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What if, um... What if I told you that the greatest

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key to human happiness, like the ultimate cure

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for your anxiety and the fear of death, wasn't

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written by some modern mindfulness guru, but

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it was actually hidden inside a 17th century

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math textbook. A book written by a guy whose

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ideas were honestly considered so dangerous,

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so fundamentally radioactive, that his own community

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basically cursed him for eternity. Yeah, it really

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does sound like this setup for some sort of historical

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thriller. But we are talking about a very real

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text here. And I mean, reading it today is still

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just a profoundly jarring experience. It really

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is. Because it completely refuses to comfort

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you in any traditional sense. It doesn't hold

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your hand. Welcome to today's deep dive. If you

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are listening to this, you are probably someone

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who really devours new perspectives. And you

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might have heard whispers, you know, of Baruch

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Spinoza's ethics. Oh, yeah. The reputation definitely

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precedes it. Exactly. You probably know it by

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reputation as one of the most brilliant, but

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also like, terrifyingly dense books in the entire

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history of Western philosophy. I mean, the French

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philosopher Henri Bergson famously compared facing

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this book to standing before an armored dreadnought.

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That is such a perfect description. Right. And

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he wasn't exaggerating at all. It is cold. It

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is imposing. And honestly, it just does not care

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about your feelings. Well, it actively seeks

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to dismantle those feelings. In fact, that's

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the whole point. But we have a really remarkable

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guide for this endeavor today. We're looking

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at Stephen Nadler's highly acclaimed book, Spinoza's

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Ethics and Introduction. Which is so helpful

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because without a guide, it's just impenetrable.

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Oh, totally. Because Spinoza, he doesn't just,

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you know, tweak traditional views on God or free

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will or human emotion. He completely vaporizes

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them, like leaves nothing behind. Okay, let's

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unpack this, because before we try to, you know,

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scale this philosophical fortress, we really

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have to understand the architect. We have to

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look at the extreme, almost incomprehensible

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price this man paid for his thoughts. Like, who

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was the man behind the dreadnought? Well, to

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get that, we really have to start in the vibrant

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but very complex world of 17th century Amsterdam.

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So he was born Bento de Spinoza in 1632. Right.

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And he was born into a very prominent Portuguese

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Jewish family. Right. The context of this community

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is just absolutely vital for you to understand.

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These were converses, right, or new Christians

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who had fled the literally horrifying brutality

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of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal. Yeah,

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the trauma there is just generational. Exactly.

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And they came to the Dutch Republic because it

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offered this very fragile kind of probationary

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tolerance. So for the first time in generations,

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these families could actually openly practice

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Judaism again. Wow. Yeah. And Spinoza's father,

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Michael, he was a very successful merchant. He

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imported dried fruit and nuts, and he was a highly

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respected leader in their congregation. So on

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paper, if you're looking at young Bento, he is

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living the absolute dream of a refugee family

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made good. I mean, he's a gifted student. He's

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studying the Torah, the Talmud. Right. And when

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his older brother dies, he actually steps up

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to help run the family importing business. So

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he is like the... quintessential golden child

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he is totally poised to become a pillar of this

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newly safe community that was definitely the

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expectation but you know beneath the surface

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there was this massive radical intellectual shift

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taking place okay by his early 20s spinoza was

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becoming just deeply disillusioned with the whole

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mercantile life yeah he started to realize that

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the things people usually strive for Wealth,

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social status, mundane success. They really offered

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a very hollow, fleeting kind of happiness. Right.

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The typical mid -20s existential crisis, but

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on steroids. Yeah, exactly. But instead of just

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brooding, he began venturing outside his closed

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community. He went to study Latin with a man

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named Franciscus Vandenenden. And he was a bit

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of a controversial figure himself, wasn't he?

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Oh, absolutely. Yeah. He was a former Jesuit

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and a very well -known political radical. Man,

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that sounds like throwing a match straight into

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a powder keg. It was absolutely the catalyst.

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I mean, Van Den Enden introduced Spinoza to the

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quote -unquote new science, right? The revolutionary

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philosophy of Rene Descartes and also this wider

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clandestine circle of secular free thinkers.

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Wow. And Spinoza's mind just absorbed all of

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this. He began to formulate a view of the universe

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that was utterly, completely incompatible with

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the orthodox teachings of his youth. And those

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private thoughts, they eventually spilled out

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into the open, which leads to what has to be,

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I mean, one of the most dramatic scorched earth

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events in intellectual history. Oh, without a

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doubt. On July 27th, 1656, when Spinoza is merely

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23 years old, the leadership of his congregation.

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issues the cherim against him. Yeah. It's an

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excommunication, but like calling it an excommunication

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almost feels way too mild. It was the harshest,

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most venomous, most absolute ban ever issued

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in the history of that Amsterdam community. The

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text of the curse actually survives today, and

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it is genuinely chilling to read. I mean, the

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leaders expel him for what they call abominable

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heresies and monstrous deeds. They literally

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decree. That is just brutal. It gets worse. They

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strictly forbade anyone from communicating with

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him, doing him any favor, reading anything he

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wrote, or even coming within four cubits of his

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physical person. So it's just total social and

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spiritual annihilation. You're dead to us. Essentially,

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yes. But, okay, I have to push back a little

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bit on the standard narrative here. Yeah. Was

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this purely a theological dispute? I mean, think

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about it. This was a community of refugees. They

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had barely escaped the Inquisition. Right, the

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political aspect. Yeah, they were living in a

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Calvinist country purely on the good graces of

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these Dutch magistrates. Weren't they simply

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terrified of the political blowback? Like, if

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the Christian authorities found out they were

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harboring a radical atheist, that could ruin

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everything for all of them. The political survival

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instinct was undeniably a massive factor. You're

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completely right about that. The Jewish community

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in Amsterdam was walking a very dangerous tightrope.

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They had to guarantee the civic authorities that

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their members wouldn't, you know, cause unrest

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or spout blasphemies that offended Christian

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sensibilities. If they failed to police their

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own, they literally risked losing their asylum.

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Right. However, if you look at the sheer unprecedented

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venom of the language used in Spinoza's theorem,

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it goes way, way beyond standard political damage

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control. Nadler points out that the ideas themselves

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were the primary terror here. Okay, so what exactly

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was he saying out loud to trigger that level

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of sheer panic? Well, we actually have some fascinating

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historical depositions about this. For instance,

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a friar named Tomas Solano y Robles and a Spanish

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captain named Miguel Perez de Maltranilla, they

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interacted with Spinoza around this time. Okay.

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And later, testifying before the Spanish Inquisition,

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they reported that Spinoza was openly telling

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people that the soul dies with the body. Oh,

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wow. Yeah. That the law of Moses is just a political

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fiction rather than divine truth and that God

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only exists in a quote unquote philosophical

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sense. That is wild. Another early biographer

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reports Spinoza arguing that God is entirely

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material. and that angels are really just phantoms

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of the human imagination. So he was basically

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walking into a 17th century synagogue and calmly

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explaining to them that everything they had built

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their lives and their entire trauma around was

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just a superstition. Pretty much. But here is

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the most incredible part of the story to me,

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honestly. He didn't fight the ban. Like, he didn't

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beg for forgiveness. He didn't try to explain

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himself or walk it back. When he received the

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news of this devastating curse, he reportedly

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just shrugged and said, all the better. I gladly

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enter on the path that is open to me. Yeah. He

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just fully embraced the exile. I mean, he actually

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changed his name from the Hebrew bento to the

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Latin Benedictus, which both mean blessed, ironically

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enough. Oh. And he just walked away. He took

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up this incredibly humble, quiet trade of. grinding

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glass lenses for telescopes and microscopes.

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And he earned just barely enough to survive.

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Living totally off the grid, basically. Yeah,

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he lived in rented rooms. He ate very frugally.

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And he spent the rest of his life communicating

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with a tight -knit circle of intellectual rebels,

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just writing the philosophy that would eventually

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shake the world. A philosophy that he knew was

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way too dangerous to ever publish with his name

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on it while he was alive. I mean, he died at

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44 in 1677, likely from inhaling glass dust from

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his day job. And The Ethics was published secretly

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by his friends later that exact same year. That's

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right. So let's actually talk about The Dreadnought

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itself. How does a radical excommunicated heretic

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write a book that is meant to dismantle all traditional

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religion? I mean, if it were me, you would expect

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a fiery manifesto, right? Something just overflowing

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with passionate rhetoric and righteous anger.

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You absolutely would expect that. But Spinoza

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does the exact opposite. He employs what is known

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as the geometric method. Okay. What does that

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look like? Well, when you open the ethics, there

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are no flowing paragraphs. There are no persuasive

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essays. The text is rigidly, and I mean rigidly,

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structured into definitions, axioms, propositions,

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demonstrations, and corollaries. It is visually

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indistinguishable from Euclid's Elements of Geometry,

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like a literal math textbook. I want to make

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sure you, the listener, really understand how

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weird this is. Let me read you the actual structure

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of how he writes. He'll start with something

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like Part 1, Proposition 15. It says, Whatever

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is, is in God, and nothing can be or be conceived

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without God. Right, a huge claim. Right. And

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then, instead of explaining what he means with

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a metaphor or a story, he immediately follows

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it with demonstration. God is an absolutely infinite

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being of whom no attribute that expresses an

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essence of substance can be denied by definition

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six. And he necessarily exists by proposition

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11. He literally just stacks previous definitions

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like mathematical building blocks. It really

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creates this sense of claustrophobic inevitability.

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Every single claim he makes must be formally

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demonstrated using only the definitions and axioms

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he established on page one or, you know, propositions

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he has successfully proven on prior pages. It

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feels exactly like writing a computer algorithm.

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Like you define your variables right at the top

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of the script. You state the hard coded parameters

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of the system and then you just hit run and let

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the code execute. That is a great analogy. If

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line 10 is true and line 20 is true, then line

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30 just must inevitably be true. It doesn't matter

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how the programmer or the user feels about it.

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It's just logic. But I mean, why force the reader

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through this grueling robotic process? What's

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fascinating here is that For Spinoza, the geometric

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method isn't just some stylistic gimmick. It

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is a profound ontological statement. Okay, break

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that down. The medium literally is the message.

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So in geometry, the fact that the internal angles

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of a triangle add up to 180 degrees, well, that

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isn't a random choice made by a creator, right?

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Right. It flows necessarily from the very definition

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of what a triangle is. Spinoza believes the entire

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universe operates in that exact same way. So

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wait, he's saying the universe is basically a

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giant math problem that has already been solved?

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Well, rather, he is saying the universe is a

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fully unified logical structure. Every single

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event, every physical object, every human emotion,

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it all flows causally and necessarily from the

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eternal nature of reality. So no miracles. Exactly.

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There is zero randomness, no divine whimsy. Just

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as mathematical conclusions logically flow from

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premises, reality causally flows from the essence

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of God. By structuring the book this way, he

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is literally forcing your mind to mirror the

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actual causal structure of the universe. That

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completely flips the script on the intimidation

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factor, honestly. Because if you can get past

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that dense language, Spinoza is making a really

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beautiful, profound promise to you. He really

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is. He's saying, hey, you don't have to take

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my word for any of this. You don't need blind

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faith, and you certainly don't need a priest.

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If you just apply your mind rigorously, you can

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achieve absolute mathematical certainty about

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the universe and about your own human happiness.

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It is essentially the ultimate tool for cognitive

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therapy. He wants to drag us out of our confused,

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emotionally driven way of seeing the world and

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force us into clear, distinct, rational understanding.

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Well, let's see how he builds this universe from

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scratch because he starts with the heaviest concept

275
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possible, which is God. Yes, he dives right into

276
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the deep end. But before he even really uses

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the word God, he introduces a term that we really

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need to define clearly because it is literally

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the foundation of everything that follows. And

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that word is substance. Right. So in the philosophical

281
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jargon of the 17th century, a substance is a

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thing that is conceptually and ontologically

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independent. Okay. Meaning what? It means it

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doesn't need anything else to exist, and you

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don't need to understand anything else in order

286
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to understand it. It just is. Now, Descartes,

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who was basically the heavyweight champion of

288
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philosophy at the time, he believed there were

289
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multiple substances, right? He did. He argued

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God was the primary infinite substance, sure,

291
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but that God created finite substances. So specifically,

292
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Descartes thought human minds were thinking substances

293
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and physical objects like our bodies were extended

294
00:13:19,159 --> 00:13:23,059
substances. Exactly. And Spinoza looks at Descartes'

295
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definition of substance as independent and finds

296
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a massive logical flaw in it. Oh. Yeah. He says,

297
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if a substance is truly independent, it cannot

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rely on a creator. It must be the cause of itself.

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Okay. Furthermore, if a substance is truly infinite,

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it must possess all reality. Therefore, Spinoza

301
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concludes, there cannot possibly be multiple

302
00:13:44,059 --> 00:13:46,980
substances. Logically, there can only be one.

303
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Walk me through that logic. Because why can't

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there be, say, two infinite substances just sitting

305
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side by side in the universe? Because to tell

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two things apart, one of them must possess a

307
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quality that the other one lacks. Yeah, that

308
00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:02,179
makes sense. If substance A has a quality that

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substance B lacks, well, then substance B is

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limited. It is bounded by what it doesn't have.

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And if it is limited, by definition, it is not

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infinite. I see. Therefore, an absolutely infinite

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being must possess all possible attributes. And

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if it possesses all attributes, it leaves literally

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no conceptual or physical room for any other

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00:14:21,500 --> 00:14:24,000
substance to exist. Which leads to his most dangerous

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00:14:24,000 --> 00:14:26,559
proposition yet. Because if there is only one

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00:14:26,559 --> 00:14:28,639
infinite substance that contains all reality,

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then everything that exists, you, me, the stars,

320
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must exist inside that substance. Yes. And Spinoza

321
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calls this single, all -encompassing substance

322
00:14:37,980 --> 00:14:41,460
God. But he immediately equates it with another

323
00:14:41,460 --> 00:14:45,159
word. He uses the famous Latin phrase, Deus of

324
00:14:45,159 --> 00:14:49,639
Natura, God or Nature. They are completely, 100

325
00:14:49,639 --> 00:14:52,679
% interchangeable terms for Spinoza. Let's use

326
00:14:52,679 --> 00:14:54,960
an analogy to make this concrete for the listener,

327
00:14:55,019 --> 00:14:56,399
because I know the terminology can get really

328
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overwhelming really fast. Let's think of this

329
00:14:59,080 --> 00:15:02,779
single substance, God or nature, as an infinite

330
00:15:02,779 --> 00:15:06,000
ocean. I like that. In Spinoza's system, you,

331
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me, the microphone sitting in front of me, the

332
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trees outside, we are not separate, independent

333
00:15:11,539 --> 00:15:14,559
things. We are just temporary waves on the surface

334
00:15:14,559 --> 00:15:17,080
of that single ocean. Spinoza actually uses the

335
00:15:17,080 --> 00:15:19,980
term modes for us. Right, modes. We are simply

336
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local temporary modifications of the one eternal

337
00:15:22,860 --> 00:15:26,019
substance. The ocean analogy captures the metaphysics

338
00:15:26,019 --> 00:15:28,759
beautifully. And to add just the next layer of

339
00:15:28,759 --> 00:15:31,000
his terminology, we have to look at how we perceive

340
00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:33,480
this ocean. Okay. Spinoza says this one substance

341
00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:35,559
has infinite attributes, which are basically

342
00:15:35,559 --> 00:15:37,440
the fundamental ways the intellect perceives

343
00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:39,340
the essence of the substance. But we can't see

344
00:15:39,340 --> 00:15:41,940
all of them, can we? No. Human beings are incredibly

345
00:15:41,940 --> 00:15:45,500
limited. We are only capable of perceiving two

346
00:15:45,500 --> 00:15:48,200
of these infinite attributes. We perceive thought

347
00:15:48,200 --> 00:15:51,320
and extension. Meaning we can only experience

348
00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:55,279
reality as mind, like ideas and logic, or as

349
00:15:55,279 --> 00:15:57,980
matter, like physical space and bodies. Correct.

350
00:15:58,039 --> 00:16:00,779
But here's the kicker. They are not two different

351
00:16:00,779 --> 00:16:02,580
substances. They are just two different lenses

352
00:16:02,580 --> 00:16:04,639
through which we view the exact same infinite

353
00:16:04,639 --> 00:16:07,039
ocean. And to explain the activity of this ocean,

354
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Nadler points out Spinoza's distinction between

355
00:16:09,340 --> 00:16:13,240
two Latin terms, natura naturans and natura naturata.

356
00:16:13,419 --> 00:16:15,620
Right, so natura naturans translates to nature,

357
00:16:15,740 --> 00:16:17,720
nature. Nature, nature, okay. This refers to

358
00:16:17,720 --> 00:16:20,320
the active, dynamic, eternal aspect of ground.

359
00:16:20,460 --> 00:16:23,019
So think of it as the fundamental laws of physics,

360
00:16:23,220 --> 00:16:25,559
the unchangeable rules of mathematics, the deep

361
00:16:25,559 --> 00:16:27,639
currents of the ocean that generate all the movement.

362
00:16:27,759 --> 00:16:30,840
The engine of reality. Exactly. And then naturata

363
00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:34,019
means nature, natured. This is the passive result.

364
00:16:34,159 --> 00:16:36,740
It's the actual waves on the surface, the specific

365
00:16:36,740 --> 00:16:39,360
physical objects and finite events that are produced

366
00:16:39,360 --> 00:16:42,039
by those active laws. But remember, both the

367
00:16:42,039 --> 00:16:44,179
deep currents and the surface waves are entirely

368
00:16:44,179 --> 00:16:46,840
contained within the one ocean. I mean, I understand

369
00:16:46,840 --> 00:16:50,519
the logic. It's airtight. But... I have to play

370
00:16:50,519 --> 00:16:52,840
devil's advocate here, just as his critics did

371
00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:55,519
back in the day. Because if God is literally

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00:16:55,519 --> 00:16:57,539
nothing more than the laws of physics and the

373
00:16:57,539 --> 00:16:59,720
totality of physical matter, how is this not

374
00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:02,580
just atheism? Oh, that is the big question. It

375
00:17:02,580 --> 00:17:04,559
just feels like he's slapping the word God onto

376
00:17:04,559 --> 00:17:06,740
the universe just to avoid getting thrown in

377
00:17:06,740 --> 00:17:09,000
prison or burned at the stake. You are echoing

378
00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:12,299
the exact outrage of his contemporaries. The

379
00:17:12,299 --> 00:17:15,500
philosopher Pierre Bayle, he wrote a wildly popular

380
00:17:15,500 --> 00:17:19,440
dictionary entry denouncing Spinoza. for cultivating

381
00:17:19,440 --> 00:17:22,200
this terrifying, mathematically disguised atheism.

382
00:17:22,240 --> 00:17:23,859
Yeah, that's exactly what it sounds like. But

383
00:17:23,859 --> 00:17:26,900
then, centuries later, the Romantics, people

384
00:17:26,900 --> 00:17:29,819
like Goethe, they read the exact same text and

385
00:17:29,819 --> 00:17:32,519
called Spinoza a God -intoxicated man. Wait,

386
00:17:32,599 --> 00:17:35,220
really? Yeah. They claimed he saw divine holiness

387
00:17:35,220 --> 00:17:37,279
in every leaf and stone. They thought it was

388
00:17:37,279 --> 00:17:39,420
the most spiritual thing they'd ever read. That's

389
00:17:39,420 --> 00:17:41,680
quite a spectrum. Where does Nadler land on this

390
00:17:41,680 --> 00:17:44,319
in the book? Well, Nadler makes a very compelling

391
00:17:44,319 --> 00:17:47,019
case that Spinoza is completely naturalizing

392
00:17:47,019 --> 00:17:50,309
God. He is deliberately stripping away every

393
00:17:50,309 --> 00:17:52,369
single characteristic of the Judeo -Christian

394
00:17:52,369 --> 00:17:55,150
deity. So no old man in the clouds. Absolutely

395
00:17:55,150 --> 00:17:57,769
not. Spinoza's God does not have a personality.

396
00:17:58,109 --> 00:18:00,349
God does not make choices. God does not love

397
00:18:00,349 --> 00:18:02,509
you. God does not judge your sins. God did not

398
00:18:02,509 --> 00:18:04,509
create the universe out of a sense of goodness

399
00:18:04,509 --> 00:18:07,779
or, you know, to test humanity. Right. Simply

400
00:18:07,779 --> 00:18:10,319
is the eternal necessary structure of reality.

401
00:18:10,539 --> 00:18:13,880
So look, if your definition of God requires a

402
00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:16,519
divine person who listens to prayers, then yes,

403
00:18:16,700 --> 00:18:19,220
Spinoza is absolutely an atheist. But if your

404
00:18:19,220 --> 00:18:21,099
definition of God is the ultimate, infinite,

405
00:18:21,259 --> 00:18:24,599
eternal cause of all reality, then Spinoza is

406
00:18:24,599 --> 00:18:26,819
the most devoted believer in human history. Okay.

407
00:18:27,099 --> 00:18:29,380
But if God is just the blind, eternal machinery

408
00:18:29,380 --> 00:18:31,640
of nature, how does anything actually happen?

409
00:18:31,720 --> 00:18:34,140
Like who is steering the ship? Nobody is. And

410
00:18:34,140 --> 00:18:36,579
this brings us to Spinoza's concept of determinism,

411
00:18:36,599 --> 00:18:39,319
which honestly just completely obliterates the

412
00:18:39,319 --> 00:18:42,119
idea of free will. It is absolute determinism.

413
00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:44,559
Because God's nature is eternal and necessary,

414
00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:47,279
every single thing that flows from God's nature

415
00:18:47,279 --> 00:18:50,319
is also logically necessary. It's that geometry

416
00:18:50,319 --> 00:18:53,880
again. Exactly. Think back to the geometry. A

417
00:18:53,880 --> 00:18:56,279
triangle doesn't choose to have its angles add

418
00:18:56,279 --> 00:18:59,819
up to 180 degrees. It is forced to by its essence.

419
00:19:00,500 --> 00:19:03,339
Similarly, the universe doesn't choose its events.

420
00:19:03,640 --> 00:19:05,859
To make this clear, we need to introduce two

421
00:19:05,859 --> 00:19:09,119
more terms Spinoza uses, infinite modes and finite

422
00:19:09,119 --> 00:19:11,779
modes. What is the difference between these two

423
00:19:11,779 --> 00:19:14,240
gears in the machine? It's basically the mechanism

424
00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:16,970
of cause and effect. So infinite modes are the

425
00:19:16,970 --> 00:19:19,670
universal omnipresent features of reality that

426
00:19:19,670 --> 00:19:21,769
follow immediately from the absolute nature of

427
00:19:21,769 --> 00:19:23,809
God. Give me an example. For example, under the

428
00:19:23,809 --> 00:19:26,009
attribute of physical extension, the infinite

429
00:19:26,009 --> 00:19:28,150
mode is the universal laws of motion and rest.

430
00:19:28,670 --> 00:19:30,950
Gravity, momentum, the conservation of energy.

431
00:19:31,089 --> 00:19:33,410
These are infinite modes. They apply everywhere

432
00:19:33,410 --> 00:19:35,829
at all times necessarily. And what about finite

433
00:19:35,829 --> 00:19:37,730
modes? Where do we fit in? Finite modes are the

434
00:19:37,730 --> 00:19:40,289
specific individual things. My coffee cup falling

435
00:19:40,289 --> 00:19:43,049
off the table. A storm hitting the coast. Your

436
00:19:43,049 --> 00:19:45,349
decision to listen to this audio. Finite modes

437
00:19:45,349 --> 00:19:48,170
are caused by the infinite modes interacting

438
00:19:48,170 --> 00:19:51,329
with an endless chain of other prior finite modes.

439
00:19:51,470 --> 00:19:54,569
So the cup falls because my hand bumped it, which

440
00:19:54,569 --> 00:19:57,150
is a finite mode, but it accelerates toward the

441
00:19:57,150 --> 00:19:59,410
floor because of the laws of motion, which is

442
00:19:59,410 --> 00:20:01,789
an infinite mode. And Spinoza is saying there

443
00:20:01,789 --> 00:20:04,970
is zero contingency anywhere in that chain. Like

444
00:20:04,970 --> 00:20:06,910
nothing could have ever happened differently

445
00:20:06,910 --> 00:20:10,009
than it did. Zero. If you say, you know, I could

446
00:20:10,009 --> 00:20:12,349
have chosen to drink tea instead of coffee today.

447
00:20:12,670 --> 00:20:14,849
Spinoza says you are mathematically incorrect

448
00:20:14,849 --> 00:20:17,509
because to say you could have chosen differently

449
00:20:17,509 --> 00:20:20,609
is to say the entire causal history of the universe

450
00:20:20,609 --> 00:20:23,170
stretching all the way back to the infinite nature

451
00:20:23,170 --> 00:20:25,670
of God could have been different. Which is a

452
00:20:25,670 --> 00:20:28,029
logical contradiction. He writes that things

453
00:20:28,029 --> 00:20:30,809
could not have been produced by God. in any other

454
00:20:30,809 --> 00:20:33,190
way or in any other order than they have been

455
00:20:33,190 --> 00:20:36,250
produced this leaves directly to his incredibly

456
00:20:36,250 --> 00:20:39,269
aggressive attack on teleology and teleology

457
00:20:39,269 --> 00:20:41,210
for anyone who doesn't know is the idea that

458
00:20:41,210 --> 00:20:44,430
the universe has a purpose or that things happen

459
00:20:44,430 --> 00:20:46,869
in order to achieve a specific goal traditional

460
00:20:46,869 --> 00:20:50,589
religion is deeply deeply teleological you know

461
00:20:50,589 --> 00:20:52,670
god created the earth so that humans could live

462
00:20:52,670 --> 00:20:55,859
on it God sends a plague so that sinners will

463
00:20:55,859 --> 00:20:58,740
repent. And Spinoza argues that teleology is

464
00:20:58,740 --> 00:21:01,599
profoundly insulting to the concept of a perfect

465
00:21:01,599 --> 00:21:04,880
God. How so? Well, if God acts for a purpose,

466
00:21:05,019 --> 00:21:07,079
it implies that God desires something he currently

467
00:21:07,079 --> 00:21:10,140
lacks. Oh, wow. Yeah. And if God lacks anything,

468
00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:13,960
God is not perfect. Therefore, the universe has

469
00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:17,579
no goals. It has no master plan. It is just an

470
00:21:17,579 --> 00:21:20,500
endless unfolding of necessary causes. There

471
00:21:20,500 --> 00:21:22,759
is an appendix to part one of the ethics where

472
00:21:22,759 --> 00:21:24,880
Spinoza just takes the gloves completely off.

473
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:27,240
He says that when people witness a disaster,

474
00:21:27,420 --> 00:21:29,579
like a rock falling off a roof and hitting someone

475
00:21:29,579 --> 00:21:31,880
on the head, they immediately look for a purpose.

476
00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:33,799
They say, oh, it was the will of God. Right.

477
00:21:33,880 --> 00:21:35,880
The classic response. And Spinoza calls this

478
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:38,920
the sanctuary of ignorance. He argues that religious

479
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:41,400
authorities use this sanctuary of ignorance to

480
00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:43,819
maintain power over the gullible. It's highly

481
00:21:43,819 --> 00:21:46,700
political. Exactly. Instead of investigating

482
00:21:46,700 --> 00:21:49,319
the geological causes of the rock, the architectural

483
00:21:49,319 --> 00:21:51,700
failure of the roof, and the trajectory of the

484
00:21:51,700 --> 00:21:53,680
wind, they just throw up their hands and say

485
00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:56,460
God willed it, which keeps the masses in a state

486
00:21:56,460 --> 00:21:59,119
of fearful superstition. He is exposing the psychological

487
00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:02,579
roots of superstition there. We project our own

488
00:22:02,579 --> 00:22:06,099
human motivations, like desire, purpose, reward,

489
00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:09,160
punishment, onto the blank canvas of nature,

490
00:22:09,319 --> 00:22:12,400
and then we just cower in fear of the imaginary

491
00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:14,950
monster we've drawn. Here's where it gets really

492
00:22:14,950 --> 00:22:17,490
interesting, though. I need to push back hard

493
00:22:17,490 --> 00:22:20,190
here on behalf of anyone listening who is starting

494
00:22:20,190 --> 00:22:23,009
to feel a pretty profound sense of existential

495
00:22:23,009 --> 00:22:26,069
dread. I don't blame them. Because if my entire

496
00:22:26,069 --> 00:22:28,769
life, every choice I make, every failure, every

497
00:22:28,769 --> 00:22:31,349
success is just a rigid chain of mathematical

498
00:22:31,349 --> 00:22:33,349
cause and effect, well, doesn't that make life

499
00:22:33,349 --> 00:22:35,250
incredibly depressing? It's a fair question.

500
00:22:35,369 --> 00:22:37,950
If I have literally no ultimate free will and

501
00:22:37,950 --> 00:22:40,250
the universe has no ultimate purpose, why should

502
00:22:40,250 --> 00:22:42,529
I even try to be a good person? Why get out of

503
00:22:42,529 --> 00:22:45,140
bed in the morning? It is absolutely the most

504
00:22:45,140 --> 00:22:47,640
common reaction to determinism, this feeling

505
00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:51,099
of paralyzing fatalism. But for Spinoza... If

506
00:22:51,099 --> 00:22:53,579
you believe you have the sheer willpower to swim

507
00:22:53,579 --> 00:22:55,819
straight back to the beach, you will fight the

508
00:22:55,819 --> 00:22:58,220
current, you'll exhaust yourself, and you'll

509
00:22:58,220 --> 00:23:01,059
drown. But if you understand the fluid dynamics

510
00:23:01,059 --> 00:23:03,859
of a riptide, if you just accept the necessary

511
00:23:03,859 --> 00:23:06,759
mechanics of the water, you swim parallel to

512
00:23:06,759 --> 00:23:09,740
the shore, let the current release you, And you

513
00:23:09,740 --> 00:23:12,500
survive. That is a perfect analogy. So freedom

514
00:23:12,500 --> 00:23:15,119
isn't breaking the laws of nature. Freedom is

515
00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:18,220
understanding the laws and navigating them rationally.

516
00:23:18,339 --> 00:23:21,119
That is exactly how Spinoza views human autonomy.

517
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:24,019
We are completely determined, yes, but we can

518
00:23:24,019 --> 00:23:26,900
be determined by our internal rational understanding

519
00:23:26,900 --> 00:23:29,819
of reality rather than being passively dragged

520
00:23:29,819 --> 00:23:33,319
around by external confused passions. Which perfectly

521
00:23:33,319 --> 00:23:36,420
transitions us to the human scale. Because we've

522
00:23:36,420 --> 00:23:38,279
mapped out the universe, now we really need to

523
00:23:38,279 --> 00:23:40,980
look in the mirror. What exactly is a human being

524
00:23:40,980 --> 00:23:43,839
in Spinoza's system? To answer this, he has to

525
00:23:43,839 --> 00:23:46,579
completely dismantle the model proposed by Descartes.

526
00:23:46,660 --> 00:23:49,039
Descartes championed what we call substance dualism.

527
00:23:49,140 --> 00:23:51,740
He argued that a human being is made of two entirely

528
00:23:51,740 --> 00:23:54,380
distinct things, a physical body operating like

529
00:23:54,380 --> 00:23:57,039
a clockwork machine and an immaterial soul, the

530
00:23:57,039 --> 00:23:59,650
mind, sitting inside it. The philosopher Gilbert

531
00:23:59,650 --> 00:24:02,529
Ryle later mocked this as the ghost in the machine.

532
00:24:02,789 --> 00:24:05,890
And the massive problem for Descartes was explaining

533
00:24:05,890 --> 00:24:08,769
how an immaterial ghost could possibly push the

534
00:24:08,769 --> 00:24:10,589
physical levers of the brain to make the arm

535
00:24:10,589 --> 00:24:13,089
move. Right. If the mind doesn't have physical

536
00:24:13,089 --> 00:24:15,970
mass or occupy space, how can it cause physical

537
00:24:15,970 --> 00:24:19,089
kinetic energy? It defies the laws of physics

538
00:24:19,089 --> 00:24:22,589
entirely. Spinoza solves the mind -body problem

539
00:24:22,589 --> 00:24:24,710
by denying that they are two different things

540
00:24:24,710 --> 00:24:26,970
at all. Okay. How does that work? This is his

541
00:24:26,970 --> 00:24:29,500
doctrine of parallelism. Remember there is only

542
00:24:29,500 --> 00:24:32,140
one substance but it has infinite attributes.

543
00:24:32,819 --> 00:24:35,640
We perceive reality through the attribute of

544
00:24:35,640 --> 00:24:38,099
extension which is physical matter and the attribute

545
00:24:38,099 --> 00:24:41,299
of thought which is ideas. Spinoza argues that

546
00:24:41,299 --> 00:24:43,180
the mind and the body are the exact same entity

547
00:24:43,180 --> 00:24:45,059
just expressed in two different languages of

548
00:24:45,059 --> 00:24:47,400
reality. He defines the human mind as simply

549
00:24:47,400 --> 00:24:51,079
the idea of the human body. Yes. He says the

550
00:24:51,079 --> 00:24:53,359
order and connection of ideas is identical to

551
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:55,859
the order and connection of things. Every single

552
00:24:55,859 --> 00:24:58,799
physical event in your body has a perfectly synchronized

553
00:24:58,799 --> 00:25:02,079
corresponding idea in your mind. Nadler uses

554
00:25:02,079 --> 00:25:04,640
a great analogy of translation here that really

555
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:07,440
helped it click for me. If I say the phrase,

556
00:25:07,619 --> 00:25:09,819
you are beautiful in English, and then I say,

557
00:25:09,839 --> 00:25:12,880
tu es belle in French, I am using two completely

558
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:16,119
different sets of vocabulary, grammar, and phonetic

559
00:25:16,119 --> 00:25:18,619
sounds. But the underlying meaning is exactly

560
00:25:18,619 --> 00:25:21,579
the same. The English sentence doesn't cause

561
00:25:21,579 --> 00:25:24,180
the French sentence to exist. They are perfectly

562
00:25:24,180 --> 00:25:27,339
parallel expressions of one single thought. Or

563
00:25:27,339 --> 00:25:29,779
consider a movie reel. Yeah. You have a strip

564
00:25:29,779 --> 00:25:32,200
of visual film. and a magnetic strip of audio.

565
00:25:32,380 --> 00:25:34,900
When you see a door slam on the visual track,

566
00:25:35,059 --> 00:25:37,380
you hear a loud bang on the audio track. The

567
00:25:37,380 --> 00:25:40,279
visual image of the door didn't cause the audio

568
00:25:40,279 --> 00:25:43,000
track to make a noise. There is no causal interaction

569
00:25:43,000 --> 00:25:45,319
between the sight and the sound. They were just

570
00:25:45,319 --> 00:25:47,839
perfectly synchronized expressions of a single

571
00:25:47,839 --> 00:25:50,319
cinematic event. Let's apply this to a real physical

572
00:25:50,319 --> 00:25:52,700
sensation just to really drive it home. Let's

573
00:25:52,700 --> 00:25:54,779
say I accidentally slice my finger with a kitchen

574
00:25:54,779 --> 00:25:57,539
knife. Under Descartes' system, the physical

575
00:25:57,539 --> 00:26:00,500
tissue damage sends a signal to my brain. And

576
00:26:00,500 --> 00:26:03,380
then my physical brain somehow causes my immaterial

577
00:26:03,380 --> 00:26:05,480
mind to feel the sensation of pain. Right, the

578
00:26:05,480 --> 00:26:08,619
causal link. But Spinoza says no. The physical

579
00:26:08,619 --> 00:26:10,859
laceration of the tissue and the mental sensation

580
00:26:10,859 --> 00:26:14,460
of agony are the exact same event. One is happening

581
00:26:14,460 --> 00:26:16,660
in the vocabulary of extension, the other in

582
00:26:16,660 --> 00:26:19,480
the vocabulary of thought. Exactly. There is

583
00:26:19,480 --> 00:26:22,119
no causal interaction. The body does not cause

584
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:24,480
the mind to feel, and the mind does not cause

585
00:26:24,480 --> 00:26:26,730
the body to move. They are identically determined

586
00:26:26,730 --> 00:26:29,150
parallel tracks. This raises an important question,

587
00:26:29,210 --> 00:26:31,150
though, actually a terrifying one regarding the

588
00:26:31,150 --> 00:26:34,930
afterlife. If the mind is quite literally just

589
00:26:34,930 --> 00:26:37,190
the idea of the physical body, what happens when

590
00:26:37,190 --> 00:26:40,490
the physical body dies and decomposes? The inescapable

591
00:26:40,490 --> 00:26:43,329
logical conclusion of Spinoza's parallelism is

592
00:26:43,329 --> 00:26:46,410
the denial of personal immortality. Wow. Yeah.

593
00:26:46,779 --> 00:26:49,359
The entire promise of Western religion that a

594
00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:51,700
unique individual soul, complete with your memories,

595
00:26:51,740 --> 00:26:53,960
your personality, and your loves, survives the

596
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:55,740
death of your body to face judgment or enter

597
00:26:55,740 --> 00:26:59,099
heaven. Spinoza says that is a myth. Just gone.

598
00:26:59,279 --> 00:27:02,059
When the body ceases to exist, the mind's ability

599
00:27:02,059 --> 00:27:04,640
to imagine, to remember, and to perceive the

600
00:27:04,640 --> 00:27:07,380
physical world is utterly obliterated. because

601
00:27:07,380 --> 00:27:09,539
without the physical brain to process memories

602
00:27:09,539 --> 00:27:12,660
the idea of those physical memories just ceases

603
00:27:12,660 --> 00:27:15,200
to exist he just casually pulls the rug out from

604
00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:17,980
under centuries of theology he redefines eternity

605
00:27:17,980 --> 00:27:20,420
in a completely different way which we will definitely

606
00:27:20,420 --> 00:27:23,559
explore but the traditional immortal ghost is

607
00:27:23,559 --> 00:27:26,099
completely evicted from the machine so If we

608
00:27:26,099 --> 00:27:28,640
are just synchronized mind -body machines without

609
00:27:28,640 --> 00:27:31,460
immortal souls, how do we navigate the world?

610
00:27:31,539 --> 00:27:34,180
Why do we care about anything? Why do we feel

611
00:27:34,180 --> 00:27:36,420
such overwhelming emotions? Right, the human

612
00:27:36,420 --> 00:27:39,299
experience. Spinoza starts answering this by

613
00:27:39,299 --> 00:27:42,240
categorizing how we process information into

614
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:45,180
three kinds of knowledge. The first kind is imagination.

615
00:27:45,849 --> 00:27:48,930
This is our baseline everyday experience. It

616
00:27:48,930 --> 00:27:51,630
is a very fragmented, chaotic way of knowing

617
00:27:51,630 --> 00:27:54,349
the world based purely on how our physical body

618
00:27:54,349 --> 00:27:56,430
bumps into other physical bodies. So it's very

619
00:27:56,430 --> 00:27:59,569
reactive. Extremely reactive. It relies on sensory

620
00:27:59,569 --> 00:28:02,269
perception and hearsay. Spinoza says the imagination

621
00:28:02,269 --> 00:28:05,289
is filled with inadequate ideas. It is the ultimate

622
00:28:05,289 --> 00:28:07,569
source of our prejudices, our confused passions,

623
00:28:07,650 --> 00:28:09,769
and our superstitions. It's like standing on

624
00:28:09,769 --> 00:28:11,730
the beach and judging the entire nature of the

625
00:28:11,730 --> 00:28:14,309
ocean based solely on the one random wave that

626
00:28:14,309 --> 00:28:17,910
just... splash salt water into your eyes. You

627
00:28:17,910 --> 00:28:20,950
have an experience, sure, but you lack the structural

628
00:28:20,950 --> 00:28:23,049
understanding of why it happened. Precisely.

629
00:28:23,289 --> 00:28:26,210
The second kind of knowledge is reason. This

630
00:28:26,210 --> 00:28:28,210
is when we step back from our immediate sensory

631
00:28:28,210 --> 00:28:31,450
bias and we begin to grasp the universal properties

632
00:28:31,450 --> 00:28:34,009
of things. We understand the laws of physics,

633
00:28:34,109 --> 00:28:36,490
the chain of logical deduction. We start forming

634
00:28:36,490 --> 00:28:39,970
adequate ideas. Okay. And the third highest kind

635
00:28:39,970 --> 00:28:42,740
of knowledge is intuition. This is a direct,

636
00:28:42,779 --> 00:28:45,500
holistic comprehension of the essence of things,

637
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:47,900
seeing exactly how everything connects directly

638
00:28:47,900 --> 00:28:50,680
back to the infinite essence of God. But our

639
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:52,819
actions aren't just driven by abstract knowledge,

640
00:28:52,940 --> 00:28:55,119
right? They are driven by a biological imperative.

641
00:28:55,420 --> 00:28:57,640
And this is arguably the most important psychological

642
00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:00,480
concept in the entire ethics, the kanatis. Yes.

643
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:04,759
Kanatis translates to striving or endeavor. Spinoza

644
00:29:04,759 --> 00:29:07,059
argues that every single mode in nature, every

645
00:29:07,059 --> 00:29:10,220
physical object and biological organism, possesses

646
00:29:10,220 --> 00:29:12,559
a fundamental inherent drive to persevere in

647
00:29:12,559 --> 00:29:15,779
its own existence. Even objects. Yes. A rock

648
00:29:15,779 --> 00:29:19,119
resists being crushed. A plant instinctively

649
00:29:19,119 --> 00:29:21,920
grows toward the sunlight. And a human being

650
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:25,000
strives to survive, to maintain its physical

651
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,420
integrity and to increase its power of acting

652
00:29:27,420 --> 00:29:30,220
in the world. We are hardwired for self -preservation.

653
00:29:30,319 --> 00:29:32,880
It is the absolute root of all human psychology.

654
00:29:33,279 --> 00:29:36,180
Yes. And Spinoza takes this basic biological

655
00:29:36,180 --> 00:29:39,559
drive and uses it to systematically deduce every

656
00:29:39,559 --> 00:29:42,460
single human emotion. He literally states that

657
00:29:42,460 --> 00:29:45,000
he will analyze human actions and appetites just

658
00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,400
as if it were a question of lines. planes and

659
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:49,599
bodies. He wants to create a geometry of the

660
00:29:49,599 --> 00:29:52,880
passions. Exactly. And he boils the entire spectrum

661
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,180
of human feeling down to three primary building

662
00:29:55,180 --> 00:29:59,000
blocks, joy, sadness, and desire. Walk me through

663
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:01,660
these. Desire is the easiest. It is simply our

664
00:30:01,660 --> 00:30:03,819
conscious awareness of our canatus. It is our

665
00:30:03,819 --> 00:30:05,400
appetite for the things we believe will help

666
00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:07,880
us survive and thrive. Right. Joy is the transition

667
00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:10,539
to a state of greater perfection. When our kanatis

668
00:30:10,539 --> 00:30:12,420
is successful, when our power of acting in the

669
00:30:12,420 --> 00:30:14,700
world is increased, we experience that increase

670
00:30:14,700 --> 00:30:17,779
in power as joy. Okay, and sadness? Sadness,

671
00:30:17,839 --> 00:30:20,539
conversely, is the transition to a lesser state

672
00:30:20,539 --> 00:30:23,480
of perfection. When our power is hindered or

673
00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,220
diminished by external forces, we experience

674
00:30:26,220 --> 00:30:29,059
that decrease as sadness. And from just those

675
00:30:29,059 --> 00:30:32,079
three blocks, he constructs a massive, complex

676
00:30:32,079 --> 00:30:35,039
dictionary of human emotions. The one that always

677
00:30:35,039 --> 00:30:37,869
blows my mind is his definition of love. We have

678
00:30:37,869 --> 00:30:40,769
centuries of poetry, art, and religion treating

679
00:30:40,769 --> 00:30:44,029
love as this mystical, transcendent, divine force.

680
00:30:44,329 --> 00:30:47,710
And Spinoza coldly defines love as simply joy

681
00:30:47,710 --> 00:30:49,950
accompanied by the idea of an external cause.

682
00:30:50,190 --> 00:30:53,569
It is brilliantly, ruthlessly reductive. If a

683
00:30:53,569 --> 00:30:55,759
specific person enters your life, And interacting

684
00:30:55,759 --> 00:30:57,640
with it increases your power of acting, making

685
00:30:57,640 --> 00:30:59,799
you feel more vibrant, secure, and capable. You

686
00:30:59,799 --> 00:31:01,960
experience joy. Naturally. Because your mind

687
00:31:01,960 --> 00:31:03,900
correctly identifies that person as the external

688
00:31:03,900 --> 00:31:06,299
cause of your increased power, you direct that

689
00:31:06,299 --> 00:31:08,779
joy toward them. The directed joy is what we

690
00:31:08,779 --> 00:31:11,019
call love. And hate is just sadness accompanied

691
00:31:11,019 --> 00:31:13,700
by the idea of an external cause. If a coworker

692
00:31:13,700 --> 00:31:15,599
constantly undermines you, they are decreasing

693
00:31:15,599 --> 00:31:18,480
your power of acting. You feel sadness, you identify

694
00:31:18,480 --> 00:31:20,980
the coworker as the cause, and boom, hate. Yeah.

695
00:31:21,039 --> 00:31:22,920
It really strips away all the romantic mystery.

696
00:31:23,339 --> 00:31:26,599
It does, but it replaces the mystery with actionable

697
00:31:26,599 --> 00:31:29,519
clarity. If you understand the mechanics of your

698
00:31:29,519 --> 00:31:31,480
emotions, you can actually begin to control them.

699
00:31:31,519 --> 00:31:33,220
But I have a serious moral problem with this.

700
00:31:33,299 --> 00:31:35,940
If everything is just a calculation of what increases

701
00:31:35,940 --> 00:31:39,160
my biological and psychological power, Spinoza

702
00:31:39,160 --> 00:31:41,759
is completely flipping traditional morality upside

703
00:31:41,759 --> 00:31:44,279
down. He really is. Traditional religion teaches

704
00:31:44,279 --> 00:31:46,440
us, you know, you should desire this action because

705
00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:49,559
it is objectively good. Spinoza explicitly says

706
00:31:49,559 --> 00:31:51,960
the opposite. He says, we do not desire things

707
00:31:51,960 --> 00:31:54,140
because they are good. We judge them to be good

708
00:31:54,140 --> 00:31:56,500
because we desire them. Yes. Doesn't this lead

709
00:31:56,500 --> 00:31:59,859
directly to absolute chaotic selfishness? If

710
00:31:59,859 --> 00:32:01,960
good just means whatever satisfies my desire,

711
00:32:02,220 --> 00:32:05,980
aren't we just robotic, hedonistic sociopaths?

712
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:08,160
It's a very sharp critique, and it is exactly

713
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:11,059
why he was accused of destroying morality. Spinoza

714
00:32:11,059 --> 00:32:14,220
is unabashedly embracing psychological egoism.

715
00:32:14,259 --> 00:32:17,000
We are completely, unavoidably driven by self

716
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,960
-interest. So he admits it. Yes. However, Spinoza

717
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:22,460
forcefully argues that this egoism does not lead

718
00:32:22,460 --> 00:32:25,319
to chaos or sociopathy. In fact, it leads to

719
00:32:25,319 --> 00:32:27,799
the highest form of ethical cooperation. But

720
00:32:27,799 --> 00:32:30,220
the key variable here is reason. Okay, how does

721
00:32:30,220 --> 00:32:33,480
reason save us from being monsters? If a person

722
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:35,859
is operating purely on the first kind of knowledge,

723
00:32:36,079 --> 00:32:38,940
imagination, they will act on confused passions.

724
00:32:39,099 --> 00:32:42,180
They will blindly chase immediate bodily pleasures

725
00:32:42,180 --> 00:32:45,619
or lash out in anger. But those blind passions

726
00:32:45,619 --> 00:32:48,019
frequently put us in conflict with other people,

727
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:51,180
which leads to violence, isolation, and ultimately

728
00:32:51,180 --> 00:32:54,700
a massive decrease in our own power. Oh, I see.

729
00:32:54,839 --> 00:32:57,440
Think of a tyrant. or someone consumed by addiction.

730
00:32:57,740 --> 00:33:00,480
They are pursuing what they think is good, but

731
00:33:00,480 --> 00:33:02,980
their irrationality is literally destroying their

732
00:33:02,980 --> 00:33:06,039
canatus. So they are basically bad at being selfish.

733
00:33:06,299 --> 00:33:09,700
Exactly. But when a person uses reason, the second

734
00:33:09,700 --> 00:33:11,720
kind of knowledge, they develop a much longer,

735
00:33:11,759 --> 00:33:13,720
clearer view of what actually preserves their

736
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:16,559
being. Rationality teaches us what truly increases

737
00:33:16,559 --> 00:33:19,640
our power in a sustainable, long -term way. Which

738
00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:21,720
brings us to the concept of human bondage and

739
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:24,099
virtue, because Spinoza argues that when we are

740
00:33:24,099 --> 00:33:26,599
tossed around by blind passions, when we react

741
00:33:26,599 --> 00:33:29,039
purely to external stimuli without understanding

742
00:33:29,039 --> 00:33:32,180
them, we are literal slaves. We are in bondage

743
00:33:32,180 --> 00:33:34,480
to the outside world. Yes, part four of the ethics

744
00:33:34,480 --> 00:33:37,259
is literally titled of human bondage. Right,

745
00:33:37,359 --> 00:33:39,400
so his definition of virtue has nothing to do

746
00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:42,759
with meekness or chastity or turning the other

747
00:33:42,759 --> 00:33:46,720
cheek. No, for Spinoza, virtue is power. Virtue

748
00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:49,059
is successfully striving to preserve your own

749
00:33:49,059 --> 00:33:52,460
being under the strict guidance of reason. To

750
00:33:52,460 --> 00:33:55,359
be virtuous is to act from your own internal

751
00:33:55,359 --> 00:33:58,000
understanding of the universe rather than merely

752
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,200
reacting passively to things that happen to you.

753
00:34:00,279 --> 00:34:03,279
It's enlightened egoism. And this creates a really

754
00:34:03,279 --> 00:34:05,460
fascinating paradox when it comes to how we treat

755
00:34:05,460 --> 00:34:08,000
other people. Because if I am a purely rational,

756
00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:11,320
perfectly selfish Spinozist trying to maximize

757
00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:14,190
my own power and survival, How should I behave

758
00:34:14,190 --> 00:34:16,750
toward my neighbor? Reason dictates that a human

759
00:34:16,750 --> 00:34:19,030
being alone in the state of nature is incredibly

760
00:34:19,030 --> 00:34:22,150
weak and vulnerable. You can't farm, build shelter,

761
00:34:22,289 --> 00:34:24,510
and defend yourself simultaneously. Right. Therefore,

762
00:34:24,630 --> 00:34:26,710
if you rationally calculate what is most useful

763
00:34:26,710 --> 00:34:29,389
to your own survival, you realize that there

764
00:34:29,389 --> 00:34:31,389
is absolutely nothing more useful to a human

765
00:34:31,389 --> 00:34:33,789
being than another rational human being. Two

766
00:34:33,789 --> 00:34:36,610
rational minds working in cooperation are exponentially

767
00:34:36,610 --> 00:34:40,289
more powerful than one. Precisely. If my neighbors

768
00:34:40,289 --> 00:34:43,789
are irrational, Driven by greed and anger, they

769
00:34:43,789 --> 00:34:46,469
are a literal threat to my existence. But if

770
00:34:46,469 --> 00:34:48,730
my neighbors are rational, cooperative and secure,

771
00:34:49,010 --> 00:34:52,690
they are my greatest asset. Wow. Therefore, the

772
00:34:52,690 --> 00:34:55,769
ultimate rationally selfish act is to be incredibly

773
00:34:55,769 --> 00:34:58,949
kind, generous and just to the people around

774
00:34:58,949 --> 00:35:01,809
you. You actively want to help others achieve

775
00:35:01,809 --> 00:35:04,289
rationality and empowerment because a community

776
00:35:04,289 --> 00:35:07,849
of empowered, rational people provides the safest,

777
00:35:07,969 --> 00:35:10,090
most joyful environment for you to thrive in.

778
00:35:10,170 --> 00:35:12,969
He explicitly writes in the text, man is a god

779
00:35:12,969 --> 00:35:15,570
to man. It's an incredible thought. When we act

780
00:35:15,570 --> 00:35:17,670
rationally and cooperatively, we provide for

781
00:35:17,670 --> 00:35:20,329
each other the exact kind of security, providence,

782
00:35:20,329 --> 00:35:23,150
and grace that superstitious people beg a mythical

783
00:35:23,150 --> 00:35:26,010
deity to provide. He is building an entire system

784
00:35:26,010 --> 00:35:28,869
of social ethics and civil society, not on the

785
00:35:28,869 --> 00:35:31,469
fear of hellfire or divine commandments, but

786
00:35:31,469 --> 00:35:34,010
on pragmatic, naturalistic human flourishing.

787
00:35:34,110 --> 00:35:36,010
So what does this all mean? If you are listening

788
00:35:36,010 --> 00:35:37,630
to this, think about how radically practical

789
00:35:37,630 --> 00:35:40,469
this is. True ethics isn't about feeling guilty.

790
00:35:40,570 --> 00:35:42,949
It's exactly like the safety briefing on an airplane.

791
00:35:43,250 --> 00:35:45,869
You have to secure your own oxygen mask before

792
00:35:45,869 --> 00:35:47,889
assisting others. That's a great way to put it.

793
00:35:48,070 --> 00:35:50,969
By perfecting your own rational mind, by clearly

794
00:35:50,969 --> 00:35:53,829
understanding your own true advantage, you naturally

795
00:35:53,829 --> 00:35:56,829
become a stabilizing pillar for your entire community.

796
00:35:57,110 --> 00:35:59,889
You don't refrain from stealing because God is

797
00:35:59,889 --> 00:36:02,250
watching. You refrain from stealing because theft

798
00:36:02,250 --> 00:36:05,630
introduces chaos into the social contract that

799
00:36:05,630 --> 00:36:09,730
your very survival depends upon. It is a breathtakingly

800
00:36:09,730 --> 00:36:12,670
elegant deduction of morality from pure biology

801
00:36:12,670 --> 00:36:14,909
and mathematics. But let's be realistic for a

802
00:36:14,909 --> 00:36:17,110
second. We aren't perfect, rational calculating

803
00:36:17,110 --> 00:36:19,929
machines. We certainly aren't. We still get furious

804
00:36:19,929 --> 00:36:21,750
when someone cuts us off in traffic. We still

805
00:36:21,750 --> 00:36:23,730
feel crushing grief when we lose a loved one.

806
00:36:24,150 --> 00:36:27,090
How do we actually achieve this rational peace

807
00:36:27,090 --> 00:36:30,510
in the messiness of daily life? Spinoza addresses

808
00:36:30,510 --> 00:36:32,889
this in the final part of the ethics, offering

809
00:36:32,889 --> 00:36:35,030
what is essentially a masterclass in cognitive

810
00:36:35,030 --> 00:36:37,409
behavioral therapy centuries before the term

811
00:36:37,409 --> 00:36:40,210
was even invented. Spinoza is a profound realist.

812
00:36:40,309 --> 00:36:43,150
He states clearly that as long as we are finite

813
00:36:43,150 --> 00:36:46,170
modes existing in a physical body, we will continually

814
00:36:46,170 --> 00:36:49,110
be bombarded by external forces. We can never

815
00:36:49,110 --> 00:36:51,949
entirely eliminate the passions. Right. But we

816
00:36:51,949 --> 00:36:54,309
can dramatically diminish their power over us.

817
00:36:54,469 --> 00:36:57,889
How exactly do we defang a passion? By analyzing

818
00:36:57,889 --> 00:37:01,820
it. Spinoza lays out a psychological law. An

819
00:37:01,820 --> 00:37:05,519
emotion, which is a passion, ceases to be a passion

820
00:37:05,519 --> 00:37:08,019
as soon as we form a clear and distinct idea

821
00:37:08,019 --> 00:37:10,099
of it. Okay, break that down for me. Let's say

822
00:37:10,099 --> 00:37:12,980
I'm completely consumed with anger because a

823
00:37:12,980 --> 00:37:15,619
co -worker lied to get a promotion over me. My

824
00:37:15,619 --> 00:37:18,880
blood is boiling. How do I apply Spinoza's formula?

825
00:37:19,139 --> 00:37:22,059
When you are furious, your mind is entirely focused

826
00:37:22,059 --> 00:37:24,820
on the immediate external trigger, the co -worker.

827
00:37:25,050 --> 00:37:27,590
You are viewing their action as an isolated free

828
00:37:27,590 --> 00:37:29,809
will choice designed specifically to harm you.

829
00:37:29,909 --> 00:37:32,010
You are operating in the realm of imagination.

830
00:37:32,230 --> 00:37:35,630
To diffuse the passion, you must use reason to

831
00:37:35,630 --> 00:37:38,130
step back and map the chain of causes. I have

832
00:37:38,130 --> 00:37:40,190
to see the machinery behind their action. Exactly.

833
00:37:40,190 --> 00:37:42,190
You analyze the co -worker. Why did they lie?

834
00:37:42,590 --> 00:37:44,710
Perhaps they are driven by a deep -seated, irrational

835
00:37:44,710 --> 00:37:47,210
fear of financial ruin stemming from their childhood.

836
00:37:47,570 --> 00:37:49,550
Perhaps they are enslaved by their own blind

837
00:37:49,550 --> 00:37:52,289
ambition and insecure ego. You trace the causes

838
00:37:52,289 --> 00:37:55,389
back. You realize that their action was mathematically

839
00:37:55,389 --> 00:37:58,690
necessitated by their prior experiences and their

840
00:37:58,690 --> 00:38:01,469
flawed understanding of the world. They literally

841
00:38:01,469 --> 00:38:04,429
could not have done otherwise. So by stripping

842
00:38:04,429 --> 00:38:06,730
away the illusion of their free will, I stop

843
00:38:06,730 --> 00:38:08,929
seeing them as an evil demon who chose to hurt

844
00:38:08,929 --> 00:38:11,309
me, and I start seeing them almost like a malfunctioning

845
00:38:11,309 --> 00:38:14,329
machine or a force of nature. Exactly. I wouldn't

846
00:38:14,329 --> 00:38:16,369
scream in anger at a hurricane that blew down

847
00:38:16,369 --> 00:38:18,590
my fence. I'd just recognize the atmospheric

848
00:38:18,590 --> 00:38:22,210
pressures that caused it. Exactly. You contextualize

849
00:38:22,210 --> 00:38:24,570
the injury within the infinite deterministic

850
00:38:24,570 --> 00:38:27,309
web of nature. And when you fully understand

851
00:38:27,309 --> 00:38:30,130
the necessity of the event, your blinding hatred

852
00:38:30,130 --> 00:38:34,269
simply dissolves. It is replaced by a calm, objective

853
00:38:34,269 --> 00:38:37,429
understanding. The event still happened, but

854
00:38:37,429 --> 00:38:39,449
you are no longer a slave to the reactive emotion.

855
00:38:39,829 --> 00:38:41,730
And this practice of zooming out leads to the

856
00:38:41,730 --> 00:38:44,070
ultimate pinnacle of Spinoza's entire philosophy.

857
00:38:44,599 --> 00:38:48,239
The state of mind he calls the amor de intellectualis,

858
00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:50,960
the intellectual love of God. If we connect this

859
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,019
to the bigger picture, this is the destination

860
00:38:53,019 --> 00:38:56,679
of the third kind of knowledge, intuition. When

861
00:38:56,679 --> 00:38:59,000
you practice this cognitive therapy relentlessly,

862
00:38:59,159 --> 00:39:02,860
you increasingly begin to view the world subspecie

863
00:39:02,860 --> 00:39:05,639
eternitatis under the aspect of eternity. Under

864
00:39:05,639 --> 00:39:08,059
the aspect of eternity. You stop looking at reality

865
00:39:08,059 --> 00:39:10,840
through the narrow, selfish, time -bound lens

866
00:39:10,840 --> 00:39:14,159
of your immediate mortal needs. You begin to

867
00:39:14,159 --> 00:39:17,659
comprehend how every single finite thing perfectly

868
00:39:17,659 --> 00:39:20,099
necessarily follows from the infinite eternal

869
00:39:20,099 --> 00:39:23,039
essence of God. And what happens emotionally

870
00:39:23,039 --> 00:39:25,079
when you achieve that universal perspective?

871
00:39:25,699 --> 00:39:28,119
Spinoza says you experience a supreme ultimate

872
00:39:28,119 --> 00:39:31,280
joy. It is the greatest empowerment of your kanatas

873
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:33,519
possible because your mind is perfectly aligned

874
00:39:33,519 --> 00:39:36,000
with reality. And because you correctly identify

875
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,679
the infinite universe, God, or nature as the

876
00:39:38,679 --> 00:39:41,179
cause of the supreme joy, you experience love.

877
00:39:41,440 --> 00:39:44,119
But not a typical love. No. It is not a sappy,

878
00:39:44,199 --> 00:39:46,639
emotional love. It is an active, clear -sighted,

879
00:39:46,639 --> 00:39:48,960
intellectual love of God. Let's tie this back

880
00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:51,119
to his denial of the afterlife from earlier.

881
00:39:51,539 --> 00:39:54,420
If my physical body dies and my personal memories

882
00:39:54,420 --> 00:39:56,639
and imagination are wiped out, does anything

883
00:39:56,639 --> 00:39:59,159
of me survive? Does this intellectual love of

884
00:39:59,159 --> 00:40:03,039
God offer any kind of eternity? Yes, but in a

885
00:40:03,039 --> 00:40:06,340
radically reconceptualized way. Spinoza argues

886
00:40:06,340 --> 00:40:09,079
that truth is eternal. The mathematical laws

887
00:40:09,079 --> 00:40:12,179
of reality do not decay. therefore when your

888
00:40:12,179 --> 00:40:15,780
mind grasps an adequate idea when you truly understand

889
00:40:15,780 --> 00:40:17,980
a lot of physics or the mathematical essence

890
00:40:17,980 --> 00:40:20,440
of a triangle or the necessary causes of human

891
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:23,000
behaviour that specific thought in your mind

892
00:40:23,389 --> 00:40:25,789
is an eternal truth. So the part of my mind that

893
00:40:25,789 --> 00:40:27,989
understands eternity literally becomes eternal.

894
00:40:28,269 --> 00:40:30,110
Exactly. Because the mind just is a collection

895
00:40:30,110 --> 00:40:32,130
of its ideas. The portion of your mind that consists

896
00:40:32,130 --> 00:40:34,550
of true, adequate understanding is integrated

897
00:40:34,550 --> 00:40:36,829
into the infinite, eternal intellect of God.

898
00:40:36,969 --> 00:40:39,250
You don't wait to die to enter eternity. You

899
00:40:39,250 --> 00:40:41,690
participate in eternity right now, during this

900
00:40:41,690 --> 00:40:44,329
biological life, through the act of pure, rational

901
00:40:44,329 --> 00:40:46,690
understanding. I see where you're going. But

902
00:40:46,690 --> 00:40:49,250
Spinoza's version of survival sounds incredibly

903
00:40:49,250 --> 00:40:53,090
abstract. For a normal person, facing the terrifying

904
00:40:53,090 --> 00:40:56,150
visceral reality of death is becoming a data

905
00:40:56,150 --> 00:40:58,409
point in the infinite intellect of the universe

906
00:40:58,409 --> 00:41:01,369
actually comforting. Or is it just cold comfort

907
00:41:01,369 --> 00:41:04,690
for a math nerd? It is absolute comfort, provided

908
00:41:04,690 --> 00:41:06,449
you have truly made the philosophical journey.

909
00:41:06,610 --> 00:41:09,190
Think about what Spinoza's system frees you from.

910
00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:12,019
The traditional religious view of death is often

911
00:41:12,019 --> 00:41:14,780
fraught with sheer terror. Yeah, hellfire. The

912
00:41:14,780 --> 00:41:16,880
fear of a judging deity, the threat of eternal

913
00:41:16,880 --> 00:41:19,460
damnation, the anxiety of weighing your sins.

914
00:41:19,980 --> 00:41:22,880
Spinoza completely eradicates that terror by

915
00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:24,820
recognizing that you are an integral, necessary

916
00:41:24,820 --> 00:41:27,380
expression of the infinite universe and that

917
00:41:27,380 --> 00:41:29,519
your rational mind shares in its eternal truth.

918
00:41:29,679 --> 00:41:32,099
You achieve profound tranquility. That's beautiful.

919
00:41:32,420 --> 00:41:35,059
The free man, Spinoza famously writes, thinks

920
00:41:35,059 --> 00:41:37,880
of nothing less than of death. His wisdom is

921
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:40,429
a meditation on life. It is a piece built on

922
00:41:40,429 --> 00:41:42,869
the hard bedrock of reality rather than the fragile

923
00:41:42,869 --> 00:41:45,289
scaffolding of hope and fear. Because hope and

924
00:41:45,289 --> 00:41:47,190
fear are just passions based on uncertainty,

925
00:41:47,510 --> 00:41:50,309
Spinoza eliminates the uncertainty. He uses the

926
00:41:50,309 --> 00:41:53,150
absolute rigidity of logic to build a fortress

927
00:41:53,150 --> 00:41:55,789
that protects the human mind from the storms

928
00:41:55,789 --> 00:41:58,510
of superstition, anxiety, and despair. What an

929
00:41:58,510 --> 00:42:00,550
unbelievable journey. I mean, we started with

930
00:42:00,550 --> 00:42:03,110
a young 23 -year -old merchant standing before

931
00:42:03,110 --> 00:42:05,730
his congregation, listening to himself be cursed

932
00:42:05,730 --> 00:42:08,630
and excommunicated. A man who simply nodded,

933
00:42:08,630 --> 00:42:10,909
walked away, and spent his short life grinding

934
00:42:10,909 --> 00:42:14,530
lenses in a rented room. Yet out of that exile,

935
00:42:14,769 --> 00:42:17,849
he engineered a philosophical system that redefined

936
00:42:17,849 --> 00:42:21,409
God as the infinite. of nature, mapped human

937
00:42:21,409 --> 00:42:24,389
emotion with the precision of geometry, and offered

938
00:42:24,389 --> 00:42:27,530
humanity a path to true salvation, not through

939
00:42:27,530 --> 00:42:30,469
blind obedience, but through the pure, uncompromising

940
00:42:30,469 --> 00:42:33,409
power of understanding. He is undeniably one

941
00:42:33,409 --> 00:42:35,329
of the most intellectually courageous figures

942
00:42:35,329 --> 00:42:37,949
in human history. He refused to compromise the

943
00:42:37,949 --> 00:42:40,150
truth as he saw it, no matter the personal cost.

944
00:42:40,409 --> 00:42:42,530
So if you are listening to this on your commute

945
00:42:42,530 --> 00:42:44,150
or while you're working and you find yourself

946
00:42:44,150 --> 00:42:46,510
feeling completely overwhelmed by the chaos of

947
00:42:46,510 --> 00:42:48,289
the news, the unpredictability of the people

948
00:42:48,289 --> 00:42:51,070
around you, or the wild swings of your own anxiety,

949
00:42:51,389 --> 00:42:53,929
remember Spinoza's toolkit. It is available to

950
00:42:53,929 --> 00:42:56,730
you right now. It absolutely is. Step back from

951
00:42:56,730 --> 00:42:59,610
the immediate passion. Look for the chain of

952
00:42:59,610 --> 00:43:02,769
causes. See the mathematical necessity in the

953
00:43:02,769 --> 00:43:05,030
event. Understand that it could not have been

954
00:43:05,030 --> 00:43:07,489
otherwise. And find your freedom in the eternal

955
00:43:07,489 --> 00:43:09,610
necessity of it all. The armored dreadnought

956
00:43:09,610 --> 00:43:12,550
isn't an enemy vessel. It is a rescue ship. I

957
00:43:12,550 --> 00:43:14,849
absolutely love that. Let's leave you with one

958
00:43:14,849 --> 00:43:16,869
final thought to mull over as you go about your

959
00:43:16,869 --> 00:43:19,429
day. At the very end of this massive, dense,

960
00:43:19,550 --> 00:43:22,650
purely logical book, Spinoza drops his geometric

961
00:43:22,650 --> 00:43:26,400
guard just for a brief moment. He does? He acknowledges

962
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:29,519
how exhausting this path of rationality is, and

963
00:43:29,519 --> 00:43:31,920
he writes these haunting beautiful final lines.

964
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:34,400
If the way I have shown to lead to these things

965
00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:38,219
now seems very hard, still it can be found. And

966
00:43:38,219 --> 00:43:40,440
of course what is found so rarely must be hard.

967
00:43:40,559 --> 00:43:43,059
For if salvation were at hand and could be found

968
00:43:43,059 --> 00:43:44,980
without great effort, how can nearly everyone

969
00:43:44,980 --> 00:43:48,360
neglect it? But all things excellent are as difficult

970
00:43:48,360 --> 00:43:51,139
as they are rare. There is no bitter summary

971
00:43:51,139 --> 00:43:53,960
of the pursuit of wisdom. Turns out the uncompromising

972
00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:56,139
x -ray machine of Spinoza's mind might have been

973
00:43:56,139 --> 00:43:59,860
cold and precise, but it reveals the true, indestructible

974
00:43:59,860 --> 00:44:02,239
structure of our happiness. Thanks for taking

975
00:44:02,239 --> 00:44:03,119
this deep dive with us.