Spinoza on Happiness

     Baruch Spinoza was a 17th-century philosopher who became one of the great thinkers of the Enlightenment and the Dutch Golden Age. In his moral philosophies, we can find three primary elements to 'the good life,' or happiness. These three elements are the development of reason, love for 'God, or Nature,' and freedom. However, as we shall see, these three elements work in tandem and cannot be relied upon as singular paths to happiness. 

     The first element, the full development of reason, is something that Spinoza adopted, and agreed with, from Aristotle. In Nicomachean Ethics, "[t]he central questions that Aristotle raises are: What is the good that is unique to human beings? And how is it possible to achieve it?" (p.2) Though Spinoza diverged from Aristotle on many things, he does agree that we must examine these questions in order "to achieve happiness, and [that for humans] happiness lies in the full development of reason." (p.2) And, for Spinoza, the full development of reason will include an 'intellectual love of God, or Nature' and an understanding of human freedom.

     One of the most prominent ways that Spinoza diverges from Aristotle is that he does not believe that "happiness [is] the perfection of human nature." (p.2) Spinoza argued that "nothing in the universe is lacking in something it ought to possess...[and] nothing is more or less perfect. The ideas of perfect and imperfect come from our human minds, not out of Nature. The reason for this divergence comes from Spinoza's understanding of "Deus sive Nature, 'God, or Nature'." (p.5) (And here we should treat the 'or' as an equal sign.) For Spinoza, "God is identical with Nature, both as an infinite productive power that brings finite things into being (natura naturans), and as the realized system of finite things in their law-governed activities and relations with one another (natura naturata)." (p.6) Therefore, since all things are derived from, and get their power from, God, everything is what it supposed to be, perfect in itself. 

     This way of understanding God as Nature leads Spinoza to argue that gaining an understanding of Nature, "[the] intelligible nexus of laws or regularities in accordance with which events unfold," is the same as gaining an understanding of God. (p.5) This, in turn, can lead to an 'intellectual love of God, or Nature' that is "similar to what the religious call salvation." (p.6) "By cultivating such knowledge, we experience a 'continuos, supreme, and eternal joy,' the result of a love that finally discovers the only thing, infinite and eternal, genuinely capable of satisfying it." (p.6) How refreshing it must be to love Nature as the religious love their God. To see Nature as the beginning and end, as it truly is. 

     This leads us to the final element of Spinoza's philosophy of happiness, freedom. Though Spinoza argued that free will was an illusion produced in the human mind because we are unable to experience and understand "the complex causal sequences of which our actions are effects," he did think we could learn to free ourselves internally and reason through external forces to figure out our own true natures. (p.6) This was accomplished by an intellectual understanding of how we can be influenced by people, ideas, and the laws of Nature. In short, though we are not free from the same laws that govern all things, and we cannot always control outside disturbances to our minds, we could learn to free our minds and, with them, our unique selves. However, one must be unrestrained by society and guided by teachers who have freed their own minds, in order to accomplish this task. Therefore, Spinoza was "against tyranny in all of its forms." (p.7-8)

     Now we can clearly see how Spinoza's recipe for happiness must necessarily include all three elements. Without striving to understand 'God, or Nature,' one cannot truly understand the laws that govern all things, including ourselves. And, without striving to free one's inner self through an understanding of outside forces, one cannot gain full development of reason. All three elements are so intertwined that to negate one would negate the others, but, on the contrary, the development of one is the development of all.  

Works Cited:

http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Website/My%20Writings/50412775-Spinoza-on-the-Right-Way-to-Live.pdf

Quiz:

1. What are the 3 elements of Spinoza's idea of 'the good life'?

2. In what prominent way does Spinoza diverge from Aristotle?

3. How can the 'or' in 'God, or Nature' be thought of?

4. What does Spinoza think of free will?

5. How does Spinoza claim humans can have a free interior life?

Discussion Questions:

1. What do you think can be gained by thinking of God as Nature?

2. In what ways do you think a tyrannical society could hinder the development of a free mind?