Spinoza - The Apostle of Reason (Espinosa - O Apóstolo Da Razão)

[VECLDP]

Put simply, the argument of this film is: organised religion - and, more specifically, Catholicism - is the enemy of reason. They hi-jack Spinoza to this end. The opening scene decries the Church's persecution of free-thinkers and the example of Catholic belief in the Eucharist is used in the film to exemplify the illogic of religion. He never mentions the Eucharist in his letters and his beef was with Orthodox Judaism - two reasons among many why the film seems to me a slanted interpretation.

[Monadshavenowindows]

@VECLDP That's not true. Read his correspondence with Albert Burgh, it's available online if you search Google. Spinoza claims that the Catholic Church is distinguished from all other forms of Christianity by its superfluous foundation on superstition. I'll put the links to the letters in the description box.

[MkUltraV01]

@Monadshavenowindows sheesh what a letter from Burgh. It should've been titled "Have you stopped beating your wife lately?"

[VECLDP]

@Monadshavenowindows Show me where in his letters he mentions the Eucharist and I'll take back my initial comment. If you are unable to do so, please refer to the section in the video where the fictional 'Spinoza' decries Catholic belief in Transubstantiation. This is a purely editorial accretion on the part of the film makers.

[Monadshavenowindows]

@VECLDP Spinoza mentions the Eucharist in that very same letter to Burgh, linked in the description box. Spinoza says: "O youth deprived of understanding, who has bewitched you into believing, that the Supreme and Eternal is eaten by you, and held in your intestines?" He also mocks an incident when a consecrated Eucharist was thrown to the horses in Chastillon without any ill effects, which he makes fun of since the bread is supposed to be the body of the Infinite, Eternal and Supreme...

[albiz007]

@VWCLDP What? please explain your strange assertion.

[VECLDP]

I don't know how you can call this accurate. This is an extraordinarily slanted interpretation - the film makers have recreated Spinoza in their image; that of pseudo-philosophical scientism. In as far as anything could exercise him, Spinoza would have been upset by this.

[Monadshavenowindows]

@VECLDP I don't know why you think this. Spinoza was a scientist, but his metaphysical view of substance was at the heart of everything. Scientism usually means that one thinks that only science can reveal truths about the world, or that science is the only method possible to arrive at truth, which entails that metaphysics is inferior. Spinoza certainly did not think that, and in this film they portray him using reason alone to arrive at truths.

[Monadshavenowindows]

@VECLDP This didn't mean that Spinoza thought science was useless or that it can't arrive at a certain practical knowledge. However, like Hegel, I don't think Spinoza would call it knowledge in the strict, philosophical sense. When Spinoza speaks of science in this film, it echoes his letters. You should pick those up via Hackett publishing (Samuel Shirley transl.) or in Princeton's Collected works Vol. I (Edwin Curley transl.).

[senator16]

Wow! Thank you for this wonderful documentary!