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Spinoza
A Talk by Bro. Hector Ramos
Summary of Spinoza's Ethics
Spinoza was a Jewish philosopher from the 1600's. It's been said that his philosophy is the bare bone Jewish philosophy stripped of all superstition. Of his Ethics, renowned philosopher and historian Will Durant says this:
"Ultimately there are but three systems of ethics, three conceptions of the ideal character and the moral life. One is that of Buddha and Jesus, which stresses the feminine virtues, considers all men to be equally precious, resists evil only by returning good, and identifies virtue with love... Another is the ethic of Machiavelli and Nietzsche, which stresses the masculine virtues, accepts the inequality of men, relishes the risks of combat and conquest and rule, and identifies virtue with power... A third, the ethic of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, considers that only the informed and mature mind can judge, according to diverse circumstance, when love should rule, and when power, and identifies virtue, therefore, with intelligence... It is the distinction of Spinoza that his ethic unconsciously reconciles these apparently hostile philosophies, weaves them into a harmonious unity, and gives us in consequence a system of morals which is the supreme achievement of modern thought."
His work was written in Latin, in a manner very difficult for people today to translate and comprehend. Admittedly, I had to read the Ethics 3 times before I felt I was really starting to get it.
It was written in the form of a Geometric proof; that is, step by step, each proposition building on the last one, with the effect that his conclusions are almost inescapable.
I have mimicked his style in the following 1 definition and 13 propositions to give you a feel for how he lays out his philosophy of life:
Definition: God - an eternal and infinite being.
I) Everything that exists, exists in him and he is all that exists.
a. Corollary: He does not exist separate or outside of nature, but is nature herself.
II) Matter and mind are different attributes of the same substance. Therefore, mind and matter are merely two different ways of looking at the same thing, namely, God.
III) For a given being made of matter, the agility of its mind is proportional to the agility of its body and, vice versa, the agility of its body is proportional to the agility of its mind.
IV) The fundamental essence of every consciousness pertaining to any body is the desire for indefinite self preservation.
V) A man's passions arise from sub-bodies (organs, limbs, muscles, etc.) within his whole body; they too wish to persist in their excited states.
VI) A man's true essence of mind and awareness belongs to his body taken as a whole, not to any of its sub-bodies; therefore, a man's passions are not his true essence, although to an ignorant man, they will appear to be so.
VII) Freedom from slavery to the vicissitudes of the passions lies in the strengthening of the intellect and understanding, which belong to, and arise from, the body taken as a whole.
VIII) A strong intellect/understanding necessarily results in an active mind and body, always in search of what is most useful for the persistence of the same, and consequently, reduces the amount of time passions are permitted to grip one's being.
IX) This acting to preserve one's existence by seeking what is useful in accordance to reason (as opposed to superstition, appetite, habit, or custom), is called virtue, and one's effectiveness in doing so is called power.
X) Through reason, one finds that nothing is more useful to oneself than something else whose nature is most like his own.
XI) It follows first, that for a man living in obedience to reason, nothing is more useful than other men living in obedience to reason.
XII) It follows second, that in so far as a man understands reality and his relation to God, so much the more will he endeavor to bring it about that as many other men as possible also understand.
XIII) As it is opposed to helping other men in this or any other way, hate has no place in the heart of a wise man.
The square and compass, like the 2 great pillars, and like the words "heaven" and "Earth" in the Bible, point to the reality of mind and body, two attributes of God.
The perfect ashlar reminds us to continually endeavor to perfect our mind and body, stripping away the unnecessary and burdensome fragments, those few extra pounds, or that emotional baggage, that do not belong to our true essential nature but only hinder us in finding it.
The compass symbolically circumscribes our sphere of understanding and awareness. Additionally, if we imagine a life-sized circle, with us at the center and it having a radius of 1 cable-tow, it is a circle representing our influence and power.
Many of us joined masonry because we had a desire to “help people,” even though we did not have a clear conception of what that means. Within these walls are many men of great strength and power. They are here because they desire to help you learn what “helping others” means for you –because that's what it means for them.
We’re all here because we know something's up; human beings have been evolving for 200,000 years and we're supposed to believe that all we have to show for it is a 9-5 job? There’s got to be more to it than that, and this need to know, to find, and to understand, is what binds us, men of reason, brothers, together in this lodge to work.
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