SPINOZISTIC IDEAS 
Dedicated to Spinoza's Insights  

  
Preface

Love and Hate  -  Self-Interest 
Religion  -  One World  -  Conclusion 

 Spinozistic Contributions to Wikipedia 
Home  Page  -  Spinozistic Glossary and Index  -  Mark Twain and Spinoza 
Spinozistic Scriptural Interpretation - Graetz's Censure of Spinoza - Durant's Tribute 
Browser Notes—Use 800 x 600 resolution and medium size text for all pages.

 


For this URL re-formatted for eBook Reader conversion see here.
For this URL available for various eBook Readers see here. 

Preface 

I  stumbled upon  Spinoza  after I studied Calculus in college.  Spinoza's 
definitions  of  sorrow, boredom, joy;  hate, indifference, love, seemed to 
me to lend themselves to Calculus expression. The more I studied these 
equations  the more I realized how important they were in understanding        Dawkins:546
roller-coaster emotions and everyday relationships—you love not out of       Uzgalis - Hobbes
altruism  but  out  of  self-interest.  Now (2006) I have for some sixty-odd       Ridley's Altruism
years  studied  Spinoza  whenever  earning a living, having a family and 
friends permitted.  

As I kept studying Spinoza, I was really hooked when what happened to
me is what Elwes thought happened to Spinoza.  

From "Elwes's Introduction to his Translations of Spinoza's Works". 

This "unfolding itself" was to me an infinite "organic interdependence of 
parts" which led directly to the "Golden Rule";  not out of altruism but of      Uzgalis - Hobbes
enlightened self-interest.  

Now, after some sixty-odd years, I am still studying Spinoza and gaining
ever-new enlightening insights.  

For  excellent  introductions  to  Spinoza  see "Elwes's 1883 Introduction to  
his Translations of Spinoza's Works" and Dr. A Wolf's 1910 Introduction to
Translation of Spinoza's "Short Treatise on G-D, Man and his Well-Being".  

I show herein a list of Spinozistic Ideas on Love and Hate, Self-Interest, 
Religion, One World, and Conclusions. These ideas have been edited 
from the Glossary and Index, Ethics, TTP, TEI, and other Works, and
in many instances, have hypertext links thereto.  

I strongly recommend study of Graetz's 'Censure of Spinoza', Paragraphs
8, 9, and 10, for gaining an understanding of Spinoza's Ideas.  
 
The ideas that I express may not be explicit in Spinoza's Works, but are 
(in my opinion)  implicit  in  his  momentous  teachings.  The  definitions 
offered  are  really working hypotheses and stand in need of correction        Hypothesis
or discarding when a contradiction is found. In any event, partake of the 
ideas and definitions as you would a pomegranate;  relish the flesh and 
spit out the pits. 

  
Shirley's Bk.VII:2513—Idea. 


1. Love and Hate 

1.1.    The  definitions  as  given  in  the  dictionaries  are  the  everyday 
          language usage, and are generally synonyms or properties of the     Working Hypotheses
          word—not the nature thereof. Spinoza attempts to find the cause.            JBY Note 1  

1.2.  E3:Definition of the Emotions XX:Explanation:178—
              "But  my  purpose  is  to  explain,  not  the  meaning  of  words,       Parkinson:2601
               but  the  nature  {and cause}  of  things."  
 
1.3.   Definitions  which  define things by  their causes are hypotheses; 
         they all need be suspect, for they are only congealed hypotheses. 
         They  need  to  be  constantly  updated  as  knowledge  evolves.  

1.4.    An hypothesis is subject to error.   Care must be taken to follow 
          the scientific method—a method of research in which a problem 
          is  identified,  relevant  data  gathered, a hypothesis formulated, 
          and the hypothesis empirically tested.  

1.5.    An   hypothesis  is  an  unproved,  but  as  yet   uncontradicted 
         opinion.  The  truth  of  an hypothesis (or speculation) is in pro- 
         portion to its usefulness in increasing Perpetuation——Cash Value.      Pragmatism
 
1.6.   I:2.5c— 

1.7.    E3:VI:136—Perpetuation and Perfection are equivalent terms. 

1.8.   I:1.5a—  

        Biology of Emotions—ANS,  'Emotion' versus 'Feelings', LeDoux96:34, William James, Damasio, Being.   
1.9.   °EMOTION is a change in one's probability of Perpetuation.           Roller Coaster Ride
          Its intensity is proportional to the change.   5P17, Being.     Robinson3:15        Russell:238     


1.10.  °FAITH  is  belief  that  an  external object will cause a change in         Hampshire:139
          one's  °Perpetuation.  The intensity is proportional to the change.      Calculus Expression 


1.11.  E4:Prf.27:189—Good and Bad. 

1.12.  E3:IX(5):137—What is a Good?  

1.13.  A  man, when  rational  and  judging  correctly,  calls  a thing good 
          if it increases his °P—bad; otherwise.   

1.14.   When  a  little  fish  is eaten by a bigger fish, does not the little fish 
          "think"   that's   bad   and   does   not  the  bigger fish  "think"  that's 
          good (because each one seeks to preserve itself)?"  We say that is
          Nature;  if the food cycle stops, all life stops.  However, we are like 
          that little fish—or, like that big fish; abused or abuser.  
 

1.15.  When  Adam  and  Eve  started to think in terms of "good and bad",  
          i.e.  subjectively;  instead  of  "true and false",  i.e. objectively; they 
          self-thrust  themselves  from  the Garden  of  Eden, i.e.  they  were 
          subject to loss of °Peace of Mind.  

1.16.  One  of  the  main purposes of Spinoza's Ethics" is to teach        Dawkins2:Genes
          that  you  do not  LOVE  altruistically, but out of self-interest.          Love-Need
          If the LOVE be  rational it leads to an increase in °P for both            I-thee
          the lover and that loved; if not rational, a decrease.  


1.17.  A  sex  act  is sexually moral if the parties are able to provide for 
          the  possible  issue;  able,  both  financially and psychologically    Dawkins2:Genes
          within the standards of their society. The motive for the society's 
          standard  is  what  best  provides  for  the  issue,  thus  best 
          perpetuating  that  society—virtue.  


1.18.  Games  are  atavistic  play-acting  at  an  activity which in real life is 
          necessary for PERPETUATION. Examples—sports, boxing, gambling, 
          war-games,  fishing,  hunting, (some gunlovers  are sublimating their 
          aggressiveness).  Sexual  intercourse  without the desire for issue is 
          also a game.  

          Proof.– The more actual the NEED; the more pleasurable, the success;
          the more sorrowful, the failure—food when you are starving, sex when
          you want a child.  

1.19.  From 5P10n:252—Right Conduct.  

 
1.20.  In E2:Prop 48,  Spinoza  returns to his main problem, to show 
          that the will is not free, and with this also to deny the freedom          Mark Twain
          of the other faculties, such as understanding, desiring, loving, 
          etc., all of which, like will, are only modes of thought.   

            1.20a.  Man is a Computerized Machine; a robot caused by G-D.        Data Base

 End: Love and Hate.
 

 
2. Self-Interest           Stewart:178 

2.1.   Jungle  self-interest— Survival   is   proportional   to   your  power. 
         A strong tribe in a jungle is more likely to survive than a weak tribe.       E4:Damasio:170-1
         Survival  of  the  fittest;  there  are  no  laws—power  makes  right.          Robinson3:60

2.2.   Societal  (enlightened)  self-interest—Survival  is  proportional  to             Durant2:647 
         playing  by  the  rules  (reason,  keeping the beat in an orchestra).         Dawkins2:Genes
         Not  true  when living in a part-jungle society.  When a man steals  
         bread  and  milk  to  feed  his  children,  we  do  not condemn  him.  
               When a man is starving, it is as if he were living in a jungle; where
         there are no rules but one—survival, perpetuation. 

2.3.   To get and not give is selfishness  (extinction—in a body, the body       'I-thee' and 'I-It'
         soon  dies);  to  get  and  to  give  is  enlightenment (perpetuation);         Mark Twain
         to give and not get is altruism (extinction). Healthy self-interest is        Uzgalis - Hobbes
         perpetuation and virtue—you can't have one without the other.         Damasio—biological 

2.4.   Rabbi Hillel (1st Century BCE) taught  "If I am not for myself,  who will be; 
         if I am only for myself, what am I? {Nothing, like the lung without the heart.}        Analogy 

2.5.   Analogy:  Unless  it  is  ill,  will  the  heart  do  anything to harm the
         lungs?  On  the  contrary,  it  will  do  what  it  can  to enhance their
         performance.   Witness what harm whites have done to blacks—to
         the inevitable harm of whites when the slums riot against them.  

2.6.   From Uzgalis—Leviathan 

2.7.  Altruism never exists, except it be an act of illness. When you say        WikipediA
         "I love you",  it is a euphemism for  "I need you, and the more or       An unfaced glaring truth. 
         less I need you the more or less will love you."   When you say
         "I hate you"  you are saying  "I do not need you, you are not fulfill- 
         ing my needs." That is why there are marriages; that is why there 
         are  divorces.   If  the  love  be  healthy,  both  fulfill  each  others 
         legitimate  needs.  

2.8.   Self-interest—"you  have  to give  to get;  you  have  to get to give" 
         is  the  nature  of  organic  interdependence.  Altruism implies  that 
         a person is not always part of G-D and has, at that time, no duties        Commandments
         or obligations.   

2.9.   The  Hebrew  word  which  is  often  mis-translated  as  charity, 
         mercy,   pity,   etc.,   is   tsed-aw-kaw',  Strong:6666—rightness, 
         justice,   virtue,   piety.   The  root  of tsed-aw-kaw' is tsaw-dak', 
         Strong:6663—upright, just, straight, innocent, true, sincere; (the 
         same  root  as  for  righteousness).   Based  on  this  etymology, 
         it  is  what  one  lung  does  when  the  other  collapses;  it does  
        double-duty,  not  out  of  altruism,  but  for its very own survival. 
        In so doing,  it is,  if possible, leading the collapsed lung back to 
        health  and  thereby  increasing  the  lung-capacity  of the body. 
        It is the Golden Rule in working clothes; enlightened self-interest.  

 2.10.  The  Hebrew  word  which is often  mis-translated as pity (com- 
           passion,  love,  is  better)  is rakh'-am,  Strong:7355—to  fondle, 
           love, cherish, affection.  A related word is rekh'em, Strong:7358 
           —the womb (cherishing the fetus).  Based  on  this  etymology, 
           the  compassion,  forgiveness,  and  °LOVE  we  should feel for 
           each other  is  like  that  of  a  mother for the issue of her womb,       Dawkins2:Genes
           perhaps  varying  in  degree  but  not  in  kind;  it  is  in  no way 
           altruistic; but on the contrary, enlightened self-interest.  

2.11.  The   Hebrew   word   for  righteousness,  justice  is  tseh'-dek, 
          Strong:6664—righteous,  integrity,  equity, justice, straightness.
          The  root  of tseh'-dek  is tsaw-dak', Strong:6663—upright, just,
          straight,  innocent,  true,  sincere; (the same root as for charity).
          Based  on  this  etymology, righteousness is the Golden Rule in
          working clothes—enlightened self-interest.  It  is  what one lung 
          does  when  the other collapses; it takes over, for its very OWN 
          survival.  

2.12.  I believe society evolves as technological advancement and        Dawkins:192:Genes[4]
          trade tips the scale toward enlightened self-interest and away       
          from jungle self-interest. 

2.13. From Will Durant's "Story of Philosophy"; Washington Square Press; 18th Printing,     1965; Page 191.

End: Self-Interest.
 

 
3. Religion  

            Salvation                                                                                              posited
3.1.   Religion  is  a  self-serving,  ever-evolving hypothesis designed         Spinoza's Religion  
         to  find  °PEACE-OF-MIND,  i.e. by  faith,  and  when  fleetingly          Popkin:71
         found  it  is called  Bliss,  Blessedness,  Grace,  Salvation, etc.          Mark Twain
                                                                         derogatory
         This  definition  is  in  no  way  pejorative  of  religion.   On the          Dawkins:192:Genes[5]
         contrary,  it  is  the  highest  attainment  of  the  human  mind—          Psychology
         Intuition-Revelation-Insight-Hypothesizing.   

        By  not acknowledging the religious hypotheses of the countries in which they live, 
        Jews undermine those hypotheses and hence, the peace-of-mind of those holding
        them. Mark Twain's 'Little Story', Anti-Semitism.
                                                                                                                                                    Durant:636 
          Spinoza's hypothesis evolves the Judaeo-Christain-Islamic God into G-D/Nature.  
          The evolving concept of God results in the re-interpretation of Holidays,  
        
        The secret to understanding Spinoza is to accept
        (as a working hypothesis) "POSIT  1D6 = ONE" — Important.                         Speculation  
                                                     The Foundation Rock.                     &n