but

remember

everything is relative the effects are

always about something in that line of

cause and effect so he says that a full

account of the nature of each passion

must bring in the nature of the external

object by which the person having the

passion is affected

again it's the relationship we have to

focus on we try to organize our lives

rationally around how often we'll

encounter use or avoid certain things we

want the shelter for more warmth and

less rain we want the good ideas about

raising our children or choosing new

hobbies we want to avoid the things that

make us sick

so how does this relate to spinoza's big

idea the thing he spent his entire life

trying to discover finding what he

called the true good of being free

the next step is to consider different

opinions based on the facts

and the final step is to weigh the facts

and opinions with understanding and

objectivity these standards apply to

everyone

whether it's a family planning where to

take a vacation

or a group of students discussing a

school project

or a women's club planning a charity

drive or a city council debating a

community problem

all of them have to have the facts

before they are able to reach

intelligent decisions

okay so we're affected by things we want

to be affected by good things we want to

become more perfect in spinoza's words

everything's a relationship too

how do we begin to bring all of this

together

first spinoza is an ethical egoist that

means that essentially what is good and

bad for us individually guides us in

what we do how we think and act he said

that reason demands that everyone love

himself seek his own advantage and

absolutely that everyone should strive

to preserve his own being as far as he

can

he called this an organism's

which he defines in various ways at

various times as an organism's striving

endeavor

tendency force and power of acting it

applies to the tree as much as it does

to us

every organism strives to increase its

connotus to exist for longer to achieve

a better state of perfection he says

simply that each thing as far as it can

by its own power tries to stay in

existence

because of our connotus we have a desire

for things that increase our well-being

food sex love shelter good ideas and an

aversion to those things that decrease

it poison violence lions gorillas

but how does our connotus guide us in

doing this

what are we doing

of course we have those natural urges

and some things are of course better for

us and others not

but as usual with spinoza he takes the

insights one step further

in knowing that the lion is bad for us

and the berry good

we're doing something else too

we're understanding those lines the

affections the causes and effects in the

world

the connotus needs to understand to

comprehend so as to increase its power

of doing the right thing to live longer

this is why spinoza is a rationalist

understanding is the key to everything

understanding is the key to freedom

how can spinoza argue that we're all

pushed around by affections out of our

control and argue that we can be free

remember he says it's clear that we are

driven about in many ways by external

causes and that like waves on the sea

driven by contrary winds we toss about

not knowing our outcome and fate

it's that tossing about that he wants to

address

the affects passions and emotions are

passive they happen to us

like the wind hitting a sail a wave

crashing over a ship i see cake and my

mouth salivates and i eat it i feel like

an idea is a good one so i do it i think

the sound is bad so i run

but often our ideas are mistaken about

whether those effects are really helping

us

what we want to do is understand the

real causes and effects of what we do we

want to know what really caused that

sound in the woods before we run if it's

really harmful and where we're going if

that cake is really what i want to

improve my condition if that idea is

really accurate

spinoza says that just relying on

feelings and affects is basically a

state of slavery because we're pushed

around by them not understanding and

choosing for ourselves

instead of being passive we want to be

active the difference between a man who

is led only by an affect or by opinion

and one who is led by reason for the

former whether he will or no does those

things he is most ignorant of whereas

the latter complies with no one's wishes

but his own

and only does those things he knows to

be the most important in life and

therefore desires vary greatly hence i

call the former a slave but the latter a

free man

okay so what does being active actually

entail

someone who is active is guided by their

connotus their desire for longevity for

joy and perfection and they should be

what spinoza calls the adequate or

sufficient cause of what they're doing

to do this we use our reason

to study the causes and effects of those

relationships between things around us

we want to understand those effects on

us and the effect they might have in

turn on things in the future

adequate ideas are clear and distinct

knowledge about what increases a

person's connedus because a person has

studied the causes and effects of things

around them

okay an example

inadequate knowledge is eating because

you desire to because you're hungry

it might have a good effect it might not

this berry might actually poison me

adequate knowledge however is eating in

a rational way

knowing the nutrients where it grows

what goes into it and the effect it has

on you in the long term how much it

contributes to your health all the

factors all the causes and effects

that's why i have my foraging guide

i don't know why i'm throwing my

cowberry away

i wonder is that actually a cayberry

cabery can you see

description also known as the

lingamberry this is a small evergreen

cadburys are acidic but can be eaten raw

they're best used to make an excellent

jelly commonly added to jams pies and

fruit sweets

spinoza writes that when a rational

being is truly active and so far as he

is moved by the knowledge he possesses

the things he does are guided by a true

understanding of what is in his own best

interest and thus bring about an

improvement in his condition

in other words the free active

reasonable person is driven by

self-determination being active and

reasonable requires thinking through the

causes and effects of things

sufficiently enough to be able to

overcome our simple passions and

emotions

in knowing that i'm hungry

or that i can store them

and that the berry contributes to my

vitamin c intake i've done the research

i know how much i need i know where to

find them and then i'm acting picking

eating storing in an active way not a

passive way

an adequate idea of what to do takes

into account all the factors and if we

do this he says

reason will overcome the weaker impulses

or misguided ideas

deluse writes that once we have attained

adequate ideas we connect effects to

their true causes and consciousness

having become a reflection of adequate

ideas is capable of overcoming its

illusions forming clear and distinct

ideas of the affections and effects it

experiences

spinoza scholar stephen nadler gives the

example of the choice between staying at

home and studying or going out partying

with friends

in the moment going out might have a

stronger effect on your desire but if we

consider all the factors about our

finances or the job we might get from

the effect of staying in studying we

might come to the conclusion that it's

more rational to stay in and study

alternatively we might still decide we

need a night off because we're

overworked

spinoza is not saying that one thing is

better than the other

only that we have to consider our

options we have to really understand the

effects of our choices we have to

use our heads

nadler writes that a person is therefore

free when his adequate ideas are more

powerful effectively speaking than his

passions or inadequate ideas for spinoza

freedom is about reason and someone who

is free is someone who acts according to

the dictate of reason

he says that the only thing that reason

makes us try to get is understanding

we're going to explore several different

realms of god's creation

before we're finished i think you'll

agree that our god is a wonderful god

spinoza spends a lot of time in the

ethics commenting on virtue vice emotion

and feeling and trying to understand

their relationship to reason

he is a rationalist after all he wants

to make the case that using our reason

will direct us without error along the

correct path

advice for example is an immoderate love

or desire for eating drinking sexual

union wealth and esteem

this might bring pleasure in the short

term but they're harmful over a longer

period

fortitude for spinoza is a virtue above

all others he says

from the guidance of reason we want a

greater future good and preference to a

lesser present one and a lesser present

evil in preference to a greater future

one

fortitude is the act of working hard

looking forward thinking broadly

investing our time in understanding how

the world works so that we can reap

future rewards

but here's the beautiful bit

everything in spinoza connects in some

way

remember how fuspinosa god is

nature god is in

everything god is perfect because nature

just is

it's that unfolding line of cause and

effect that runs through everything

it's the fact that the many

a one

all is one

substance well

he says to overcome acting passively and

to choose the rational thing to live

with fortitude we must

look to god to nature to see what lasts

what works what's most perfect and most

beautiful to increase our own connotus

as a species in a relationship with the

rest of nature

he wants to look from what he describes

as the perspective of eternity

god offers to create in us a new life

a life of peace instead of turmoil

a life of victory instead of sin and

defeat

the life of eternal glory instead of

eternal suffering

and he's great enough to do the job

it will only let him

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think about how people give up smoking

when they have kids or maybe get more

humble and tolerant from traveling the

world the wider the view the more

long-term orientated you become the more

things you consider you look at causes

over the perspective of a longer period

of time across a broader space

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looking to eternity is the most godly

way of thinking looking at everything

from a god's eye view from the

perspective of eternity and what causes

things what affects things over the long

term

he says perfecting the intellect is

nothing but understanding god his

attributes and his actions which follow

from the necessity of his nature

to take one more example think about

growing a plant to eat we learn from god

from nature by watching by experiencing

by seeing what happens when it rains

what soil it grows best in which

nutrients and how much sunlight it needs

or in building a high say we look for

the strongest wood that's the best

insulator and lasts the longest is the

most eco-friendly spinoza says simply

that everything in life works in the

same way

uh uses young petals have a fragrant

aroma

true

and are worth harvesting and use if you

have the patience once enough petals

have been gathered use them to make a

light panna cotta swirl them into a

sweet cake or infuse them with a little

chili in home brewed mead

he says

he who understands himself and his

affects clearly and distinctly loves god

and does so the more the more he

understands himself and his affects

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spinoza says a few things about the free

person's character and talks at length

about different virtues emotions and

vices but fundamentally the person led

by reason and guided by understanding

nature will have two things

strength of character that's the

fortitude the striving the will to

understand the world and they'll be

active choosing by reason not passive

pushed around by the affections

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spinoza was influenced by the stoics of

ancient greece and rome instead of

relying on capricious and unpredictable

joys like sensual pleasure and fears or

anger ultimate freedom he says is

grounded in reason

and from this comes a joyful serenity

that arises from the knowledge that

doing the rational correct thing should

pay off in the end

joy remember is the feeling of an

increase in our connotus an increase in

power so spinoza's ethics is grounded in

increasing and active in controlled

rational joy

but because we're part of the universe

we'll also take joy in seeing the

affections and relationships of the

world for what they are

being

integral to it a thing within it

he says a person who sees the necessity

of things regards their passage with

calm and composure

getting frustrated and angry at the

universe is the result of seeing the

world through the lens of inadequate

ideas

imagine getting angry with the lion

blaming the lion for wanting to eat you

you know it's not the lion's choice not

her fault she's not morally responsible

spinoza just says that we should look at

the rest of the world in this way too

seeing from the perspective of eternity

means looking at how different

affections different causes and effects

affect things with different levels of

power so the power of the lion biting

your leg has its cause in the lion's

hunger we don't get angry upset or

frustrated with the lion personally now

imagine asking someone for directions in

the street and the person ignores us we

get a little frustrated but then we

discover that the person speaks a

different language or is deaf or is

scared of us because they were harassed

on the streets last week there are

causes we didn't consider and have a

powerful effect on the person and when

we look from the perspective of eternity

it becomes difficult for us to direct

our negative emotions at single people

ideas or objects it becomes unreasonable

spinoza says

if we separate an emotion affect from

the thought of an external cause and

join it to the other thoughts then the

love or hate toward the external cause

is destroyed as is the mental

instability arising from these affects

powerfully we should think of all of the

causes of things again giving us a god's

eye view but also lessening the blame or

negative emotion we feel towards one

isolated thing or one isolated person

as stephen nadler writes this view

serves to distribute the causal

responsibility for the effect widely and

dilute its power significantly perhaps

taking away its strength altogether the

intensity of the effect is weakened as

it becomes less focused on one

particular individual and more on a long

sequence of necessitating causes the

same applies to our own negative

emotions our own problems we must have

knowledge about their causes and effects

otherwise we become slaves to them

because ultimately we want to increase

the joyful effects and decrease the

negative ones he says so someone who was

led solely by his love of freedom to

moderate his affects and appetites will

try his hardest to come to know the

virtues and their causes and to fill his

mind with the joy that comes from the

true knowledge of them he will not think

about men's vices or disparage men or

take pleasure from putting up a show of

being a free man

if you observe these carefully they

aren't difficult and regularly put them

into practice you will soon be able to

direct most of your actions according to

the command of reason

if you follow his advice spinoza says

you'll find your way out from the

confusion of the forest of affects

you'll be able to see the wood through

the trees

you'll see the bigger picture the one

from eternity the god's eye view

you'll have

perspective

and spinoza's ethics have been applied

to many areas and have only just

scratched the surface here but it boils

down really to this

reflect on the causes of things

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but

you might be wondering what has any of

this got to do with morality his most

famous work is called the ethics after

all spinoza's picture of the world seems

to be quite

self-centered so before we end i want to

touch on what spinoza says about

community morality and benevolence

for spinoza morals can only be grounded

in the simple fact that every organism

and being wants to increase their own

spinoza's morality or benevolence is

based on the idea that it's rationally

wise to surround oneself with other

people who are also rational as rational

people he says will want the same things

as one another he says that

there is nothing more useful to a man

than a man

men i repeat can wish for nothing more

helpful to their staying in existence

than that all men

should be in such harmony that the minds

and bodies of them all

would be like one mind and one body that

altogether should try as hard as they

can to stay in existence and that

altogether should seek for themselves

the common advantage of all

the opposite of a joy grounded in

understanding and an increasing connotus

are a life lived under the influence of

the sad passions so it's only logical to

want to minimize negativity we assemble

the world rationally in order to avoid

the sad passions we put the effects of

different things together and create

assemblages of medicines technologies

norms and values entertainment

information family and friends as a

species we have common ideas he says the

body has been affected most forcefully

but what is common to all men

we all want to preserve the things that

are good for our nature and many of

these things are common to us all

and if we're arguing angry suspicious

and fearful rather than joyful calm and

rational we're increasing our sad

passions and that shouldn't be anyone's

foundational goal moreover two heads are

better than one when it comes to tasks

and the rational person should always

want to convince the other to come over

to their calls to be rational too

or take the example of trying to work

out how to grow this

bush this tree these flowers

the more people working on the problem

with the same goal the better it will be

scholars have been critical of spinoza's

view here

people have different goals different

values but

i think his point is that we should come

together positively and ground any

disagreement or debate or competition in

those joyful effects rather than the sad

passions the negative ones

i'm not going to summarize it's

impossible to

i'll leave you with the last few lines

of the ethics the road to these things

that i have pointed out now seems very

hard but it can be found and of course

something that is found so rarely is

bound to be hard

for if salvation were ready to hand and

could be found without great effort how

could it come about that almost everyone

neglects it

but excellence is as difficult

as it is rare

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thank you so much everyone for watching

this video i really really enjoyed

making this one and a huge thank you to

epoch philosophy for lending their voice

for the spinoza quotes you can check out

their great channel through the link

below uh there's a video on deluz and

spinoza you should watch if you liked

this one so thank you to them

and most of all as always thank you to

my patrons all these incredible people

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