Spinoza and the Death of God

[@SeekersofUnity]

Watch the next episode: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4qbimV8oZWCq8U

[@BcClarity]

Baruch was a Baller. So much a mystic in a time and place with no time or place for such things. Meaning. The quest continues.

[@dennyworthington6641]

Great summary of Spinoza's life and philosophy. I chanced upon Spinoza's work in a library when I was in my mid-20s (many decades ago now). I recall thinking at the time, "this is it, this is what I've been searching for." My admiration has only grown over the years. I believe that Spinoza came the closest to the truth about the universe and mankind's place in it as any person who's ever lived. After my immediate family, he's had the greatest influence on my life. In addition to being a great intellect, he was, by all accounts, an exemplary human being. Ah, that the world contained more people like this man.

[@sylviaowega3839]

He did indeed; and it is small wonder that even Einstein, the world greatest physicist wrote a poem about him.

[@randomchannel-px6ho]

I am finding it hard to believe I just randomly stumbled upon this channel after mystical experiences of my own. Perhaps there is something there after all. Thank you

[@Bildgesmythe]

It's a great channel. It always gives me so much to think about.

[@kosco9658]

Zevi and Filip Holm (let’s talk religion) are my favorites 😂

[@deanos360]

That’s how it works

[@SeekersofUnity]

Welcome 🙏🏼

[@steviechampagne]

what is your most prominent mystical experience?

[@uncommonsensewithpastormar2913]

The presenter has adopted a very interesting and enlightening perspective on German idealism. I’ve always believed that German idealism was mostly a response to the skepticism of David Hume-particularly in regards to the philosophy of Emmanuel Kant. I had no notion of how it was a response to Spinoza. I can’t wait for the next video.

[@deeks86]

I really appreciate this channel and the ongoing discussion of Spinozas writings and ideas. Ever since I learned of Spinoza, the ideas have resonated so deeply with me, and I find videos like this to be a little oasis of clarity for my mind to rest within. Well maybe not rest haha.

[@SeekersofUnity]

Thank you. We’re glad to be able to think alongside and share that great man with the world.

[@alandunlap4106]

"God is real, the universe is unreal, God is the universe." -- Shankara

[@indiapakistanfriends7453]

The same verse by Shankara also states that all life is God.

[@indiapakistanfriends7453]

@@salvadordali-m8h God does not mean a person. God means all pervading consciousness according to Vedanta.

[@joshuakleinberg4855]

This is an absolutely brilliant work. I once tried to get through the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's essay on Spinoza, but it was too dense for me. This video outlined entire books worth of knowledge in just over a half hour in succinct, understandable language for the layperson. I had no idea that this episode in the history of philosophy laid the groundwork for so many arguments thrown at people regarding how science or reason is a "trap that leads to atheism" to this day. I sincerely hope Dylan goes into teaching.

[@SeekersofUnity]

Thank you Joshua. I’m so glad it was helpful. We hope so too :)

[@robertvann7349]

​@@SeekersofUnity You want wisdom from God?

[@robertvann7349]

​@@SeekersofUnity INTELLIGENT DESIGN ARGUMENT, use Aristotle's famous formula for absolute impossible contradiction A is B. Lets plug data into the formula. A is non intelligence being caused the effect of ( is ) B your intelligent being This is simple absolute truth A is B illogical impossible contradiction Logically Aristotle's other famous formula A isn't non A ie. B for SIMPLICITY. A is a intelligent being can only cause the effect of ( is ) A is your intelligent being Simple eh

[@robertvann7349]

​@@SeekersofUnity SOMETHING FROM NOTHING ARGUMENT DEBUNKED Aristotle's famous formula A is B ABSOLUTE IMPOSSIBLE CONTRADICTION A is nothing caused the effect of ( is ) B is something This is an impossible scientific hypothesis as the intelligent design argument is a false scientific hypothesis demonstrated by plugging data into A is B absolute impossible contradiction.

[@robertvann7349]

​@@SeekersofUnity KNOWLEDGE ARGUMENT? A is no brainiac organism ie. prokaryote caused the effect of ( is ) B a small brainiac organism ie. a worm. This is simple A is B impossible contradiction.

[@michaelkalish2013]

Very nice presentation of Spinoza. Thank you for putting it together. Looking forward to the upcoming episodes.

[@YouTubdotCub]

Wild to me this video doesn't have 20K views already, if it doesn't have 50K by the end of October the algorithm ain't doing its job right. Everyone interested in seismic shifts in philosophy should be watching this! Excited for further entries in this series!

[@davidanderson7389]

Fascinating! My only exposure to these thinkers was from the writings of Francis Schaeffer. This really helps me to grasp what Shaeffer was saying as well as the original philosophers.

[@sylviaowega3839]

Excellent take on Spinoza here! Impressive. 💡

[@georgeleddy483]

My philosophy prof at UCSB wrote a book on Spinoza and introduced first year students to his work. Weinpahl was also a Buddhist and had taken Spinoza in that direction. It was a great class.

[@shari6063]

Looking forward to taking this in! Good idea Zevi!

[@SeekersofUnity]

Thank you friend. I hope you enjoy it.

[@sylviaowega3839]

Spinoza understood very well that hate, shame and regret are all president on the passive emotion, as well as a predicate of nature and the infinite law of causality

[@animefurry3508]

As a Zizekian I'm very happy to hear more that German Idealism is making a come back, especially Hegel (and Marx), good luck and thank you!

[@hudsontd7778]

I think Panentheism works with Christianity, Hagel, Alfred North Whitehead, Process Theism and Open Theism come to mind

[@sylviaowega3839]

Oh I’m a Spinozist myself and was immediately impressed my Slovaj Zizek’s works/lectures.

[@BlueBaron3339]

What a marvelous find! This channel I mean. Dylan, you look like one of those turn of the century (19th-20th, *that* turn) fellas hanging out in coffee shops, discussing such issues back then. Before we had things like "What's trending." Those are useful tools by the way. They tell you what you can safely avoid. And before the crushing effects of The Great War and the flu pandemic began the most tragic century in human history. TLDR: this video cheered me up. As you can probably tell, that doesn't happen to me often 😅😂🤣 Subbed...

[@mutant-zombieleaves9501]

Truly professional lectures!

[@kimberlyfaithmerker861]

"G-d's own self-knowledge in, through, and As us; as our own self-knowledge... achieved above all, in philosophy itself." Brilliant 🎉

[@SeekersofUnity]

🙏🏼

[@markjohnperkins]

This was really interesting thanks. I tried to follow your series on Spinoza with Vervaeke, but sadly failed. This is really useful. I also like that Dylan smiled to himself when saying "titular" 😅

[@curlymyhero]

Good video. There's absolutely no one more moral than philosophers.

[@buckleyrue3836]

I love that painting that’s always associated with him where everyone’s like ‘get back it’s Spinoza reading his fucking books again’

[@SeekersofUnity]

Dangerous activity 😉

[@EinsteinKnowedIt]

​@SeekersofUnity It certainly was in his day and still today. Anyone enlightened by truths revealed so geometrical and thoroughly are seen as a sort of outcast or Prometheus. Of course, if you're already on the outskirts of polite society what the hell you care?

[@johneagle4384]

Very nice introduction to Spinoza. Thank you so much!

[@SeekersofUnity]

You’re most welcome.

[@nihilisticinquisition7150]

Great video, although I was missing some Fichte, to be honest. In his 'WIssenschaftslehre' from 1794 he very explicitly refers to Kant and Spinoza and laying a lot of the groundwork for German Idealism and Hegel in general (The dialectic often being attributed to Hegel is very explicity used by Fichte as well.)

[@FortYeah]

Thank you so much! And come teach in Montreal!

[@ChaoThing]

EXCELLENT! Thank you SO MUCH.

[@philfenghan]

A great video! Thank you for providing the context of how Spinoza was regarded in the 18 and 19 centuries

[@SeekersofUnity]

You’re most welcome 🙏🏼

[@ryanrud7698]

Awesome, thank you! Verene (2016) Metaphysics and the Modern World, might be interesting to people who like this channel; I just finished it, loved it---anyway, great job on this presentation--thorough, useful, timely

[@AlejandroMS67]

Great storytelling!

[@SuenteusPi]

Do you have any citation for Kant's calling Jerusalem "an irrefutable book"? Wiki cites Brittanica, which doesn't cite to the Kant passage. And every other mention of it I can find with a quick search either cites to nothing or to Brittanica. It would surprise me if the Kant quote is authentic, given Kant's criticisms of Judaism in the Religionbook (and his personal antisemitism, as attested to in his correspondence).

[@johncracker5217]

Can you cite Kants anti semitism?

[@johncracker5217]

That would be great thanks

[@SuenteusPi]

P.5 of the Introduction to the Cambridge edition of Kant's Correspondence has some references; the letter that immediately came to mind is not translated in that volume, but is mentioned on p.595: Kant expresses his view of Maimon thusly, in 1794: "“ Isn’t it just like a Jew to try to make a reputation for himself at someone else’s expense?"@@johncracker5217

[@SuenteusPi]

In fairness, he was friendly with Herz and several other Enlightenment-friendly Jews, but so have many historical antisemites had their "good ones".

[@DaveTheTurd]

Excellent, thank you. Bookmarking this.

[@willgiorno1740]

Thinking of you all Zevi ❤

[@Bildgesmythe]

Heading to the full series after this. ❤

[@bell1095]

„I think, therefore I am“ stands for implementing doubt and for dismissing authorities by empiric methode.

[@chopin65]

You make a natural teacher. Well done.

[@VVeltanschauung187]

Thank you for the in depth explanation of Metal Gear Solid Lore

[@ChristianSt97]

we need a tour of that library asap

[@warrenthebard]

brilliant work!

[@docoRPA]

if there were to be a movie about Hegel's life, I hope they cast Kathy Bates as Hegel

[@Rivulets048]

Oh my god I see it

[@robinharwood5044]

It is an insult to Spinoza to call him “Baruch”. The name he chose to be known by, the name he published under, and the name he was known by until fairly recently, is “Benedict”. “Baruch” was the name he was given as a child, and it is the name under which he was cursed and reviled by the rabbis when they excommunicated him from the synagogue.

[@jsjm7519]

"Baruch" is Hebrew for blessed. "Benedicta" is Latin for blessed. So either way, but especially by calling him by his Hebrew name, he is being shown to be blessed despite the curse of the rabbis.

[@robinharwood5044]

@@jsjm7519 I know what Baruch means. But calling him by his Hebrew name is rejecting his choice.

[@jsjm7519]

@@robinharwood5044 You seem to have taken my comment personally without understanding the point I was making. Furthermore, by choosing the name Benedictus he was in fact perpetuating the name Barukh, since they mean the exact same. He could have chosen any name in the world but he chose to maintain the name that means blessing specifically after he was cursed by the rabbis.

[@robinharwood5044]

@@jsjm7519 Same meaning, yes, but not the same name. As far as I can tell, he never used the Hebrew name. Why impose it on him?

[@Taptico]

Really exciting how you are building this dramatic conflict of thought. Wonderful stuff! Getting late but I think I am going to have to binge this series! I've heard of but never studied Hegel, and with your summary presented here, I wonder how similar his ideas are to mine. I also find interesting that Spinoza starts with a fundamental precept that God is infinite yet draws "indubitable" inferences that assume God cannot manifest in infinite ways, including the personal. Also surprising is his inference that an infinite God must mean there is no free will. Shouldn't we infer the opposite? It seems Spinoza's "infinity" is a small one, a shadow of the apple on Socrates' cave wall.

[@vicpso1]

Great work and rendition!

[@sylviaowega3839]

I myself took a couple of philosophy courses from the U of T philosophy department, and I have encountered some very talented professors and excellent courses.

[@chables74]

Looking forward to more!

[@SeekersofUnity]

🙏🏼

[@theschooloflife8303]

Excellent analysis. We appreciate what you do.

[@mcnallyaar]

Solid Gold.

[@theonetruetim]

Reconciliation & Absolute Spirit! Huzzah! The "compromise" is Truth. Here for the ride. Tuned in, strapped in, part of the whole! 🌍🌎🌏 🌠🌃 lfg! Happy to have found you, this, us & and to be "here" for "it". 🍿!

[@BabaBest2000]

The madman said: "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him". The madman is a fictional character.

[@prs_81]

I'm confused. Is that portrait of Jacobi not actually the portrait of Kant?? Or is it just mistakenly accepted as Kant's?

[@russellmason5095]

I enjoy your channel, and thanks for your hard work. One thing here: Did Nietzsche's declaration send shockwaves through nineteenth century Europe? He was a very obscure writer at that time, so the statement appears to be inaccurate.

[@allensnea9335]

Thank you for the great explanation

[@kosco9658]

How do you feel about Bantu/Nilotic philosophy and spirituality in comparison to Jewish mysticism? There are many links and similarities I feel you would appreciate learning about. Shalom

[@SeekersofUnity]

I’ll have to check it out. Thank you 🙏🏼

[@garethsmith3036]

This is the same guy who did the Hegel video! He’s good

[@michaelbindner9883]

Justice makes truth and love negotiable. God needs no excuse to love all.

[@Chosidchosid770]

"[kabbalah] the tradition of jewish mysticism which explicitly espouses a pantheistic or panentheistic world view" this is utterly incorrect and a profound mistake in the comprehension of kabbalah.

[@phillylifer]

Great essay

[@SeekersofUnity]

🙏🏼

[@SuenteusPi]

5:48 you used Jacobi's image for Kant, as so often happens

[@SeekersofUnity]

Whoops. I thought I fixed that.

[@oiausdlkasuldhflaksjdhoiausydo]

I wonder Spinoza read Luis de Molina because he answered (50 years earlier) the question of free will and an omniscient God

[@swymaj02]

23:48 same Mendolssohn as Felix?

[@janglestick]

Thanks for this extruded view of the issues as they developed at that time. Most people when they reach the issues of Spinoza they decide to tunnel in on the specific technical interactions, to the exclusion of his philosophies in other areas, and to the exclusion of the social influences, both of uninformed society around them and the pressure they felt from a growing intellectual reading set, and the people relevant in the world of their careers (not to mention Spinoza's rabbinical teachers and their whole lose hierarchy). And the emphasis on Moses Mendelssohn ... and the entire topic of 'Judaism is perfectly Rational' (i'd say, it attempts to preserve rather than move past irrational things') is so essential. I think nearly everyone who is studying these apparent truths and boundaries would do well to study close the exact line they themselves would accept when de-harem-izing Spinoza. Your rabbi might disagree, and even I might say, you really should be solid in certain other ideas and books first, and maybe even behaviors, being a good person, if youre really going into it to challenge the lines of your deep personal understanding and behavior. And of course some very strict frum and litvitch types will literally not talk to you, keep away from you, and not want you to talk to or influence their family or in their synagogue. Just be aware.

[@Chaimiz]

I dont get it. If people have no choice, how can you even have ethics? How can you say 'therefor there is no reason to hate' well, that might be true but i dont have a choice!

[@secretagent4610]

Good point. That idea contradicts itself.

[@xenoblad]

I think your conclusion on free will is going to be contingent on how you answer the problem of identity.

[@williambranch4283]

I take this as a Calvinism move by Spinoza.

[@bwryuun]

Prior to the 60’s such great thinking as this could be found in Unitarian Universalism

[@Jersey-towncrier]

Only a doubter of God's existence would feel a need to prove it...

[@miguelatkinson]

So basically all the theologians,philosophers,preachers,apologists etc..... for the past 2000 years where all just doubters...

[@Jersey-towncrier]

@@miguelatkinson is there no difference between believing there is a God, not believing there is a God, and KNOWING GOD?? Only the latter group has no reason to doubt God's existence. Do not all of our senses persuade our minds and convict our hearts of the fact that God is? If one person doubts God, and another attempts to persuade him otherwise, both have fallen into the snares of doubt, for it is doubt and doubt alone that drives the disputants. The one is mastered by doubt, the other merely opposes that doubt. And yet both have in a deep sense fallen a prey to the spirit of doubt. Nay?

[@miguelatkinson]

@@Jersey-towncrier well by your logic no one in believes god and seems more to be assumptions and guessing since no one definitively knows that truly absolutely god exists

[@Jersey-towncrier]

@@miguelatkinson Psalms 46:10 (KJV) Be still, and KNOW that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. (emphasis added)

[@Jersey-towncrier]

@@miguelatkinson see, even your comment languishes under the slave-master of doubt...

[@TheRealValus]

"You are a puppet, but in the hands of the infinite; which may be your own." ~ Antonio Porchia

[@jamesruscheinski8602]

focus on divine central authority substantive human rights

[@TheGarrymoore]

Panentheism has radically different consequences from pantheism. In panentheism what the science can investigate is a subset from what God is. God is richer in the attributes compared to the Universe which is subject to scientific empirical knowledge.

[@indiapakistanfriends7453]

Spinoza's God in Ethics sounds like the non dualist Brahman of Vedanta.

[@StephenSinclair-d6n]

Thanks for this. Was his real crime to say what they thought? Have always secretly thought? and still think?

[@roselotusmystic]

Thank GodDess . . . for BOTH Transcendent 'Creator' AND Immanent 'Creation' TransDual . . . Creatoration PanEnTheism 💃🕺☯꩜DanceON . . .🙏 TheDeepMysteryOf . . . TheAllThatIs(Not) 😻

[@KhaoticDeterminism]

as an #indigenous German #pagan we question your take on unity if it doesn’t involve phasing out animal husbandry to be frank #2Spirit #spirituality

[@patricksharp1063]

" Deus est Natura." God is Nature. Nature is the body of God. Nature is alive and conscious, ergo God is alive and conscious. The laws of Nature, ie science, are the Laws of God. As History is the study of man, Science is the study of God. Spinoza's God is the God of Einstein. Mystically conscious Nature.

[@michaelbindner9883]

Hegel, God as Meme

[@reportedstolen3603]

I think the majority of the “zeitgeist” is heading towards nihilism wrapped in neo-liberal dogma. Yet, we have to go low before going high, so I still have hope.

[@michelangelope830]

I am a psychologist and I need your help. What do you want in return? I want you to tell your innocent and vulnerable children that I think i am God and the truth is atheism is a logical fallacy that assumes God is the religious idea of the creator of the creation to conclude wrongly no creator exists because a particular idea of God doesn’t exist. I think that to end the war in Ukraine the discovery that atheism is a logical fallacy has to be news, i am talking about knowledge that should not be censored in the first place.

[@kimyunmi452]

PSR is everything.

[@henrieecen2938]

Strange that after embracing Christianity in midlife and reading my Bible extensively, I too concluded God to be as St Paul writes... IN ALL THROUGH ALL and ABOVE ALL. So many see Pantheism as a reality going back to the earliest native cultures. Catholic Franciscanism has much in common as well. Personally I have no trouble with embracing Jesus (who I love as Saviour) as God as ALL creation is infused by the presence and knowledge of God. How dare we finites restricted by physicallity, box the infinite reason for all (God) in neat little theological boxes. Franciscan Richard Rohr's book on "The Universal Christ" a more contemplative mode of Christianity so so liberating. It has drawn me closer to God my neighbours and the universe which He inhabits. God/Love will lead all genuine seekers to Himself, and yes to experience God's peace and rest in the here and now. Death? No such thing ...but only a change of reality. How do we know? As for me the resurrection of Jesus the Christ and the very reason for Christianity, will do me just fine thankyou.👍

[@robertanderson3905]

I MAY HAVE FORGOten MY UNBRELLA

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

Pantheism: The idea that god lives in your pants

[@eyeofgnosis558]

god is dead, long live God

[@johncracker5217]

Ready for part two please

[@SeekersofUnity]

On its way ;)

[@michaelbindner9883]

Very AA

[@zeroonetime]

Baruch (blessed) Spinoza is not dead. Go Re- incarnate yourself.

[@siobhan24900]

dylan’s hot

[@leebennett1821]

You cannot kill what was never alive why is life meaningless if your not the Special creation of a God who created God we did God is man's Creation anyone who cannot see this is a fool

[@Verboten-xn4rx]

God died on the Cross man must become a kind of Hirohito spiritual Emperor because Satan rules. Who is the highest since Jesus? He is the real Messiah. An Adamic Aryain scintilla from the original first Monad. We are in hell and only the most extreme jurisdiction mass extermination of the evil can work at all. It is a question of acclaimation. Who is the truly annoited God man? Who is the most hated the most persecuted? The throne in heaven is empty. It's a non Jewish vacancy.

[@rebelrog]

You haven't dug deep enough, he was a Shabbatian, as were many others who claimed Jewish descent and were kicked out of the Jewish community for the same heresy. You're just repeating what you were taught by academia, study the Shabbatian Jews and you'll learn what they didn't teach you. Start with Shabbatia Tzvi and you'll eventually get to Spinoza, after a long line of predecessors with the same story. God bless!

[@syourke3]

Any man who can get himself excommunicated from the Synagogue is alright in my book! 😂

[@69Kevrod2012]

[@Tigerbuysplants]

Thank you for this, I’ve been drawned to Spinoza before I serediptuosly got to study kabbalah

[@SeekersofUnity]

You’re most welcome.

[@ramyafennell4615]

This is so good...so dense in explanation...and so well taught...cant wait for the next

[@SeekersofUnity]

Thank you 🙏🏼

[@RoscoeWilliams-o3x]

It's wild some people think pointless blind luck aka non intent created the universe when there is zero proof non intent has or could have created anything in the entirety of the cosmos. In. Fact it is impossible to even attempt to prove non intent could create as all attempts would require intentional intellect to set up the perameters! Hello! The only proven known verifiable creator in this reality is intentional intellect yet athiests discard known reality and place all illogical faith in a non. Intentional creator? It simply does not compute..

[@WhiteStoneName]

3:43 - 4:11 This is a good synthesis. "God's own self-knowledge in, through, and as us."

[@genghisgalahad8465]

Would it be fair to say that it behooved Jacobi to make that very leap of faith into Spinoza's philosophy? For a man at his time and milieu might prove impossible but by Descartes' reasoning, if he is, he can think it, without having his cake and eating it, too? Which, by the way, is the purpose of the cake? Wild tangent aside, this spark of intellectual curiosity and philosophically heretical idea challenges us to this day to know, and seek to know, applying our human faculties to the task proving the primacy of Spniozism. My neurons may be firing wildly with a little bit of knowledge but the gist is that this series at this moment in temporal time comes at the right time to dive in in much the same way and same day that Patch Drury mentions Jung's circumambulation, which is where I'm at even having come across volumes of content on Spinoza from Esoterica and Seekers of Unity! That or I'm being Frank Abgnale from Catch Me If You Can, enough for me to engage in cocktail bantering with a little bit of some borrowed ideas before I'm asked to rigorously articulate my thought process and am found out. Pardon the longform lack of humility! This series and timing is edifying and expansive! To borrow a saying, when the student is ready, the master (Spinoza et al) will appear, or circle the block until I finally raise my head to see them! Also, a transcendent deity (in the reasoning of the time) outside of creation would be inherently limited and be separate from that very creation and wouldn't that simply lead to nihilism as we see play out in some modern day stories of cynicism? Wouldn't that simply be a kind of cosmic monarchy wherein the human being is lesser (as opposed to humbly dignified carrying the spark of the Creator or the gift of simply being human) and detached from Spirit and therefore unable to elevate and self-actualize wisely (notwithstanding pitfalls of nihilism, of course)? Similar to the idea that all are created equal? The thoughts Spinoza provokes! Thank you, Seeker of Unity & Dylan Shaul! For this intriguing discussion!

[@bobtarmac1828]

Very very cool! More please. :)

[@rama_lama_ding_dong]

if you were more stout you coulda been ben burgis so with that i say hello skinny ben, loveya!

[@roselotusmystic]

🙏

[@hankkuya4354]

Horton Hears A Who! ~ Dr. Seuss.