The Philosophy of Spinoza: Unfolding the Latent Processes of His Reasoning, Volumes 1-2
Harry A. Wolfson
Language: English
Pages: 883
ISBN: 2:00255648
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
One of the most important books on Spinoza in the English language; a section by section commentary on The Ethics.
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Expression of shocking views they could listen indulgently because they could dismiss t h e m from their m i n d s as a sort of outlandish fieresy In this strange e n v i r o n m e n t , to which externally he seems to have fully a d j u s t e d himself, Spinoza never felt himself quite free to speak his m i n d , and he who among his own people never hesitated to speak o u t with boldness became cautious, hesitant, and reserved It was a caution which sprang n o t from fear but from an inner.
To ethics T h a t t h a t was his p u r p o s e is quite evident from the s t r u c t u r e of the Ethics, the last p a r t of which, he says, "concerns the m e t h o d or w a y which leads to l i b e r t y " 5 — " l i b e r t y " being one of the terms which Spinoza uses as synonymous with "blessedness " 6 1 C f F r DiLtLfici, op at , p p יPi rush Sejer Yeztrab le-Rabbi 3 Hobo! ha-Lebabot, 1 6 - 1 7 , A r a b i c t e x t , op a t , p p 2 5 2 - 2 5 3 Judah ben Barztlai ( B e r l i n , 1 8 8.
Absolute nothingness and formless m a t t e r c a n n o t be said to possess any n a t u r e which would require t h a t its creation should take place at a certain particular time. His a r g u m e n t against Maimonides reads as follows " T h e question still remains, W h a t has made God create at one time rather than at another 1 ׳F o r it would seem t h a t it could n o t be explained by 1 Milhamot Adonai, VI, 1, 1 h. N i n t h D o u b t PROPS. 2-6] UNITY OF SUBSTANCE 105 a n y.
Essence of G o d , and there is thus no such distinction between G o d and the world as t h a t of creator and created, or absolute s u b s t a n c e and conditional s u b s t a n c e H e thus concludes, in the Corollary to Proposition I V in A p p e n d i x I at the end of the Short Treatise, t h a t " N a t u r e is known through itself, a n d n o t through any o t h e r thing I t consists of infinite a t t r i b u t e s , every one of t h e m infinite and p e r f e c t in its k i n d , to its.
And Metaphysics, X I , 10, I 0 6 6 a ־j ; - 1 0 6 6 b , I I Cf m y Crescas' Critique 0J Aristotle, ρ 137 a n d notes on p p 329-335 I $6 THE PHILOSOPHY" OF SPINOZA [ETHICS, I entirely different I t m e a n s a s u b s t a n c e whose essence is u n i q u e and so incomparable t h a t it c a n n o t suffer a n y form of limitation and hence c a n n o t h a v e a n y form of positive description, for every'description necessarily implies a limitation, or as Spinoza puts it " d e t e r m i.