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Baruch Spinoza: Life
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Spinoza lived quietly as a lens grinder, turning down rewards and honours throughout his life, including prestigious teaching positions, and gave his family inheritance to his sister. Spinoza's moral character and philosophical accomplishments prompted 20th-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him "The absolute philosopher" (Deleuze, 1990). Spinoza died in February 1677 of a lung illness, perhaps tuberculosis or silicosis caused by fine glass dust inhaled while tending to his trade.
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Spinoza... was no reprobate, although he was made to suffer for his beliefs. He never married, and after being excommunicated, he was forced to give up his position in his family's business, since all members of the Jewish community were forbidden to speak with him, including his own relatives. He lived an exemplary, modest life, supporting himself grinding lenses (a highly skilled trade) and turning down various commissions and allowances that he deemed either too extravagant or likely to impinge on his intellectual freedom. "Unlike some other philosophers," Russell writes, "he not only believed his own doctrines, but practiced them; I do not know of any occasion, in spite of great provocation, in which he was betrayed into the kind of heat or anger that his ethic condemned. In controversy he was courteous and reasonable, never denouncing, but doing his utmost to persuade." Many who knew him considered him a kind of saint.
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During his lifetime Spinoza was a controversial figure, largely because his philosophical pantheism was not widely appreciated in either Jewish or Christian religious circles. His popularity increased in the 18th and 19th centuries when he influenced such diverse persons as, Goethe, Coleridge, and Hegel. The contributions of his thought are still widely recognized today.
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According to Spinoza a mental capacity to reason is naturally available to all individuals. This capacity is strongly influenced by the intellectual capacity of the individual. Reason is a powerful instrument that enables a human being to guide his/her life. Each one of us has a capacity to reason, and, so, therefore, Spinoza was of the belief that each one of us might, on our own, conclude that life in a governed community - the state - might be helpful to curb anti-social passions.
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Spinoza discussed the concept of “human bondage” as a natural tendency for feelings and passions to take control of life and to make individuals into slaves. He believed that the only remedy for passion was actions. If a human can clearly understand their passions they can overcome their bondage much easier.
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Spinoza's aim in Parts Three and Four is, as he says in his Preface to Part Three, to restore the human being and his volitional and emotional life into their proper place in nature. For nothing stands outside of nature, not even the human mind.
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