Benedict Spinoza

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 17^th 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 18^th 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 17^th 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.