A pleasant morning fellow students
and Ms.Navarro. I am Alvin Pasoot, one of the speakers for today. And it gives
me immense pleasure to present to all of you one of the great rationalists of
the 17th century philosophy. He was a Dutch Philosopher born on
November 24, 1632 and died on February 21, 1677. He was famed in working for
the 18th Century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism and
includes some modern conceptions of the self and the universe.
Do you have any idea now who is he?
Ladies and gentlemen, he is none
other than, Mr. Baruch Spinoza also known as “Benedicto de Spinoza”
Spinoza wrote a philosophical
treatise between 1664 to 1665 which was published in 1677. This book is the
most ambitious attempt to apply the method of Euclid in philosophy. He puts a
small number of definitions and axioms to derive hundreds of preposition and
corollaries. These are as follows: First,“When
the mind imagines its own lack of power it is saddened by it”; Second “A free man thinks of nothing less than
of death” and last “The human mind cannot
be absolutely destroyed with the body, but something of it remains which is
eternal”.
According to Karl
Jaspers, these are the fundamental concepts with which Spinoza sets forth a vision
of being, illuminated by his awareness of God. Spinoza argued that God exists
and is abstract and impersonal.
On the other hand,
in one of Spinoza’s works, he opposed Rene
Descartes'
philosophy on mind–body dualism. This was known as “Ethics” in which he asserted that the mind and body were not separate, but
a single identity and they were just two names for the
same reality
This was published in 1677 which later gave recognition to him as one
of Western philosophy's most important thinkers.
To
further discuss his masterpiece, allow me to describe each part of the book. The first part of the book addresses the relationship
between God and the universe. Then, the
second part of the Ethics focuses on the human mind and body.
Spinoza attacks several Cartesian positions, that the mind and body are
distinct substances that can affect one another, that we
know our minds better than we know our bodies.
In the third part of the book, Spinoza argues that all things, including human beings,
strive to persevere in their being. This is usually taken to mean that things
try to last for as long as they can.
Then the fourth part is “Of Human
Bondage” analyzed human passions, which Spinoza sees as aspects of the mind
that direct us outwards to seek what gives pleasure and shun what gives pain.
Last part is “Human Freedom” argues that reason can govern the affects in the
pursuit of virtue, which or Spinoza is self-preservation.
Moving forward to another philosophy of Spinoza, it stated
that “God is Nature and Nature is God.”
This is Pantheism or the doctrine that identifies God with the universe, or
regards the universe as a manifestation of God.
This Dutch Philosopher explained that God or Nature consists
of Attributes.
God, as the complete system of Attributes, is absolutely infinite
or complete; each Attribute is only infinite in its kind by Attribute Spinoza
means an ultimate or irreducible quality or energy.
With Spinoza’s
works and contributions to Philosophy, he is undeniably one of the most important philosophers and certainly the most radical
of the early modern period. His extremely naturalistic views on God, the world,
the human being and knowledge serve to ground a moral philosophy centered on
the control of the passions leading to virtue and happiness. They also lay the foundations for a strongly democratic
political thought and a deep critique of the pretensions of Scripture and
sectarian religion.
Of
all the philosophers of the 17th century, perhaps none have more
relevance today than Baruch Spinoza or better known as
“Benedicto de Spinoza”
And
before I finally end this speech, I hope you were able to appreciate Spinoza
and all his contributions to Philosophy. Once again, I am Alvin Pasoot and
thank you for listening.
