Steven Nadler talk on Spinoza - Part 1 of 2

Steven Nadler, Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gives a talk on Baruch Spinoza at Beyond Belief 2006, touching on Spinoza's conception of God and morality.

Spinoza heavily influenced Einstein's beliefs about God and ethics. He said:
'It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropomorphic concept which I cannot take seriously. I feel also not able to imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. My views are near to those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order and harmony which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly. I believe that we have to content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding and treat values and moral obligations as a purely human problem — the most important of all human problems.'

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza
http://thesciencenetwork.org/BeyondBelief/
http://philosophy.wisc.edu/nadler/

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_wLDXI9cIs

Category:

Education

Tags:

• spinoza
• einstein
• philosophy
• ethics
• morality
• beyond
• belief
• lecture
• God
• euthyphro

[American2100]

God does exist. Science is only beginning to discover facts which prophets of other religions believed hundreds of years ago: Such as infinite universes, planets, moons---we only know of one universe, a few planets, a few dozen moons. Further more limitless oceans throughout the universe: we only know of one. Life and endless numbers of religions throughout the universe: we only know whats on this earth.

[riversonthemoon]

"Science is only beginning to discover facts which prophets...believed hundreds of years ago"

Those prophets also believed a lot of things that aren't true. What use do their lucky guesses have if they lacked the means to demonstrate any of it?

"infinite universes, planets, moons---we only know of one universe, a few planets, a few dozen moons"

How does the existence of any of these things show there is a God?

"limitless oceans throughout the universe..."

What are you talking about?

[metsrus]

Gods commands are considered the source of morality because God is considered the source of ultimate truth and good.

[riversonthemoon]

Very good. Circular reasoning works because circular reasoning works.

Now all you have to do is establish that God is the source of ultimate truth and good. What you 'consider' him is irrelevant to his existence or his supposed necessity in morality, truth or good.

[inkonwater]

Thanks for uploading!

[riversonthemoon]

You're welcome!

[CoIorfulPoop]

1. You CAN'T believe in a PERSONAL god and be a pantheist at the same time. The whole point of pantheism is to reject any possibility of a personal god. "God is nature, God is all, and God is not personal" = pantheism.

2. Spinoza does not believe in a personal God.

3. Spinoza rejects the Bible but he is not an atheist because he believe his god (pantheism god) is perfect and infinite. (unlike Richard Dawkins)

[bucles2000]

God is not nature, not even infinity and eternal, the essence of God is God. God existence is infinity and eternal which shows in the universe which is also infinity and eternal.

[MacksPower75]

I think he misinterprets Spinoza. Spinoza's views appear to be that everything is intrinsic to itself and its greater realty.He doesn't appear to believe God is nothing but in essence it's the opposite,it's everything. It can be argued everything has nothing to relate to so it's the same as nothing but existence refutes that.Spinoza's morality appears to be intrinsic, in that it is embedded within action and the results indicate morality. The ultimate morality then, in his view, is knowing God.

[diggydirtEO]

anyone else catch Neil Degrasse Tyson in the audience?

[jlke45]

1:32 "The real Plato, not the quantum, cosmic Plato embedded in the fabric of the universe."

Wha... what? What did I miss here?

[cfortnerXYZ]

Whoa! this is mind candy! and most a most welcome treat it is! I wonder if Spinoza addressed the experience of delight.

[philonous09]

Yet you haven't shown why God exists

[NewtonsStudent]

9:23 

[beeveee]

@American2100 Yes. The only know one sadhu called Jesus or one prophet called Mohammed, while in India there are thousands of such rishis and munis who have more profound this to say and more incredible deeds in the pages of history. It is just a matter of getting the bigger picture or brighter perspective.

[beeveee]

@jmatrim Yes. That Person who constitutes God must be transcendent. He thus can only be approached on His terms and is thus revealed. Through the telescope, microscope what will we see but matter. Using a mind with mundane experience and mundane logic what will we know? One has to become godly to know God or as they say in Sanskrit, one must like Brahman to know Brahman. Material ethics and morals are perhaps a good sign of elevating the consciousness, but we must go higher to pure Transcendence

[beeveee]

@SassyKittyClaws We all like nature when it is favorable and although we may dislike nature when it is unfavorable, we still know that there is not a whole lot we can do to the contrary. So, nature is all powerful in one sense. But, this is all just sensory experience. God, by definition is transcendent. He is beyond the power of the material senses to see and know. He can only be revealed as He so chooses and when He so chooses. No amount of material knowledge can reveal the Absolute Autocrat.