Spinoza’s Metaphysics, Essay Example

This research paper will be Spinoza’s theory of expression giving relevance to the conception that nature is a creative power that can move all things. Spinoza examines whether an object of nature follows deductively or casually in the infinite casual order of nature. “Spinoza’s sharp distinction between the sharp unchanging realm and unchanging temporal world show systematic ambiguity and it is often said that duality fosters such a radical interpretation of his ethics.”[1]  Thorough his theories of evolutionary pantheism comes our evolving universe. “Likewise, evolutionary pantheism affirms the spiritual intuition that our universe is indeed divine but rejects the dogmatism and cultural hostility that accompanies religiously motivated views.”[2]” Spinoza envisioned the philosophic life, which was also the consummate ethical life, as aiming at the liberation from all forms of oppression and, particularly, internalized oppression. He termed the latter “passivity.” This liberation could be gained, he said, only through developing independence of mind by embracing the pleasures of the broadest human and natural connectedness. I offer here a liberationist reading of Spinoza’s ethics and argue that feminists ought to take it seriously. We discover that Spinoza was inspired by Jewish conceptions of ethics and of politics in developing his liberationist theory.”[3] Spinoza saw metaphysics as an internal healing for all emotional and psychological effects of social repression and internal emotional pains. He further saw metaphysics and political tyranny havoc a combination that could be tackled through spiritual means. “All thinking, he held, is driven by desires, by interests rooted in one’s body and in one’s social and natural contexts. This insight follows from his claim of the identity of mind and body, theory and praxis.”[4] Ethics is a moral choice rather than having to do with the rational choice theory from Spinoza’s point of view. There is a conception of ‘ego state of mind’ in Spinoza’s theories. Spinoza states that people will not become moral by others telling them to do so but by rather “understanding how their interest are interconnected and stand or fall together with each other with relation to society.”[5]

Spinoza places the mind-body dualism over rational choice theory with regards to ethics thereby tearing away at any scientific explanation for rootedness for the self and the body. Sometimes ethics must be put aside for the need of survival. “Spinoza argues that an ethic that falls short of the Intellectual Love of God or Nature (what we today call intellectual passion and wide-ranging curiosity), as feminist nurturance and the various versions of the ethics of care do, is simply not in our ultimate interest.”[6] Spinoza refers to ethics as the love of a mother with her child and ethics to personal freedom. He further refers to ethics as a transformation from passive powers to active transformation. “Passivity is to be overcome not in a flight from society but through embracing a different posture within it. I call his a feminist ethic because the moral problems it aims to resolve fit so perfectly and speak to two aspects of the historic condition of women. For Spinoza’s philosophic ethic aims to redress the necessary psychological price we all pay for the existence and maintenance of society.

Every society, even the most just, democratic, and egalitarian, sacrifices individual self-determination to conformity to societal pressures and authoritative expectations.”[7]Desire should be focused on realistic goals and pleasures in life with the aspirations of common goals of achieving unity for inner peace and peace around us. There should be a desire to accomplish our true potential whist keeping in mind that we should not benefit from others misfortunes. The union of the body and soul are pre-requisites of accomplishing this unity to make this happen. “Spinoza follows Descartes in holding that cognitive passivity consists in the mind’s determination in part by its own past experiences. Descartes’ theory of the passions draws a line between our passive perceptions and our active volitions. Our perceptual passivity and our passions thus expose part of us as, in a sense, exterior to what is the ‘true’ locus of self.”[8]

References

http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=l08q332h49061398&size=largest

[1] http://www.esalenctr.org/display/evo_meta_sum2007.cfm

[1] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[1] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[1] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[1] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[1] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[1] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[1] http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=l08q332h49061398&size=largest

[2] http://www.esalenctr.org/display/evo_meta_sum2007.cfm

[3] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[4] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[5] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[6] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[7] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf

[8] http://www2.swgc.mun.ca/animus/Articles/Volume%206/ravven6.pdf