Why Study Baruch Spinoza with Agata Bielik-Robson

[@Racerdew]

Fantastic discussion, I didn’t want it to end. Thank you

[@mauricioarcila4066]

Excellent interview. She is very articulate and explained these facts and concepts very well.

[@reclusivepoet8975]

This is great, because it illuminates what one of my own interests is in, which is why Spinoza was taken as a model for the great English Romantic poets, such as Coleridge and Shelley, and gave them a new and radically different way of approaching religion and philosophy.

[@adrianac3258]

Excellent!!

[@robertpapps3618]

From what I've read Spinoza was excommunicated because he could no longer believe in the Jewish god. Having said that the real issue was probably that he was a free thinker, and bound to make waves, in a world that wasn't quite ready for that.

[@MrBigAlley]

what is the Latin phrase at 4:06?

[@academiaspinoza9506]

Homo sacer

[@ThetaRay7]

This video is NOT saying that Spinoza continued to be a faithful Jew. She is making the point that while we perceive Spinoza's ideas to be radically against conventional Jewish thinking, many of his ideas were POSSIBLY rooted in medieval Kabbalah, to which he could have been exposed.

[@frankle326]

‘The land must not be sold permanently..’ - Leviticus 25:23. Spinoza understood this to be the way to avoid polarization in society. Today, neoliberal rentier capitalism has inverted the covenant of our collective heritage . The modern remedy is an economic rent (land) tax, which would yield, for most people, a citizens dividend - similar in concept to the Alaskan Permanent Fund.

[@luisantonio805]

I was once excommunicated form a small religious community for not agree with their way of thinking. Spinoza was a genius and still is at this very moment.

[@annleonard9382]

Jesus said split a piece of wood and you shall find me,Lift up a stone and I shall be there, this was written in the NAG HAMMADI, It would appear to me that Jesus was saying that he is EVERYWHERE no matter where you look just like Spinoza was trying to Explain.

[@theempyrean1227]

Notingham. Is that the one with the Sheriff?

[@elkiness]

yes

[@k14check]

I didn't get the answer to question asked in video title. Spinoza was ex-communicated, may be he still continued being Jewish, maybe he didn't. Nobody is going to study him just to solve the mystery. I would like to know what impact his philosophy actually had on Modern world and philosophers. Someone please help me with that. Thank you.

[@uniofnottingham]

+Kunal Shah The question of the influence of Spinoza is so large we cannot hope to deal with it in just one video, or even in half a dozen videos! The purpose of this particular video is to raise this precise question in the hope that it will generate more questions in the minds of those who watch them. If this one has raised some questions, then look at the longer video by Dominic Erdozain at kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJCcfnagedeXptk Prof. Thomas O'Loughlin

[@elkiness]

There is a lot you can find with a little Googling. Books, courses (check out FutureLearn, it's free), articles, etc. His influence is extensive, even now with the most modern philosophers.

[@larrysmith2714]

I have benedict de Spinoza oil painting and reason he was exile is because of his works the painting show that his study of myth his works was very symbolic showing things nobody wanted to be known.and Rembrandt learn from Spinoza how to use mirror and optical glass in his paintings how to make very tiny image of faces revealing hidden works and bad deeds.a person who bring things up from the past,a rescearcher investigator of science?

[@Mista_Moon_Goon]

Word of warning to everyone watching this video for the first time: You better have done your research about Spinoza in order to conclude concrete facts concerning the personality of Spinoza and his philosophy, for this interview reshapes Spinoza into a person who continued to be a faithful Jew even after being excommunicated. That is nonsense. Reading his letters and observing his psychological disposition towards many superstitious beliefs were quite hostile towards organized religion.

[@davidwilkie9551]

The whole concept-ion of excommunication is a kind of amusing horror of misattribution. Such ignorant arrogance is only possible if belief, faith, hope and trust in social adaptation to universal circumstances, are based on the assumption that communication can be cut off from existence, at some pretentious command. "What goes around, comes around", deliberate ignorance inevitably destroys credibility in reality. "Everything is connected", so any word, symbol or idea has a placement in infinity, but relevance is literally "another story". It's easy to perceive Spinoza as one who was precisely attached to the revealed natural existence, and then to how it should be identified. Dualism is unavoidable, every phenomena has a form-ulaic reciprocal or "flipside", and is connected in the self-defining reality of QM-Time Principle, with all the multi-phase features and properties of Phys-Chem and Geometry, such that even vaguely perceived interpretations of awareness/consciousness have a solid core of memory-nodes and fluid zones of interactive influence in resonance with "mindfulness". It seems our mind is uniquely our own node, in an ocean of shared experience and interactions, dualisticly. It's a matter of personal preference what nomenclature to use for social interaction. We do have free will to choose our abilities to react to circumstances of nature and nurture. He appeared to be taking the "simple " approach that is interpreted now as somewhat scientific, but every baby reiterates this process, and would be self integrating the social order they experience. Philosophy puts words on the observations of reiterative development methodology. (?) An intensely focused person who has a very practical outlook on life would naturally adopt the thumb-rule that effectively, "God" = Good, that the purpose of teaching and learning is for betterment, so if this fundamental motivation experienced as the evolutionary survival mechanism is called into question for such people, then the reasonable and rational reaction allowed to them by "free will", is to reverse analyze the information provided in their situation. (Which might be called "Sciencing the Hell out of it", the context/conception)

[@floydguidry9817]

David Wilkie very interesting and insightful Thank you

[@chaucerflanders7918]

"philosophically speaking or even theologically speaking that Spinoza gave us a completely new idea of creation," she said just to ask where Spinoza had got this idea from,? well, I would say; Spinoza woke up in the morning and had a cup of coffee and while he was sipping his coffee looking through the window, he just decided oh " God is nature and nature is God" seriously makes me laugh!

[@stephenkirby1455]

Why Spinoza’s god failed epic-ally. Spinoza’s god is spot on. What epic-ally failed is Spinoza’s description of his god in a theistic fashion, therefore giving theists with an anthropomorphic concept of a god an opportunity to analogize their concept with his concept, thus extending humankind’s doubt regarding the human concept of god’s existence. The following is from the School of Life video on Spinoza. The Ethics is one of the world's most beautiful books. It contains a calming perspective, a restoring take on life. It replaces the god of superstition with a wise and consoling pantheism, and yet, Spinoza's work failed utterly to convince any but a few to abandon traditional religion and to move toward a rationalist and wise system of belief. Spinoza failed to understand, like so many philosophers before and since, that what leads people to religion isn't just reason, but far more importantly; emotion, belief, fear and tradition. People stick with their beliefs because they like the ritual, the communal meals, the yearly traditions, the beautiful architecture, the music, the lovely language in their synagogue [or mosque,] or church. Spinoza's Ethics arguably contains a lot more wisdom than the bible, but because it comes without any of the bible's supporting structure, it remains a marginal work… If we are ever to replace traditional beliefs we must remember just how much religion is helped along by ritual, tradition, art, and a desire to belong, all things that Spinoza, despite his great wisdom, ignored at his peril, in his bold attempt to replace the bible. Spinoza's god failed epic-ally because he described his god as an ‘’other entity’’, and entity outside the individual, and this was his critical mistake. Whether or not you choose to ‘’believe’’ in a god or gods, spiritualism, mysticism, magic, miracles, or anything supernatural, that is your individual ‘’belief’’ selection. None of those ‘’beliefs’’ are necessary for you to come to a full understanding of individual human unendarkenment, individual human enlightenment, individual human happier-ness. I am talking about what every ‘’wise’’ man and ‘’wise’’ woman, every ‘’sage’’ and ‘‘seer’’, throughout human history, has been attempting to elucidate for humankind. You do not have to ‘’believe’’ in anything but yourself to achieve individual human unendarkenment, individual human enlightenment, individual human happier-ness. Daily rigorous utilization of your intelligence, conscience, and common sense capabilities is all that is necessary. I am an everyman. If I can do it, anyone can. Belonging to a community of intelligent, truth-seeking, individuals is exceedingly more rewarding than belonging to any of the also-ran organizations of people who only think they know. Stephen Kirby [e-mail]

[@PennyDreadful1]

Stephen Kirby Ehm Spinoza talked quite alot about how humans are essentially emotional. I get the impression that he thought that we should exalt reason to a religious principle. Associating positive emotions to it like a religious person associates positive emotion to god. Because we are essentially emotional. Which is the exact opposite of what you just said.

[@EinsteinKnowedIt]

Stephen, quite frankly, Sponpza did not have in view the changing of the organized religious persons mind. There is no aim for that. Spinoza is only for the few who can comprehend where he's coming from. Even Jesus had the same issue with the masses.

[@danfield6030]

Louis Richards ...bam!!

[@palladin331]

Everything you said about Spinoza is false. Spinoza failed to understand NOTHING. And his 'god' is not an 'other' entity. How dare you spread this nonsense.

[@MrLanicz]

Jak to dobrze, że 400 lat temu pewien naukowiec napisał, że Bóg to natura. Co byśmy dziś bez tego zrobili? - jestem pewny, że większość z nas nie wiedziała by jak żyć.

[@davidlivergood9730]

W

[@palladin331]

Spinoza felt 'second class'? He 'suffered humiliation' in the synagogue? Nonsense. Please don't speculate about his mental states. 'Deus sive natura' is universally translated 'God or Nature'. Your use of 'as' instead of 'or', however, has merit. You could also say 'God in Nature'. But I prefer the phrase 'the nature of nature', for that is exactly what Spinoza is talking about, i.e., the universal, infinite, eternal, unalterable, irreducible laws of nature, thought and extension being the two attributes of this 'substance'. As for religion, there is nothing about religion that Spinoza didn't understand. Nor did he found a new religion. He simply identified 'God' as completely antithetical to the God of all religions, past, present, and future. Hence he was excommunicated. He certainly felt no emotional distress because of that. So, yes, he was atheistic, but that's because his definition of God is one that has no relation to religion as that word is commonly understood. That is genius, because religion invariably leads to intellectual and political error. And that brings us to the other half of Spinoza: psychology, which DOES include religion and all mental states.

[@HelenBrown-s1j]

Rodriguez Michael Thomas Susan Allen Sarah

[@fredrictengstrom5646]

I would sat t primary reason 2 study Mr Ss t expelling f t jewish Community. He was very maltreated. Shalom

[@redmotherfive]

Very intelligent? Try: genius.