Free Will
Spinoza tests the logical assumption of the possession of free will and arrives at the proposition that it is merely an projection of the mind of God. Limiting the concept of will to affirmation or denial rather than extending it to include desire, the metaphor directs itself toward the fundamental premise that all human thought is bound inextricably to the mind of God:
“Consequently intellect or will are related to this or that idea or to this or that volition in the same way as rockiness is related to that rock, or a human being is related to Peter or Paul.”
Truth and Other Ideas
The concept of a “true idea” is of supreme significance to Spinoza in his development of a philosophy of ethics. But one must be certain of what constitutes a true idea in order for this significance to penetrate.
“To have a true idea simply means to know a thing perfectly or optimally. Surely no one can have any doubts about this thing, unless he thinks that an idea is something mule like a picture on a canvas”
Benevolence
What is benevolence? Is it merely a desire to do goodwill toward another? Of course not, since philosophy does not consider things with such easy explanations. Spinoza proposes a definition of the concept of this sort of goodwill which penetrates much deeper, through metaphorical imagery, of course:
“This will or appetite of working good which arises from the fact that we pity the thing to which we wish to do good, is called benevolence, which is therefore nothing else than desire arisen from pity.”
Fiction vs. Feigning
What is the difference between telling a fiction and merely feigning it? When does playacting drifting into lying? Naturally, Spinoza takes up considerable space explicating this, but he does not engage a simile to make his point:
“Although I know that the earth is round, nothing prevents me from telling any one that it is a hemisphere, and that it is like half an apple molded on a salver, or that the sun moves round the earth, and such-like things.”
Some Things Never Change
Spinoza wrote many years before science came under attack to the detriment of an entire virus-plagued country. He wrote of the inevitability of the ignorant to withstand to truth which challenges their narrow minds. His writing is proof enough that some things never have and never will change too very much:
“And hence it comes about that those who wish to seek out the causes of miracles, and who wish to understand the things of nature as learned men, and not stare at them in amazement like fools, are soon deemed heretical and impious, and proclaimed such by those whom the mob adore as the interpreters of nature and the Gods.”
