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Chapter 23 Representative Works on Materialism and Dialectics

Chapter 22 Representative works of materialism and dialectics: "Ethics"

Among the vast philosophical works of human beings, there is a philosopher whose works are very special. When you are reading his philosophical works,
You seem to be reading a mathematical work, because in his work, the method of mathematical reasoning is used to discuss philosophical problems
, which is the work of Spinoza.The most famous of these is Ethics.Spinoza is an outstanding 17th century Dutch

Atheist and great materialist philosopher.

Faith is firm and adversity is a book

Benedict Spinoza was born in Amsterdam in 1632 into a merchant family.In his youth, because of his

Too many doctrines created great suspicion and openly proclaimed atheistic views among some.finally

He was permanently excommunicated in 1656.

From then on, his life was extremely poor, and he made a living by grinding optical lenses.The seventeenth-century Netherlands where Spinoza lived has
developed into a typical capitalist country.Due to the establishment of the bourgeois regime and the development of the capitalist economy, the Netherlands
At that time, it was also a country with relatively free academic thought and religious belief in Europe. Many famous thinkers and scientists such as Newton and Locke

, Descartes, etc. have taken refuge and studied here, so the scientific and cultural undertakings of the Netherlands have also developed rapidly, all of which are materialistic.

The development of doctrine and atheism has created a good social environment.Spinoza's firm belief in materialism and atheism throughout his life

Faith, never bow to the church or the powerful.The philosopher with firm faith and noble personality finally died in 1677 due to poverty and illness

, was only 45 years old when he died.Spinoza's main works are: "Theological Politics", "On the Improvement of Intellect", "Ethics"

wait.Among them, "Ethics" is one of his most important works. The biggest feature of "Ethics" in form is that it imitates several
He Xue's style uses definitions, axioms, theorems, and deductive arguments to prove philosophical propositions.

Anti-Religious Theory Builds Substance Theory

The Ethics is divided into five parts: On God, On the Nature and Origin of Mind, On the Origin and Nature of Passions, On Man's Slavery or

Emotional power, intellectual power, or human freedom.

Spinoza's philosophical system is composed of these five parts.The first part of the book discusses his theory of substance, clarifying that in
In this world,
There is nothing but self-dependent entities and their distinctions.The second part discusses his rationalistic epistemology, elucidating

It explains the origin of ideas, and shows that human reason can understand nature.The third part deals with the nature of human emotion and will
and origin, clarifying that people's passive emotions are caused by incorrect and confused concepts.The fourth part deals with the moral

The foundation, the standard of good and evil, clarifies the slavery of human beings under the domination of blind emotions and the morality in line with human nature under the guidance of reason.

moral life.The fifth part discusses the way of moral cultivation, and clarifies that the active mind can be consistent with the whole nature, so as to obtain
be free.Spinoza believes that the purpose of philosophy is to make people achieve the greatest happiness and joy, while ethics is to achieve the greatest happiness for people.

Point out the specific correct way.It is also the purpose of this book.

In this work, Spinoza first overturned the theory of personality in religion, and he clearly stated that God has nothing

In particular, it is nature.

Spinoza further pointed out in "Ethics" that to separate the Creator from the creation, God from nature, will also fall into the
Others are contradictory.

Spinoza proposed the concept of "substance" against the supernatural god, and the concept of substance became his philosophical system.
The most basic and core category in the world, and thus formed his rich entity theory.He believes that the world is apart from entities and their shapes

There is nothing else besides the formula.So what exactly is an entity?Substance is material nature.his definition of entity
is that which is known in and through itself.

By this definition, a substance is its own cause, i.e., its own cause, it is not created by anything other than itself, its whole
Attributes and manifestations can be explained in their own nature, and no other explanation is needed outside of it.visible,
The definition of substance can only be unified nature.Spinoza regards objectively existing matter and nature as the only reality
Substances are considered to be self-determining, and nature itself is the cause of its own existence; the interrelationship of all things in nature
Action is the real ultimate cause of things.

Specifically, the relationship between entities and everything in the world can be understood from the following aspects.First, the entity is the origin of all things

,Ten thousand
Objects are concrete manifestations of entities.All concrete existences are special states of the same entity, and are all derived from the entity

of.

Second, Substance is the cause of all things, the source of their regularity.The nature of entities has laws

and necessity, which is the source of law and necessity of all things.Substances, by their very nature, include both extended
Nature, including thinking attributes and other attributes, the entity is the unity of these fundamental attributes.

In the course of discussing substance, Spinoza proposes and analyzes the doctrine of attributes and modes.According to Spinoza, attributes are

That which constitutes the essence of a substance.That is to say, attributes are things that constitute the essence of entities, are things subordinate to entities, apart from

When the entity is opened, the attribute does not exist.Among the infinitely many attributes, there are two most fundamental attributes, namely, the attribute of thinking and the attribute of extension.
attribute.

Descartes regarded thought and extension as two separate entities, while Spino
Shakespeare attributed thought and extension to two attributes of the same entity or nature, thus adhering to materialist monism.he pointed out
: The substance of thought and the substance of extension are the one and the same substance, but now by this attribute, now by that

It's just a property to understand.

Regarding the point of view of style, Spinoza believes that style is the difference of substance.That is, a style refers to the concrete representation of an entity

state.He regards the relationship between substance and form as whole and part, cause and effect, essence and appearance, infinite and limited.

relation.The part cannot exist without the whole, the pattern cannot exist without the substance, everything exists in the substance, everything is
depends on entities.He also holds that substance is an object of the intellect, and form an object of the imagination (sensibility), as

Modes are finite, divisible, born and passed away; substances which are objects of the intellect are infinite, indivisible, neither born nor
extinct.But the infinite is embodied in the finite, the indivisible is embodied in the divisible, and the immutable is embodied in the mortal and destructible.

Spinoza made a profound criticism of theological teleology and at the same time expounded his thought of causal determinism.he first pointed out

The epistemological root of the teleological error lies in "the mind of oneself, the mind of measuring things".

Next, Spinoza states,

Finally, Spinoza points out.

After discussing the problem of substance, Spinoza discussed the problem of epistemology in detail.epistemological questions about entities, especially

Spinoza discussed in detail the relationship between mind and body, various ways of knowing, and the standard of truth.For the heart
In relation to the body, Spinoza believes that the relationship between the mind and the body is the same as the relationship between the idea and the object, the mind is the body

The concept that the body is the object of the mind, the mind cannot be separated from the body, the body cannot be separated from the mind, and man is the unity of mind and body
One.

Spinoza believed that people have the ability to know things.Because a certain state of the human body has a corresponding state in the mind.
corresponding concept.When the human body is stimulated by external objects to produce various states, there will be corresponding physical states in the human mind.

Various concepts of body and objective things.In short, the objects of knowledge are entities and their forms, that is, all real things.while human beings
Knowledge and the methods of acquiring knowledge are divided into the following three types: First, knowledge is opinion or imagination, which is a kind of knowledge obtained through direct experience and indirect

Perceptual knowledge from experience.Second, knowledge is reasoning knowledge, which is based on common concepts and correct ideas of things

Scientific knowledge acquired by making inferences.The third is "intuitive" knowledge, which starts directly from the concept of substance, the essence of nature
, and then achieve the essential understanding of things.Of these three kinds of knowledge, the only ones he considered reliable were inferential knowledge and "intuitive" knowledge.
knowledge.

Regarding the origin of correct ideas in people's minds, Spinoza believed that only what is common to all things

to be correctly recognized.Therefore, what is common and peculiar to the human body and to the external bodies which usually excite the human body, and

and that which exists equally in the part and in the whole, man may have correct ideas in his mind.A correct concept must be able to

The deduction from the existing correct concepts must be organically connected with the entire existing concept system, and can be combined with other concepts.
Think differently.This is the logical standard of truth.The so-called external sign of a concept is that a correct concept must be related to its
The conformity of the object is the de facto criterion of the truth or falsity of the idea.To have true ideas means nothing but the fullest, most
Know an object with certainty.A true idea must correspond to its object.Since truth is the conformity of ideas to objects, the test of truth

The standard can only be objective.So far, Spinoza's understanding of the standard of truth is relatively correct.but his

Rationalist tendencies prevented him from further developing his point of view. On the contrary, he accepted the subjective standard of truth and believed that the test

The criterion of truth lies in truth itself.

Spinoza also made some explanations about the relationship between human emotions and wills and human cognition. He especially put forward
The bewildering influence of emotions on human reason and cognition.First, Spinoza believed that the relationship between mind and body is simultaneous

The same relationship that takes place, not the causal relationship of determining and being determined.The body cannot determine the mind to make it think, neither can the mind
The body cannot be determined to move or remain still.The mind is only the concept of the body, not the function of the body, the mind and the body are inseparable

mutually determined.But the mind and the body are related, they are the same relationship.Spinoza criticizes the mind determines the body
erroneous view.He pointed out that some people claim that the actions of the body originate from the domination of the body by the mind, but they do not also

It is impossible to say in what way the mind sets the body in motion.Experience proves that there can be no thought of the mind without the movement of the body
.When the body is asleep, the mind cannot think as it can when awake.This is Spinoza's famous mind-body
oneness theory.On this basis, Spinoza further criticized the "theory of freedom of the will".

Dialectical materialism links the past and the future

Spinoza's "Ethics" is a collection of his philosophical thoughts throughout his life.The science of entities, properties, and patterns described in the book
It is said that it is a summary of the development of advanced materialist philosophy in Western Europe in the 17th century. It affirms that the only independent natural substance

Entity is an interconnected whole of various objects, and adheres to the materialist viewpoint of explaining the world from the world itself.

The book "Ethics" contains a lot of dialectical thought, especially dialectical propositions such as freedom is the understanding of inevitability.
He made an outstanding contribution to the development of dialectics.But on the whole, the book is still dominated by mechanism and metaphysics.
The point of view of science, such as seeing the entity as something static and undeveloped. The book Ethics also prominently states that
Rationalistic epistemological thought.It affirms that both the cognitive subject and the cognitive object are objectively existing substances, and puts forward the concept of mind-body identity.
On the internal and external standards of true ideas, trying to overcome Cartesian dualism, here we explain Spino
Shark's rationalism is materialistic in nature.

The philosophical thoughts expounded in Spinoza's "Ethics" have produced various influences in the history of modern European philosophy.Si
Pinoza's materialistic view of nature inspired French materialist thinkers and many German thinkers in the 18th century.

Under the influence of Nossa, the ideas of materialism and dialectics were decisively developed.Whether it is Leibniz in Germany or
Even French thinkers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Helvetia were all influenced by Spinoza.until the time of Hegel

, Spinoza's influence is still very large, for example, Hegel once clearly proposed that in order to study philosophy, one must first
Be a Spinozist first.

(End of this chapter)