Spinoza

by Stuart Hampshire

SPINOZA, STUART HAMPSHIRE, 1965 EDITION.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Religion

237 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 1952

Reviews

[Frank Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy reading books that were created at about the same time I was. This one gives a good picture of what Spinoza was trying to say. The Ravven ethics book http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17... got me thinking about Spinoza. I also re-read the Goldstein Spinoza book http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12... What do you get out of all of this? Some ammunition, I guess, for trying to make sense out of the decisions that people have been making since the 1600s. In Hampshire's book there is some comparison of Spinoza and Freud. A couple of quotes (around pg 142 of the Pelican Original) "...both Spinoza and Freud represent moral problems as essentially clinical problems." and "...their common central conception of the libido or conatus, [both terms italicized] the natural drive for self-preservation and the extension of power and energy, as being the clue to the understanding of all forms of personal life." Spinoza only lived to be 44 years old.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing introduction to the work of Baruch Spinoza. Despite its age, Hampshire's work remains relevant to interested readers. Worth the read!

[Noah Vass · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastically written book on Spinoza. He’s a Dutch-Portuguese philosopher who has always existed in my head as the guy who said God is Nature. In fact, Spizzle was a metaphysicist who rigorously supported and defended his claims based on clearly defined propositions and logic. Now, his idea that God is just the only absolute thing begins to feel irrefutable the more your mind plays with the idea.

Everything is governed by cause and effect and so there must be something that started the chain reaction. This absolute being (not an old bloke with a big white beard or a blue skinned diety with many arms or hellfire and brimstone) is God. And every attempt at anthromorphising the absolute is a projection of human whims and folly. Can’t help but agree with this.

Also loved how he concludes the book. Hampshire provides some of the counter-arguments that were to follow in the 18th century as Empiricist philosophy began to catch on but makes a sound argument for the importance of Metaphysical philosophy when it comes to the unanswerable questions: “Why do we exist?”, “Can we represent free will as a deterministic and scientific process?” and so on and so forth.

It’s of course also intellectual wank. But any book that forces me to reflect on my nature in regard to the universe like I’m a 17 year old getting high for the first time is a fantastic book. Hoping I can find more beautifully digestible tomes on philosophy in the near future.

[Markku · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being a bit old, very good and insightful introduction to Spinoza's philosophy.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you need a primer on Spinoza's philosophy for any reason, this is quality work.

[Jamie]

paused: want to be smart enough for this but not yet

[Caomhghain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really solid and clear introduction to Spinoza, as well as being sympathetic.

[A. B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, lively introduction to Spinoza. Spinoza is one of the few great philosophers in the tradition who might genuinely be said to be loveable. A favourite.

[Hans Ostrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on Spinoza's philosophy. It holds up very well.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spinoza is one of my favourite philosophers. I studied Philosophy to A Level, and he was the one who I always found hardest to come up with counter-arguments for. He was also the pioneer of Pantheism, which gives me an even greater reason to love his philosophy.

Stuart Hampshire's book on Spinoza looks at several different aspects of his views - metaphysics, knowledge, morality and politics. The book is not an easy read (as with all books of this genre, I fund myself reading some parts twice or more in order to grasp their concepts) but, if read carefully, the information is easily understood. Hampshire is particular good at providing counter-arguments to Spinoza (he references Descartes and Kant, among others) and this actually makes it easier to process. Interestingly, he parallels Spinoza with Freud - I'd never thought of this before, but they actually have similarities!

The whole idea of Spinoza's philosophy is that he believes that Nature and God are one and the same; the universe is a causal system of which there is nothing else. In Spinoza's words:

“If God is distinguished from Nature, which he creates, then God cannot be infinite and all-powerful, because there exists something other than, or distinguishable from God, which limits God’s power and perfection; on this assumption God cannot be infinite or perfect, because ex hypothesi Nature, being distinguished from God, must possess some attributes which God does not possess.”

This is his basis for thought, and it resonates throughout the book. As a concept I love it, and so I personally found it fascinating to see how this belief shapes other concepts around us. I have a strong sense of Pantheism within me, although sometimes it has left me perplexed as to how certain aspects of Nature and our world work; reading this cleared up some of those issues and made me see everything in a different, and better, way.

As an avid Spinoza fan, I obviously really enjoyed this book. Perhaps it wouldn't be the same for others; if you have no similarity of thought with Spinoza then I can imagine this would be quite a hard read. However, I think it is a book that everyone should read - not only does it show Spinoza's and Pantheism's line of thought, but it also (unintentionally I think) gives a brilliant message as to how we could improve our own lives and world around us by looking at our universe, our intellect and our morality in different ways.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I became interested in the 17th-century Dutch Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza because I thought I saw a similarity with the philosophy and religion of the Far East, especially Zen Buddhism. Since I heard that reading the Ethics raw was a difficult undertaking for a non-philosopher, I decided to try this elucidation which is now over 60 years old but still seems to be the best known introduction to Spinoza's philosophy and metaphysics. I was glad I did because I loved it. It's still not that easy, perhaps, but with careful reading it was clear enough, and does have a lot in common with Zen as far as I understand them both.

The last chapter deals with political theory and criticism of Spinoza's metaphysics, and is more dated simply because of the historical and scientific developments that have happened since it was written in 1952, but I'd still highly recommend this to anyone interested in Spinoza.

[David]

A careful portrait of a pretty remarkable thinker. That said, philosophy has never managed to capture my fancy, and whereas I find economics similarly difficult but deeply alluring, reading philosophical texts has never been all that enjoyable for me.