WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.700 Yeah, I want you to imagine something for a second. 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:05.900 It's a feeling almost uncomfortable to think 00:00:05.900 --> 00:00:08.759 about. The feeling of this fine, gritty dust. 00:00:09.019 --> 00:00:11.080 It's settling on your skin, it's in your hair, 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:14.640 and you can feel it deep in your lungs. You're 00:00:14.640 --> 00:00:17.899 in a small, rented room in The Hague. We're talking 00:00:17.899 --> 00:00:22.780 late 1670s. And the room is dim, right? Just 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:25.500 this weak Dutch sunlight filtering through a 00:00:25.500 --> 00:00:28.160 window that looks out onto some quiet canal. 00:00:28.420 --> 00:00:31.260 Yeah, and inside this room, the air itself is, 00:00:31.399 --> 00:00:34.310 well, it's shimmering with silica. With glass 00:00:34.310 --> 00:00:36.630 dust. And there's this sound, this rhythmic scratching 00:00:36.630 --> 00:00:38.969 sound. Scritch, scritch, scritch. And what's 00:00:38.969 --> 00:00:40.909 making that sound? It's the sound of glass being 00:00:40.909 --> 00:00:43.329 ground against an iron form. So in the center 00:00:43.329 --> 00:00:45.710 of this little dust cloud sits a man. He's wearing 00:00:45.710 --> 00:00:47.829 a simple robe, probably covered in a layer of 00:00:47.829 --> 00:00:50.509 this white powder. He's thin, his face is gaunt, 00:00:50.530 --> 00:00:53.549 and he has this hacking cough that just rattles 00:00:53.549 --> 00:00:55.869 his whole chest. And to anyone looking, to his 00:00:55.869 --> 00:00:57.789 landlord, to the neighbors, he's just the quiet 00:00:57.789 --> 00:01:01.130 guy upstairs. The lens grinder. You know, a tradesman 00:01:01.130 --> 00:01:03.280 trying to make rent. But if you were to walk 00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:06.040 over to his desk, And brush aside all those lens 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:08.760 grinding tools, you'd find a stack of papers 00:01:08.760 --> 00:01:11.500 that were, at that exact moment, the most dangerous 00:01:11.500 --> 00:01:14.659 object in Europe. Radioactive. Absolutely radioactive. 00:01:15.019 --> 00:01:17.359 Yeah. I mean, while his hands were busy grinding 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:21.260 glass, his mind was dismantling the entire medieval 00:01:21.260 --> 00:01:24.299 worldview. He was building a philosophy so radical, 00:01:24.459 --> 00:01:27.420 so terrifying to the powers that be, that it 00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:29.459 would eventually get his books banned. Banned 00:01:29.459 --> 00:01:32.079 by everyone. By literally everyone. The Catholic 00:01:32.079 --> 00:01:34.409 Church, the Protestant Dutch state. and the Jewish 00:01:34.409 --> 00:01:36.890 community he was born into. We're talking about 00:01:36.890 --> 00:01:39.849 a man whose work was described by his critics 00:01:39.849 --> 00:01:43.409 as, what was the phrase? A book forged in hell. 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:47.209 A book forged in hell. And yet, this agent of 00:01:47.209 --> 00:01:49.810 Satan, this total outcast, this quote -unquote 00:01:49.810 --> 00:01:52.469 atheist, he ends up becoming the hero of the 00:01:52.469 --> 00:01:54.510 Enlightenment. This incredible turnaround. He 00:01:54.510 --> 00:01:56.549 becomes the favorite philosopher of Goethe, of 00:01:56.549 --> 00:01:59.450 Hegel, of George Eliot. Albert Einstein famously 00:01:59.450 --> 00:02:01.859 said he believed in this man's God. It's one 00:02:01.859 --> 00:02:03.599 of the most dramatic reversals in intellectual 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:06.840 history. So today we were doing a deep dive into 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:11.259 the life and. The mind of Baruch Spinoza, the 00:02:11.259 --> 00:02:13.639 lens grinder who reinvented the universe. It 00:02:13.639 --> 00:02:15.560 is a massive topic. It is. And we're going to 00:02:15.560 --> 00:02:16.800 take our time with it. We're going to be looking 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:18.719 at the sources, you know, the historical records 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:21.199 from the Dutch Golden Age, the terrifying text 00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:23.319 of his excommunication. And, of course, the books 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:26.180 themselves, the ethics and the theological political 00:02:26.180 --> 00:02:29.280 treatise. And our mission really is to figure 00:02:29.280 --> 00:02:32.460 out how a merchant's son raised in this deeply 00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:35.879 religious refugee community became the renegade 00:02:35.879 --> 00:02:38.780 Jew who gave us modernity. We want to understand 00:02:38.780 --> 00:02:41.180 that clash, you know, between tradition and reason 00:02:41.180 --> 00:02:43.879 that defined his whole life. And we have to understand 00:02:43.879 --> 00:02:48.000 his most dangerous idea. God or nature. God or 00:02:48.000 --> 00:02:50.159 nature. But also, and I think this is really 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:51.840 why we're doing this now. We want to look at 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:55.139 Spinoza as a kind of therapist, because as we're 00:02:55.139 --> 00:02:57.180 going to see, his philosophy wasn't just some 00:02:57.180 --> 00:02:59.780 abstract logic game. It was a manual for how 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:02.419 to not be miserable. Exactly. A remedy for anxiety. 00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:05.780 So let's get into it. To understand the philosophy. 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:08.259 You really have to understand the trauma that 00:03:08.259 --> 00:03:12.199 produced it. Spinoza didn't just, you know, appear 00:03:12.199 --> 00:03:14.479 out of thin air. No, absolutely not. The context 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:17.020 is everything here. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam 00:03:17.020 --> 00:03:21.099 in 1632, but his story, it really begins decades 00:03:21.099 --> 00:03:23.460 before that and hundreds of miles to the south. 00:03:23.900 --> 00:03:25.900 In Portugal. So we're talking about the Moranos. 00:03:26.099 --> 00:03:29.139 The Moranos. Or, you know, the more polite term 00:03:29.139 --> 00:03:32.120 is crypto -Jews. And you really, you can't understand 00:03:32.120 --> 00:03:34.460 Spinoza's whole psychological landscape without 00:03:34.460 --> 00:03:37.219 this. His ancestors were Jews living in Portugal 00:03:37.219 --> 00:03:40.159 who, during the Inquisition, were forced to convert 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:42.520 to Catholicism. And this wasn't a gentle suggestion. 00:03:42.840 --> 00:03:46.199 Oh, no. This was convert or die. But the conversion 00:03:46.199 --> 00:03:48.280 was just on the surface, right? It was a performance. 00:03:48.419 --> 00:03:50.759 Totally on the surface, yes. They went to mass. 00:03:50.860 --> 00:03:52.400 They baptized their children. They would eat 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:55.340 pork in public. if they had to. But behind closed 00:03:55.340 --> 00:03:57.520 doors, you know, in the basement with the curtains 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:00.020 drawn, they were whispering Hebrew prayers. They 00:04:00.020 --> 00:04:02.020 were still lighting candles on Friday night. 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:04.780 You were living this intense double life. Just 00:04:04.780 --> 00:04:08.439 imagine the stress of that for generations. It's 00:04:08.439 --> 00:04:10.939 a profound psychological burden. I mean, you 00:04:10.939 --> 00:04:12.780 are constantly performing. You are constantly 00:04:12.780 --> 00:04:15.879 hiding your true self. Every single neighbor 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:18.779 is a potential informant. Every knock at the 00:04:18.779 --> 00:04:21.040 door could be the Inquisitors. So it creates 00:04:21.040 --> 00:04:23.759 this culture of... deep secrecy. Secrecy, but 00:04:23.759 --> 00:04:27.680 also a kind of skepticism. Think about it. If 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:30.259 you're pretending to be one religion while secretly 00:04:30.259 --> 00:04:33.220 believing another, you start to look at religion 00:04:33.220 --> 00:04:35.879 itself as something. Well, something distinct 00:04:35.879 --> 00:04:38.139 from your own internal reality. It's almost like 00:04:38.139 --> 00:04:40.379 there were actors playing a role. And eventually, 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:42.680 the Spinoza family just couldn't keep up the 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:45.180 act anymore. The heat got too high. Spinoza's 00:04:45.180 --> 00:04:47.759 grandfather and his father, they fled. They went 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:51.379 from Vidigera to Nantes in France. And then finally, 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:53.959 they made their way to the Dutch Republic. And 00:04:53.959 --> 00:04:55.500 we really have to pause on the Dutch Republic 00:04:55.500 --> 00:04:58.660 here. Because in the 17th century, this place 00:04:58.660 --> 00:05:01.220 was a unicorn. It was a total anomaly. The rest 00:05:01.220 --> 00:05:03.160 of Europe was just tearing itself apart in these 00:05:03.160 --> 00:05:05.740 horrible religious wars. You had Catholics killing 00:05:05.740 --> 00:05:08.490 Protestants, Protestants killing Catholics. the 00:05:08.490 --> 00:05:11.529 30 years war was decimating the population but 00:05:11.529 --> 00:05:14.230 the dutch republic it was a trading empire it 00:05:14.230 --> 00:05:18.350 was incredibly wealthy and crucially it was tolerant 00:05:18.350 --> 00:05:20.899 we called it the dutch jerusalem That's what 00:05:20.899 --> 00:05:23.259 they called it. Now, we shouldn't romanticize 00:05:23.259 --> 00:05:25.660 it too much. It wasn't a modern liberal democracy 00:05:25.660 --> 00:05:27.939 where everyone, you know, held hands and sang. 00:05:28.139 --> 00:05:30.699 But compared to the fires of the Inquisition, 00:05:30.759 --> 00:05:33.800 Amsterdam was a haven. The Dutch authorities 00:05:33.800 --> 00:05:36.439 basically said, look, if you help our economy 00:05:36.439 --> 00:05:38.879 and you don't cause any trouble, you can worship 00:05:38.879 --> 00:05:41.060 how you want. So the Spinoza family arrives, 00:05:41.259 --> 00:05:43.100 they can finally drop the Catholic disguise, 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:45.980 and they embrace Judaism again. They're free. 00:05:46.300 --> 00:05:49.000 They are free and they are successful. Baruch's 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:51.459 father, Michael Spinoza, becomes a prominent 00:05:51.459 --> 00:05:54.939 merchant. He's importing dried fruit, figs, nuts, 00:05:55.120 --> 00:05:57.810 olive oil. All from the Mediterranean. He's a 00:05:57.810 --> 00:06:00.089 leader in the synagogue. And Baruch Er Spinoza, 00:06:00.170 --> 00:06:01.949 he's born right into the center of this whole 00:06:01.949 --> 00:06:04.389 establishment. He is the golden boy. He goes 00:06:04.389 --> 00:06:06.449 to the Talmud Torah school. He's a star student. 00:06:06.670 --> 00:06:09.250 His teachers, the rabbis, they look at him and 00:06:09.250 --> 00:06:12.029 they see the future. A great rabbi. A great rabbi. 00:06:12.029 --> 00:06:14.810 A pillar of the community. He was being groomed 00:06:14.810 --> 00:06:17.029 to lead. Which makes the fall so much harder. 00:06:18.009 --> 00:06:19.930 But okay, before we get to the philosophy, we 00:06:19.930 --> 00:06:21.910 have to talk about the business. Because Spinoza 00:06:21.910 --> 00:06:23.970 wasn't just some bookworm. He was a businessman. 00:06:24.269 --> 00:06:27.639 He had to be. In 1654, his father Michael dies, 00:06:27.779 --> 00:06:30.860 and Baruch is only 22 years old. Suddenly, he 00:06:30.860 --> 00:06:32.759 is the head of the household. He's running the 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:35.480 family import -export firm. But the timing was 00:06:35.480 --> 00:06:38.860 just awful. Awful. The first Anglo -Dutch war 00:06:38.860 --> 00:06:41.779 had just happened. This was a trade war. And 00:06:41.779 --> 00:06:43.819 the English were using privateers, which are 00:06:43.819 --> 00:06:46.740 basically, you know... state -sanctioned pirates 00:06:46.740 --> 00:06:50.019 to seize Dutch merchant ships. And the Spinoza 00:06:50.019 --> 00:06:52.660 family got hit. They lost cargo. They lost ships. 00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:56.040 The firm was just bleeding money. So Baruch inherits 00:06:56.040 --> 00:06:58.480 a sinking ship. And this is where we see a side 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:00.839 of him that I find really fascinating. He's not 00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:04.259 this floaty, ethereal saint. He's practical and 00:07:04.259 --> 00:07:07.160 maybe a little ruthless. He pulls this legal 00:07:07.160 --> 00:07:09.779 maneuver that just shocked the community. He 00:07:09.779 --> 00:07:12.339 was 22. The business was drowning in his father's 00:07:12.339 --> 00:07:14.939 debts. Creditors were circling. Now, in Dutch 00:07:14.939 --> 00:07:16.540 law, you were considered a minor until you were 00:07:16.540 --> 00:07:21.620 25. A loophole. A huge loophole. So Spinoza goes 00:07:21.620 --> 00:07:23.959 to the Dutch civil authorities. He completely 00:07:23.959 --> 00:07:26.480 circumvents the Jewish court, and he petitions 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:29.040 to be declared an orphan. He plays the I'm just 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:32.079 a kid card. Exactly. He argued that because he 00:07:32.079 --> 00:07:33.980 was a minor when the debts were incurred, he 00:07:33.980 --> 00:07:36.240 shouldn't be held responsible for them. He effectively 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:39.139 renounced his inheritance to escape all the creditors. 00:07:39.259 --> 00:07:43.759 Wow. That is... That's cold. Well, it was survival. 00:07:43.819 --> 00:07:45.879 It saved him from debtor's prison. But think 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:48.000 about how that looked to the Jewish elders. Oh, 00:07:48.139 --> 00:07:50.560 terrible. Here's the son of a synagogue leader 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:52.779 dragging a family dispute into the Christian 00:07:52.779 --> 00:07:56.040 courts and using a legal trick to stiff creditors. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:59.060 It was seen as deeply dishonorable. It was a 00:07:59.060 --> 00:08:01.180 violation of trust. And it wasn't just about 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:03.000 the money, right? He was already starting to 00:08:03.000 --> 00:08:05.279 drift away intellectually. The rumors were definitely 00:08:05.279 --> 00:08:07.660 swirling. He had stopped attending synagogue 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:10.459 regularly. He was seen hanging out with freethinkers, 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:12.699 Christians who were critical of their own churches. 00:08:12.879 --> 00:08:14.939 And in the background of all this, there is a 00:08:14.939 --> 00:08:18.980 ghost story. The story of Uriel da Costa. I was 00:08:18.980 --> 00:08:21.240 reading about da Costa in the source material. 00:08:21.740 --> 00:08:25.329 It is a nightmare. It's a tragic, tragic foreshadowing. 00:08:25.970 --> 00:08:28.629 Duriel da Costa was another refugee, a former 00:08:28.629 --> 00:08:32.230 crypto -Jew. He came to Amsterdam and he started 00:08:32.230 --> 00:08:35.210 asking questions, dangerous questions. Like what? 00:08:35.370 --> 00:08:38.090 He questioned the immortality of the soul. He 00:08:38.090 --> 00:08:40.870 questioned whether Moses really wrote the Torah. 00:08:41.169 --> 00:08:43.370 And the community did not take that well. They 00:08:43.370 --> 00:08:45.629 crushed him. He was excommunicated. And to get 00:08:45.629 --> 00:08:48.710 back in, he had to submit to this public humiliation 00:08:48.710 --> 00:08:51.500 that is almost hard to believe. Tell me. He had 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:53.940 to recant his errors in the synagogue. He was 00:08:53.940 --> 00:08:56.940 stripped to the waist and given 39 lashes. And 00:08:56.940 --> 00:08:58.919 then, and this is the part that just turns your 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:01.779 stomach, he had to lie down across the threshold 00:09:01.779 --> 00:09:04.279 of the synagogue door. Like a doormat, a human 00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:07.039 doormat. And the entire congregation, the men, 00:09:07.059 --> 00:09:09.139 the women, the children, people he knew, they 00:09:09.139 --> 00:09:11.399 had to step over his body to leave the building. 00:09:11.659 --> 00:09:14.279 That is just brutal psychological warfare. It 00:09:14.279 --> 00:09:16.649 broke him. DaCosta committed suicide shortly 00:09:16.649 --> 00:09:19.129 after that. And Spinoza was just a child when 00:09:19.129 --> 00:09:21.289 this happened, maybe eight years old. He grew 00:09:21.289 --> 00:09:23.690 up with this story. He knew exactly what happened 00:09:23.690 --> 00:09:25.409 to people who stepped out of line. The message 00:09:25.409 --> 00:09:28.690 was clear. Conform or be destroyed. And yet, 00:09:28.950 --> 00:09:33.570 Spinoza, he doesn't conform. He keeps pushing. 00:09:33.850 --> 00:09:39.549 Which brings us to July 27, 1656, the day of 00:09:39.549 --> 00:09:42.690 the cherim, the ban. This is one of the most 00:09:42.690 --> 00:09:45.090 famous documents in Jewish history. We still 00:09:45.090 --> 00:09:47.950 have the text. And it is unlike any other ban 00:09:47.950 --> 00:09:50.950 issued by that community. Usually a ban was a 00:09:50.950 --> 00:09:53.250 kind of slap on the wrist, you know, a temporary 00:09:53.250 --> 00:09:55.669 punishment to get you to apologize. This was 00:09:55.669 --> 00:09:57.889 not that. This was something else entirely. I 00:09:57.889 --> 00:09:59.929 have some of the text here. It reads like a dark 00:09:59.929 --> 00:10:04.009 magic curse. Cursed be he by day and cursed be 00:10:04.009 --> 00:10:06.690 he by night. Cursed be he when he lies down and 00:10:06.690 --> 00:10:09.149 cursed be he when he rises up. Cursed be he when 00:10:09.149 --> 00:10:10.750 he goes out and cursed be he when he comes in. 00:10:10.909 --> 00:10:12.850 They invoked the curses written in the book of 00:10:12.850 --> 00:10:14.779 the law. And the practical restrictions were 00:10:14.779 --> 00:10:16.720 just total. No one could communicate with him 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:19.379 orally or in writing. No one could do him any 00:10:19.379 --> 00:10:21.799 kindness. No one could stay under the same roof 00:10:21.799 --> 00:10:24.500 with him. And crucially, no one could read anything 00:10:24.500 --> 00:10:26.720 he wrote. Anything composed or written by him. 00:10:26.759 --> 00:10:28.340 They were trying to erase him. To cut him out 00:10:28.340 --> 00:10:29.919 of reality. They were cutting him off from the 00:10:29.919 --> 00:10:32.200 root. But here's the mystery that the sources 00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:35.779 point out. The ban mentions abominable heresies 00:10:35.779 --> 00:10:39.440 and monstrous deeds. But it never actually says 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:43.259 what he did. Why the vague language? That is 00:10:43.259 --> 00:10:45.340 the million -dollar question. Why not list the 00:10:45.340 --> 00:10:48.179 crimes? The prevailing theory among historians 00:10:48.179 --> 00:10:51.080 is that it was political. We have to remember 00:10:51.080 --> 00:10:53.379 the position of the Jewish community in Amsterdam. 00:10:53.700 --> 00:10:56.539 They were guests. They were on probation. Exactly. 00:10:56.740 --> 00:10:59.120 They were allowed to be there as long as they 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.500 didn't cause a scandal. The Dutch authorities 00:11:01.500 --> 00:11:03.460 were tolerant, but they were still Christian. 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:06.019 They were Calvinists. They believed in God, in 00:11:06.019 --> 00:11:09.120 the Bible. in the soul and if word got out that 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:11.220 the jews were harboring a man who said god is 00:11:11.220 --> 00:11:13.860 just nature or that the soul dies with the body 00:11:13.860 --> 00:11:15.960 that could blow back on the entire community 00:11:15.960 --> 00:11:19.059 the dutch might say see these people are atheists 00:11:19.059 --> 00:11:21.460 kick them all out so it was a preemptive strike 00:11:21.460 --> 00:11:23.759 it was self -preservation the rabbis were in 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:26.279 a terrible bind to protect the group they had 00:11:26.279 --> 00:11:28.519 to police their own heretics even more strictly 00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:31.279 than the christians did they had to prove to 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:34.220 the dutch authorities we are handling this we 00:11:34.220 --> 00:11:37.139 are not with him So Spinoza gets this ban. He's 00:11:37.139 --> 00:11:40.539 23 years old. Most people would crumble. DaCosta 00:11:40.539 --> 00:11:43.700 crumbled. Did Spinoza fight it? No. And that 00:11:43.700 --> 00:11:46.179 is the crucial difference. Spinoza didn't beg. 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:49.259 He didn't try to lie on the threshold. He reportedly 00:11:49.259 --> 00:11:52.440 said, this does not force me to do anything that 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:54.480 I would not have done of my own accord. You can't 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:57.340 fire me. I quit. Precisely. He packed his bags 00:11:57.340 --> 00:12:00.659 and he left. But notice what he didn't do. He 00:12:00.659 --> 00:12:02.720 didn't convert to Christianity. Which was the 00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:05.379 normal path. In 1656, if you were kicked out 00:12:05.379 --> 00:12:07.720 of the synagogue, the only normal path was to 00:12:07.720 --> 00:12:09.419 become a Christian. That's how you got a new 00:12:09.419 --> 00:12:12.429 community. Spinoza refused. He went solo. He 00:12:12.429 --> 00:12:16.230 became arguably the first modern secular individual. 00:12:16.529 --> 00:12:19.389 He lived without a religious affiliation. He 00:12:19.389 --> 00:12:21.549 even changed his name from the Hebrew Baruch 00:12:21.549 --> 00:12:24.129 to the Latin Benedictus. Both mean blessed. He 00:12:24.129 --> 00:12:26.309 kept the meaning, but he translated it into a 00:12:26.309 --> 00:12:28.750 universal language. So he leaves Amsterdam. He 00:12:28.750 --> 00:12:30.830 moves out to the suburbs, Rheinsberg, Vorburg, 00:12:31.009 --> 00:12:33.850 and he starts this new life. The life of the 00:12:33.850 --> 00:12:36.309 lens grinder. And I want to dig into this because 00:12:36.309 --> 00:12:38.389 I think people gloss over it as just, you know, 00:12:38.409 --> 00:12:40.870 a job. But it was so much more than that. Oh, 00:12:40.970 --> 00:12:43.769 it was a highly technical scientific profession. 00:12:44.190 --> 00:12:46.570 He wasn't just making reading glasses. He was 00:12:46.570 --> 00:12:49.690 grinding lenses for telescopes and microscopes. 00:12:49.809 --> 00:12:52.590 This was the absolute cutting edge of the scientific 00:12:52.590 --> 00:12:55.690 revolution. So he's literally working with the 00:12:55.690 --> 00:12:57.960 tools of clarity. That's the metaphor, isn't 00:12:57.960 --> 00:13:00.580 it? I mean, he was obsessed with helping people 00:13:00.580 --> 00:13:03.460 see reality more clearly, literally, through 00:13:03.460 --> 00:13:06.240 his lenses, and metaphorically through his philosophy. 00:13:06.360 --> 00:13:09.259 He was corresponding with top scientists like 00:13:09.259 --> 00:13:11.679 Christian Huygens about optics. But this work, 00:13:11.860 --> 00:13:14.740 I mean, you mentioned the dust. It was deadly. 00:13:14.879 --> 00:13:17.559 It was. Grinding glass in the 17th century meant 00:13:17.559 --> 00:13:20.600 you were inhaling fine silica dust. all day every 00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:23.500 day there was no osha no masks so he was just 00:13:23.500 --> 00:13:26.139 slowly filling his lungs with glass he died at 00:13:26.139 --> 00:13:28.879 44 from a lung condition most likely silicosis 00:13:28.879 --> 00:13:31.539 that was aggravated by tuberculosis he literally 00:13:31.539 --> 00:13:34.039 sacrificed his breath for clarity but he wasn't 00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:37.259 just a hermit in a dusty room I think we have 00:13:37.259 --> 00:13:39.460 this image of the Lonely Genius. That is a complete 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:43.000 myth. He had a very loyal, very active circle 00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:45.620 of friends. They were a band of brothers, mostly 00:13:45.620 --> 00:13:48.419 dissidents, Mennonites, collegians, you know, 00:13:48.419 --> 00:13:50.539 people who are also on the fringes of established 00:13:50.539 --> 00:13:52.980 religion. They formed a kind of philosophical 00:13:52.980 --> 00:13:55.980 study group. A book club for heretics, basically. 00:13:56.240 --> 00:13:58.950 I love that. Yeah, Spinoza would write a section 00:13:58.950 --> 00:14:00.830 of his ethics, he'd send the draft to his friends 00:14:00.830 --> 00:14:02.490 in Amsterdam, and they would meet to discuss 00:14:02.490 --> 00:14:04.370 it. They'd write back with questions, what do 00:14:04.370 --> 00:14:07.110 you mean by attribute? This proof seems weak. 00:14:07.549 --> 00:14:10.870 And Spinoza would revise. So his philosophy was 00:14:10.870 --> 00:14:13.690 beta tested. It was, and he was very, very careful. 00:14:13.809 --> 00:14:16.970 He wore a signet ring with a specific image engraved 00:14:16.970 --> 00:14:20.090 on it, a rose with thorns, and underneath one 00:14:20.090 --> 00:14:24.350 word. Caution. Caution. He knew his ideas were 00:14:24.350 --> 00:14:26.690 dynamite. He knew that if he published them openly, 00:14:26.809 --> 00:14:29.389 he could be imprisoned or much worse. Okay, so 00:14:29.389 --> 00:14:30.909 let's talk about the dynamite. Let's open the 00:14:30.909 --> 00:14:34.929 ethics. Ethica ordine geometrico demonstrata. 00:14:35.210 --> 00:14:37.850 Ethics demonstrated in geometrical order. And 00:14:37.850 --> 00:14:39.470 I've got to say, I remember trying to read this 00:14:39.470 --> 00:14:42.870 in college, and it is. It's intimidating. It 00:14:42.870 --> 00:14:44.710 doesn't look like a normal book. It looks like 00:14:44.710 --> 00:14:47.549 Euclid. Definition one, axiom three, proposition 00:14:47.549 --> 00:14:51.730 14, QED. Mm -hmm. Why on earth would he write 00:14:51.730 --> 00:14:54.169 a philosophy book, like a geometry textbook? 00:14:54.509 --> 00:14:56.990 It definitely pushes people away. But for Spinoza, 00:14:57.129 --> 00:14:59.610 the form was the message. He wanted to strip 00:14:59.610 --> 00:15:01.789 away all the rhetoric, all the poetry, all the 00:15:01.789 --> 00:15:04.330 emotion. He wanted to show that truths about 00:15:04.330 --> 00:15:07.809 God, the human mind, and happiness are just as 00:15:07.809 --> 00:15:12.039 objective and... as the truths of mathematics. 00:15:12.399 --> 00:15:14.340 He wanted to prove it. He wanted to build a fortress 00:15:14.340 --> 00:15:17.399 of logic. The idea was if you accept his definitions, 00:15:17.460 --> 00:15:19.539 just like you accept the definition of a triangle, 00:15:19.779 --> 00:15:21.840 then the conclusions have to follow by absolute 00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:23.700 necessity. You can't argue with them. Okay, so 00:15:23.700 --> 00:15:25.379 let's walk into the fortress. The foundation 00:15:25.379 --> 00:15:27.919 of everything is his definition of substance. 00:15:28.259 --> 00:15:30.539 Right. This is where he just flips the table 00:15:30.539 --> 00:15:32.720 on all of traditional religion. Think about the 00:15:32.720 --> 00:15:35.559 standard view. You have God, the creator. And 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:37.659 then you have the world, the creation. There 00:15:37.659 --> 00:15:39.820 are two separate things. God makes the world 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:42.120 like a potter makes a pot. The pot is not the 00:15:42.120 --> 00:15:45.440 potter. Exactly. But Spinoza defines substance 00:15:45.440 --> 00:15:48.039 as that which exists in itself and is conceived 00:15:48.039 --> 00:15:50.919 through itself. It's the ultimate reality. And 00:15:50.919 --> 00:15:53.580 he argues if God is infinite, which, you know, 00:15:53.580 --> 00:15:56.200 everyone agrees he is, then there cannot be anything 00:15:56.200 --> 00:15:58.470 outside of God. Because if there was something 00:15:58.470 --> 00:16:01.289 outside of God, like the universe, then God would 00:16:01.289 --> 00:16:03.450 be limited by it. He wouldn't be infinite anymore. 00:16:03.690 --> 00:16:06.629 Precisely. If God is God plus the universe, then 00:16:06.629 --> 00:16:09.210 God alone isn't everything. So Spinoza concludes 00:16:09.210 --> 00:16:11.970 there is only one substance, and that substance 00:16:11.970 --> 00:16:15.629 is God. But that substance is also the universe. 00:16:15.990 --> 00:16:19.309 Deus if natura. God or nature. They are synonyms. 00:16:19.389 --> 00:16:21.710 So he's saying God is the physical universe, 00:16:21.830 --> 00:16:24.309 the rocks, the trees, everything. Yes, but also 00:16:24.309 --> 00:16:25.850 more than that. This is where it gets a little 00:16:25.850 --> 00:16:28.669 nuanced. Spinoza is often called a pantheist 00:16:28.669 --> 00:16:31.210 God is all, but some scholars would call him 00:16:31.210 --> 00:16:33.850 a panentheist all is in God. Help me visualize 00:16:33.850 --> 00:16:36.870 this. The notes mention an ocean analogy. The 00:16:36.870 --> 00:16:39.250 ocean is the best way to get it. Imagine an infinite 00:16:39.250 --> 00:16:42.470 ocean. The ocean is one single continuous substance, 00:16:42.750 --> 00:16:45.129 water. Now look at the surface. You see waves. 00:16:45.129 --> 00:16:47.289 A wave rises up. It travels for a bit. It crashes. 00:16:47.730 --> 00:16:49.870 And the wave looks like a separate thing. It 00:16:49.870 --> 00:16:52.210 has a shape. It has a lifespan. But is the wave 00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:54.769 separate from the ocean? No. It is the ocean, 00:16:54.850 --> 00:16:58.370 just acting in a certain way for a moment. We 00:16:58.370 --> 00:17:01.009 are the waves. We are the waves. You, me, this 00:17:01.009 --> 00:17:04.309 table, that star, my cat. We are modes. That's 00:17:04.309 --> 00:17:06.950 Spinoza's term. We are temporary modifications 00:17:06.950 --> 00:17:10.430 of the one infinite substance. We rise up, we 00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:12.650 exist for a little while, and then we dissolve 00:17:12.650 --> 00:17:15.789 back into the whole. That is incredibly humbling. 00:17:15.849 --> 00:17:18.269 It dissolves the ego. You aren't a special separate 00:17:18.269 --> 00:17:20.430 soul that's been dropped into a body. You are 00:17:20.430 --> 00:17:23.369 a ripple in God. But this creates a huge problem 00:17:23.369 --> 00:17:26.230 for traditional religion. Because if God is the 00:17:26.230 --> 00:17:28.769 ocean, The ocean doesn't care about the individual 00:17:28.769 --> 00:17:32.410 waves. Bingo. This was the heresy. Spinoza's 00:17:32.410 --> 00:17:35.349 god has no personality. He or doesn't have a 00:17:35.349 --> 00:17:37.970 white beard. He doesn't sit on a throne. He doesn't 00:17:37.970 --> 00:17:39.849 judge you. He doesn't love you in some sentimental 00:17:39.849 --> 00:17:42.970 human way. The ocean doesn't mourn when a wave 00:17:42.970 --> 00:17:45.849 crashes. The ocean just is. So prayer is? Yeah. 00:17:46.190 --> 00:17:49.390 Useless. Useless. At least, petitionary prayer 00:17:49.390 --> 00:17:52.289 is. If you're praying for God to change the weather 00:17:52.289 --> 00:17:54.470 or cure your aunt or help your favorite sports 00:17:54.470 --> 00:17:57.829 team win, Spinoza would say you are being absurd. 00:17:58.569 --> 00:18:01.009 You are asking the laws of nature to violate 00:18:01.009 --> 00:18:03.430 themselves for your personal benefit. You're 00:18:03.430 --> 00:18:05.690 asking gravity to stop working because you dropped 00:18:05.690 --> 00:18:08.529 your phone. Exactly. Spinoza says miracles are 00:18:08.529 --> 00:18:11.869 impossible. Because God is nature, a miracle 00:18:11.869 --> 00:18:13.930 would mean God contradicting his own nature, 00:18:14.089 --> 00:18:16.970 which is a logical impossibility. This grips 00:18:16.970 --> 00:18:18.930 away all the comfort, though. No listening ear, 00:18:19.130 --> 00:18:21.930 no divine plan for me specifically. But Spinoza 00:18:21.930 --> 00:18:23.930 argues that the traditional view is actually 00:18:23.930 --> 00:18:26.930 an insult to God. We project our own petty human 00:18:26.930 --> 00:18:29.950 emotions onto God. We get angry, so we imagine 00:18:29.950 --> 00:18:32.890 a God who gets angry. We want things, so we imagine 00:18:32.890 --> 00:18:35.930 a God who wants things. Spinoza calls the traditional 00:18:35.930 --> 00:18:38.890 God an asylum of ignorance. He wants us to worship 00:18:38.890 --> 00:18:41.430 the truth, not a fantasy. Okay, so we have this 00:18:41.430 --> 00:18:43.950 one substance. But Spinoza solves another massive 00:18:43.950 --> 00:18:46.549 philosophical problem with this idea. The mind 00:18:46.549 --> 00:18:50.470 -body problem. Ah, Descartes' ghost. Right. Descartes 00:18:50.470 --> 00:18:53.009 said the mind is a spiritual thing and the body 00:18:53.009 --> 00:18:55.690 is a physical thing. But nobody could ever figure 00:18:55.690 --> 00:18:58.450 out how they talk to each other. How does a ghost 00:18:58.450 --> 00:19:01.750 pull a lever to move an arm? Spinoza's solution 00:19:01.750 --> 00:19:05.369 is so elegant, he says. Mind and body aren't 00:19:05.369 --> 00:19:07.609 two separate things. They are one thing seen 00:19:07.609 --> 00:19:10.089 from two different perspectives. The source notes 00:19:10.089 --> 00:19:13.779 mention a coin analogy. Yes. Take a coin. One 00:19:13.779 --> 00:19:16.160 side is heads, one side is tails. It's the same 00:19:16.160 --> 00:19:20.000 coin. Spinoza says the one substance has infinite 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:23.640 attributes or ways of being perceived. We humans 00:19:23.640 --> 00:19:26.740 happen to know two of them. Extension, which 00:19:26.740 --> 00:19:29.460 is matter, and thought, which is mind. So when 00:19:29.460 --> 00:19:32.319 I stub my toe. It's not that the physical toe 00:19:32.319 --> 00:19:34.700 sends a message to the mental brain. It's that 00:19:34.700 --> 00:19:37.039 the event, the stubbing, happens in the substance. 00:19:37.420 --> 00:19:40.119 That single event is a physical bruise if you 00:19:40.119 --> 00:19:41.579 look at it through the attribute of extension, 00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:43.960 and it is a feeling of pain if you look at it 00:19:43.960 --> 00:19:45.440 through the attribute of thought. They happen 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:47.240 simultaneously. Because they're the same thing. 00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:49.180 He has that line, the order and connection of 00:19:49.180 --> 00:19:51.240 ideas is the same as the order and connection 00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:53.759 of things. Exactly, and this implies something 00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:58.349 else wild, a kind of panpsychism. If mind and 00:19:58.349 --> 00:20:01.190 matter are just two sides of the same coin, then 00:20:01.190 --> 00:20:04.150 everything has a mind side. Even a rock. A rock 00:20:04.150 --> 00:20:07.309 has a mind. A very, very simple mind. The mind 00:20:07.309 --> 00:20:10.589 of a rock is just its tendency to persist, to 00:20:10.589 --> 00:20:13.710 hold together. The complex mind of a human corresponds 00:20:13.710 --> 00:20:17.069 to the complex biology of the human body. Complexity 00:20:17.069 --> 00:20:19.569 in matter equals complexity in thought. That 00:20:19.569 --> 00:20:22.109 is way ahead of its time. That sounds like modern 00:20:22.109 --> 00:20:24.529 neuroscience. Yeah. The mind is what the brain 00:20:24.529 --> 00:20:26.869 does. It is remarkably modern. Okay, we have 00:20:26.869 --> 00:20:28.869 to go to the scariest room in the fortress now. 00:20:28.970 --> 00:20:31.440 We have to talk about determinism. Because if 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:33.799 everything follows from God's nature with mathematical 00:20:33.799 --> 00:20:36.779 necessity, then there is no free will. None at 00:20:36.779 --> 00:20:39.900 all. Spinoza is a hard determinist. He says in 00:20:39.900 --> 00:20:41.940 nature, there is nothing contingent. Nothing 00:20:41.940 --> 00:20:43.460 could have happened differently than it did. 00:20:43.579 --> 00:20:45.779 So the fact that I chose to wear this shirt today. 00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:48.519 You didn't choose it, not freely. You were determined 00:20:48.519 --> 00:20:50.839 to wear it by a chain of causes stretching all 00:20:50.839 --> 00:20:53.380 the way back to the Big Bang. Your mood, the 00:20:53.380 --> 00:20:55.400 weather, what was clean in your closet, your 00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:58.299 cultural conditioning, your biology. But I feel 00:20:58.299 --> 00:21:00.420 free. I feel like I could have picked the other 00:21:00.420 --> 00:21:02.619 shirt. And Spinoza has an answer for that. He 00:21:02.619 --> 00:21:04.779 calls it the illusion of free will. He has this 00:21:04.779 --> 00:21:08.099 famous analogy about a stone, he says. Imagine 00:21:08.099 --> 00:21:10.799 a stone is thrown through the air. Now imagine 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:13.259 that stone suddenly wakes up and becomes conscious. 00:21:13.539 --> 00:21:16.319 It looks around, sees it's moving, and it thinks, 00:21:16.380 --> 00:21:19.279 I am flying. I am cheesing to fly over to that 00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:22.359 window. But it's just obeying the laws of physics, 00:21:22.519 --> 00:21:34.170 the arm that threw it. He gives some great examples 00:21:34.170 --> 00:21:37.170 of this delusion. The baby thinking it freely 00:21:37.170 --> 00:21:40.000 craves milk. The angry boy thinking he freely 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:42.880 wants revenge. The coward thinking he freely 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:45.420 wants to run away. The drunkard. That's the most 00:21:45.420 --> 00:21:47.579 relatable one, isn't it? The drunkard chatters 00:21:47.579 --> 00:21:49.519 away, saying things he thinks are his own free 00:21:49.519 --> 00:21:52.160 thoughts. Then he sobers up and realizes he was 00:21:52.160 --> 00:21:55.059 just a puppet of the wine, Spinoza says. We are 00:21:55.059 --> 00:21:57.119 always the drunkard. We are always under the 00:21:57.119 --> 00:22:00.279 influence of something. Hormones, fatigue, trauma. 00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:02.960 The weather. This sounds incredibly depressing. 00:22:03.220 --> 00:22:05.039 I mean, if I'm just a meat puppet of cause and 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:07.400 effect and God is a cold ocean who doesn't care, 00:22:07.559 --> 00:22:10.000 why is Spinoza known as the joyful philosopher? 00:22:10.480 --> 00:22:13.640 How is this not a recipe for nihilism? This is 00:22:13.640 --> 00:22:16.839 the twist. This is the aha moment. This is Spinoza's 00:22:16.839 --> 00:22:19.519 therapy. He argues that while we cannot change 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:21.660 the script of the universe, understanding the 00:22:21.660 --> 00:22:24.019 script is the key to happiness. Explain that. 00:22:24.259 --> 00:22:27.099 Spinoza distinguishes between bondage and freedom. 00:22:28.059 --> 00:22:30.680 Bondage is when we are driven by passions, what 00:22:30.680 --> 00:22:35.130 he calls passive emotions, fear, anger. Jealousy. 00:22:35.170 --> 00:22:37.869 Hope. These are things that happen to us. We 00:22:37.869 --> 00:22:40.049 are just reacting to the world. Like getting 00:22:40.049 --> 00:22:42.490 cut off in traffic. Perfect example. You get 00:22:42.490 --> 00:22:45.329 cut off. Your immediate passive reaction is anger. 00:22:45.509 --> 00:22:47.769 You think, that guy's a jerk. He chose to disrespect 00:22:47.769 --> 00:22:50.289 me. I hope he crashes. Your blood pressure spikes. 00:22:50.549 --> 00:22:53.430 You're miserable. You are in bondage. Okay, so 00:22:53.430 --> 00:22:55.450 what's the alternative? How do I get free? The 00:22:55.450 --> 00:22:57.769 alternative is action, which comes from reason. 00:22:58.170 --> 00:23:01.130 You use your mind to understand the causes. You 00:23:01.130 --> 00:23:03.660 stop and you ask, why did he cut me off? Well, 00:23:03.700 --> 00:23:06.099 maybe he didn't see me. Maybe his kid is sick 00:23:06.099 --> 00:23:08.339 and he's rushing to the hospital. Maybe he was 00:23:08.339 --> 00:23:10.539 just raised in a chaotic environment and never 00:23:10.539 --> 00:23:12.740 learned patience. Right. You realize that his 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:14.839 bad driving was determined. It was necessary. 00:23:15.519 --> 00:23:18.960 Given his genes, his day, his car, his state 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:21.240 of mind, he could not have done otherwise. He 00:23:21.240 --> 00:23:23.920 is just a stone flying through the air. And you 00:23:23.920 --> 00:23:26.160 can't be angry at a stone for falling. Exactly. 00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:29.539 When you truly understand the necessity of an 00:23:29.539 --> 00:23:33.960 event, the anger just... It evaporates. You don't 00:23:33.960 --> 00:23:36.000 hate the rain for making you wet. You just open 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:38.319 an umbrella. When you view people as part of 00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:40.279 nature, you stop hating them. You stop taking 00:23:40.279 --> 00:23:42.920 it all so personally. So understanding converts 00:23:42.920 --> 00:23:46.359 the suffering into peace. Into peace. Into what 00:23:46.359 --> 00:23:48.660 Spinoza calls blessedness or the intellectual 00:23:48.660 --> 00:23:51.460 love of God. It's the joy you get from understanding 00:23:51.460 --> 00:23:53.740 how the machine works. It's the ultimate let 00:23:53.740 --> 00:23:56.630 go. It is. It's very stoic, but it's also the 00:23:56.630 --> 00:24:00.289 ancestor of cognitive behavioral therapy. Catch 00:24:00.289 --> 00:24:02.710 the thought, analyze the cause, change the feeling. 00:24:03.049 --> 00:24:05.329 Freud loves Spinoza for exactly this reason. 00:24:05.549 --> 00:24:08.230 It's weirdly empowering. It's like, I can't control 00:24:08.230 --> 00:24:10.230 the world, but I can control my understanding 00:24:10.230 --> 00:24:12.569 of it. And that is the only real freedom we have, 00:24:12.769 --> 00:24:14.910 the freedom of the mind. So Spinoza has this 00:24:14.910 --> 00:24:17.250 massive system all worked out, but he keeps it 00:24:17.250 --> 00:24:20.170 in his desk drawer. He knows the ethics is way 00:24:20.170 --> 00:24:23.529 too hot to publish, but he does publish one book 00:24:23.529 --> 00:24:27.119 in his lifetime. The Tractatus Theologico -Politicus. 00:24:27.880 --> 00:24:30.880 The TTP. This was the grenade he threw into the 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:35.079 public square. 1670. Published anonymously. The 00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:37.839 title page even listed a fake city of publication, 00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:40.859 Hamburg, to throw off the Dutch censors. Why 00:24:40.859 --> 00:24:43.220 was this book so dangerous? Because it attacked 00:24:43.220 --> 00:24:46.160 the root of all religious authority. The Bible 00:24:46.160 --> 00:24:49.319 itself. How so? Before Spinoza, the Bible was 00:24:49.319 --> 00:24:51.579 viewed as the direct... perfect dictation of 00:24:51.579 --> 00:24:54.400 God. Spinoza puts on his lens grinder glasses 00:24:54.400 --> 00:24:57.420 and looks at the text as a human artifact, as 00:24:57.420 --> 00:24:59.819 a historical document. He read it like a historian, 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:02.160 not a believer. Exactly. And he started pointing 00:25:02.160 --> 00:25:04.640 at the cracks. He noted that the Torah refers 00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:07.319 to Moses as the humblest man on earth. Would 00:25:07.319 --> 00:25:09.180 a humble man really write that about himself? 00:25:09.480 --> 00:25:12.079 Probably not, no. He noted that the text mentions 00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:15.240 the death of Moses. How could Moses write about 00:25:15.240 --> 00:25:18.849 his own death and burial? Spinoza argued that 00:25:18.849 --> 00:25:21.450 the Bible was a compilation written by many different 00:25:21.450 --> 00:25:24.529 authors over many centuries, edited and redacted. 00:25:24.589 --> 00:25:26.190 He was basically one of the fathers of biblical 00:25:26.190 --> 00:25:29.190 criticism. He was, and he went further. He argued 00:25:29.190 --> 00:25:32.289 that the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, they weren't 00:25:32.289 --> 00:25:34.829 super philosophers with a direct line to the 00:25:34.829 --> 00:25:36.869 truth. He said they were just people with very 00:25:36.869 --> 00:25:39.470 vivid imaginations. Stripping all the magic away. 00:25:39.650 --> 00:25:41.690 He's saying the word of God isn't the ink on 00:25:41.690 --> 00:25:44.589 the page. The real word of God is the universal 00:25:44.589 --> 00:25:47.609 moral truth. Love your neighbor. and act with 00:25:47.609 --> 00:25:50.630 justice, everything else, the dietary laws, the 00:25:50.630 --> 00:25:53.430 temple rituals, the miracles, that was just political 00:25:53.430 --> 00:25:55.549 packaging designed to keep the ancient Hebrews 00:25:55.549 --> 00:25:58.269 in line. Speaking of politics, the TTP has a 00:25:58.269 --> 00:26:00.910 huge political agenda. Oh, it does. It is a passionate 00:26:00.910 --> 00:26:04.029 defense of democracy and free speech. Spinoza 00:26:04.029 --> 00:26:06.210 argues that the whole purpose of the state is 00:26:06.210 --> 00:26:08.710 not to control people's minds, but to secure 00:26:08.710 --> 00:26:11.130 their freedom. He says the church should have 00:26:11.130 --> 00:26:13.890 absolutely no power over the government. Separation 00:26:13.890 --> 00:26:17.559 of church and state. In 1670, this was treasonous. 00:26:17.559 --> 00:26:19.740 He was arguing for a secular state where you 00:26:19.740 --> 00:26:21.920 could say what you thought and worship or not 00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:24.140 worship however you pleased. No wonder they called 00:26:24.140 --> 00:26:27.119 it a book forged in hell. The backlash was immediate 00:26:27.119 --> 00:26:30.819 and severe. The book was banned. Ministers preached 00:26:30.819 --> 00:26:33.700 against it from the pulpit. Spinoza realized 00:26:33.700 --> 00:26:35.700 he could never publish the ethics while he was 00:26:35.700 --> 00:26:38.619 alive. And he didn't have much time left. 1677. 00:26:38.920 --> 00:26:42.119 He's 44 years old. The dust catches up with him. 00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:45.180 He died on a Sunday afternoon in February. He 00:26:45.180 --> 00:26:46.980 was in his rented room. There were no family 00:26:46.980 --> 00:26:49.759 members there, just his landlord and his physician 00:26:49.759 --> 00:26:52.319 friend, a man named Meyer. Did he panic at the 00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:55.180 end? Did he recant? I know there were rumors 00:26:55.180 --> 00:26:58.180 that he did. Those rumors were lies spread by 00:26:58.180 --> 00:27:00.559 his enemies, stories that he screamed in agony 00:27:00.559 --> 00:27:02.579 or called out for a priest. The eyewitness accounts 00:27:02.579 --> 00:27:04.799 say the complete opposite. He was calm. He was 00:27:04.799 --> 00:27:06.559 chatting about philosophy. He took some chicken 00:27:06.559 --> 00:27:09.420 soup. And then he just stopped breathing. He 00:27:09.420 --> 00:27:11.539 dissolved back into the substance. He died as 00:27:11.539 --> 00:27:15.069 he lived. Rational. accepting of nature but then 00:27:15.069 --> 00:27:17.009 there's this frantic mission to save his work 00:27:17.009 --> 00:27:20.440 it's like a thriller scene Spinoza knew the authorities 00:27:20.440 --> 00:27:22.539 would come for his papers the second he was dead, 00:27:22.680 --> 00:27:25.380 so he had left instructions. His landlord put 00:27:25.380 --> 00:27:28.059 his desk, the one containing the manuscript of 00:27:28.059 --> 00:27:30.799 the ethics, onto a barge and shipped it to Amsterdam 00:27:30.799 --> 00:27:33.480 to his friends. The rescue of the ethics. And 00:27:33.480 --> 00:27:35.759 his friends worked fast. They stripped his name 00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:38.400 off the title page. They published the book as 00:27:38.400 --> 00:27:42.480 Posthumous Works by BDS, no full name. They smuggled 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:44.519 the ideas out into the world before the censors 00:27:44.519 --> 00:27:46.599 could find them and burn them. And thank God 00:27:46.599 --> 00:27:48.539 they did, because let's talk about the life. 00:27:48.559 --> 00:27:51.920 For a hundred years, Spinoza was the boogeyman. 00:27:52.059 --> 00:27:54.079 Oh, yeah. If you wanted to insult a philosopher, 00:27:54.220 --> 00:27:56.579 you called him a Spinozist. It meant atheist, 00:27:56.900 --> 00:27:59.660 immoral, fatalist, the worst thing you could 00:27:59.660 --> 00:28:02.880 be. But then the tide turns. The romantics. Late 00:28:02.880 --> 00:28:06.700 18th century, Germany, Goethe, Novalis, Hegel, 00:28:06.779 --> 00:28:09.039 all the poets. And you'd think they would hate 00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:11.599 Spinoza. They were all about emotion and storms 00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:14.740 and passion. And he's Mr. Geometry. Right. Why 00:28:14.740 --> 00:28:16.599 do they love him so much? They loved the one. 00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:18.950 They kind of ignored him. the cold determinism 00:28:18.950 --> 00:28:22.289 and they embraced the pantheism. They saw Spinoza's 00:28:22.289 --> 00:28:25.589 universe as this living, breathing, divine organism. 00:28:25.849 --> 00:28:28.529 They saw the divinity in the trees, the mountains, 00:28:28.690 --> 00:28:31.970 the storms. Novalis famously called Spinoza the 00:28:31.970 --> 00:28:34.690 God -intoxicated man. They saw the mystic in 00:28:34.690 --> 00:28:37.170 him? Exactly. They saw a man who found holiness 00:28:37.170 --> 00:28:40.369 in everything. And that reverence, it traveled 00:28:40.369 --> 00:28:43.640 all the way to the 20th century. To Albert Einstein. 00:28:43.940 --> 00:28:46.839 The famous telegram. Yes. A New York rabbi sent 00:28:46.839 --> 00:28:49.000 Einstein a telegram. It just said, do you believe 00:28:49.000 --> 00:28:52.220 in God? Stop. Answer 50 words. No pressure. And 00:28:52.220 --> 00:28:54.880 Einstein replied, I believe in Spinoza's God 00:28:54.880 --> 00:28:57.259 who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of 00:28:57.259 --> 00:29:00.000 what exists, not in a God who concerns himself 00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:02.579 with the fates and actions of human beings. That 00:29:02.579 --> 00:29:04.960 is the perfect summary. God is the harmony. God 00:29:04.960 --> 00:29:07.579 is the math. It allowed Einstein and a lot of 00:29:07.579 --> 00:29:09.359 other scientists to be religious without being 00:29:09.359 --> 00:29:12.160 superstitious, to stand in awe of the universe 00:29:12.160 --> 00:29:14.519 without believing in a personal judge. There's 00:29:14.519 --> 00:29:17.160 one final twist in the legacy that I find fascinating. 00:29:18.220 --> 00:29:22.410 Zionism. You wouldn't think the guy who was excommunicated 00:29:22.410 --> 00:29:24.750 from the Jewish community would be a hero to 00:29:24.750 --> 00:29:27.589 the Jewish state. It is complicated. But David 00:29:27.589 --> 00:29:29.789 Ben -Gurion, the founding father of Israel, was 00:29:29.789 --> 00:29:32.470 obsessed with Spinoza. He called him the first 00:29:32.470 --> 00:29:36.829 secular Zionist. Why? Because in the TTP, Spinoza 00:29:36.829 --> 00:29:39.829 makes this one stray comment. He says that the 00:29:39.829 --> 00:29:41.930 Jews have survived because of their hatred of 00:29:41.930 --> 00:29:44.930 other nations and their rituals. But he says 00:29:44.930 --> 00:29:48.329 if the foundations of their religion didn't emasculate 00:29:48.329 --> 00:29:50.849 their minds, meaning... make them passive, and 00:29:50.849 --> 00:29:53.089 just wait for a messiah, they might one day, 00:29:53.150 --> 00:29:55.690 given the changing political landscape, reestablish 00:29:55.690 --> 00:29:58.190 their state. He predicted Israel. He analyzed 00:29:58.190 --> 00:30:00.089 it as a political possibility, not a religious 00:30:00.089 --> 00:30:02.789 prophecy. Ben -Gurion loved that realism. He 00:30:02.789 --> 00:30:04.930 wanted to claim Spinoza back. He actually tried 00:30:04.930 --> 00:30:07.509 to get the Cherim ban lifted. Did they lift it? 00:30:07.630 --> 00:30:09.990 They've tried multiple times. As recently as 00:30:09.990 --> 00:30:12.990 2012 and 2015, the Jewish community in Amsterdam 00:30:12.990 --> 00:30:15.609 debated whether to rescind the ban. They said 00:30:15.609 --> 00:30:19.390 no. The chief rabbi said the ban stands. He argued 00:30:19.390 --> 00:30:22.210 that Spinoza's ideas are still preposterous and 00:30:22.210 --> 00:30:25.609 fundamentally incompatible with Judaism. He denies 00:30:25.609 --> 00:30:28.230 a personal God. He denies the divinity of the 00:30:28.230 --> 00:30:30.450 Torah. You can't be a member of the synagogue 00:30:30.450 --> 00:30:32.930 and believe that. You know, I actually kind of 00:30:32.930 --> 00:30:35.069 respect that. They're saying, look, words mean 00:30:35.069 --> 00:30:37.329 things. If you don't believe in our God, you 00:30:37.329 --> 00:30:39.529 aren't part of our congregation, even if you're 00:30:39.529 --> 00:30:42.299 famous. It proves that Spinoza is still dangerous. 00:30:42.380 --> 00:30:45.380 He hasn't been tamed by history. His ideas are 00:30:45.380 --> 00:30:48.539 still a live challenge to faith. So here we are. 00:30:48.660 --> 00:30:51.339 Why should the listener, who is maybe dealing 00:30:51.339 --> 00:30:53.759 with a breakup or a bad boss or just the general 00:30:53.759 --> 00:30:56.380 chaos of the 21st century, why should they care 00:30:56.380 --> 00:30:59.319 about a 17th century lens grinder? I think Spinoza 00:30:59.319 --> 00:31:01.400 offers the ultimate remedy for the control freak 00:31:01.400 --> 00:31:03.640 in all of us. We live in this age of anxiety 00:31:03.640 --> 00:31:05.539 because we feel we should be able to control 00:31:05.539 --> 00:31:08.980 everything. Our image, our career, our politics. 00:31:09.400 --> 00:31:12.480 And we panic when we can't. The illusion of control. 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:15.759 Spinoza teaches us to let go. Not to give up. 00:31:16.119 --> 00:31:18.700 But to accept. To understand that we are not 00:31:18.700 --> 00:31:20.619 the directors of the movie. We are characters 00:31:20.619 --> 00:31:23.000 in the movie. And the movie is written by the 00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:26.569 laws of nature. There is relief in that. It's 00:31:26.569 --> 00:31:29.049 not all on me. And there is forgiveness in that. 00:31:29.230 --> 00:31:31.309 This is the thought I really want people to sit 00:31:31.309 --> 00:31:34.509 with. If Spinoza is right, then the person who 00:31:34.509 --> 00:31:36.990 hurt you, the parent who neglected you, the partner 00:31:36.990 --> 00:31:39.789 who left you, they were acting out of necessity. 00:31:40.390 --> 00:31:42.930 Their trauma, their biology, their circumstances 00:31:42.930 --> 00:31:45.690 caused them to act that way. It doesn't mean 00:31:45.690 --> 00:31:47.170 you have to invite them over for dinner. No, 00:31:47.230 --> 00:31:49.910 absolutely not. You can still protect yourself. 00:31:50.029 --> 00:31:52.829 You avoid the falling stone, but you don't have 00:31:52.829 --> 00:31:55.410 to hate the stone. You can let go of the resentment. 00:31:55.529 --> 00:31:57.730 You can look at them and say, I understand why 00:31:57.730 --> 00:31:59.890 you are this way. And that understanding sets 00:31:59.890 --> 00:32:01.890 you free. He lives eternally who lives in the 00:32:01.890 --> 00:32:05.190 present. Yes. Spinoza believed that when we use 00:32:05.190 --> 00:32:07.829 reason, when we understand a truth, we participate 00:32:07.829 --> 00:32:10.250 in something eternal. The truth of a triangle 00:32:10.250 --> 00:32:13.609 doesn't die. And when your mind grasps that truth, 00:32:13.730 --> 00:32:16.470 that part of your mind touches eternity. Under 00:32:16.470 --> 00:32:20.470 the aspect of eternity, that's the view from 00:32:20.470 --> 00:32:22.990 Spinoza's window. A view from high above the 00:32:22.990 --> 00:32:25.569 dust. Thank you everyone for diving deep with 00:32:25.569 --> 00:32:28.109 us today. It was a pleasure. Keep grinding those 00:32:28.109 --> 00:32:30.849 lenses and try to see the signal and the noise. 00:32:31.609 --> 00:32:32.650 Until next time.