| Question Home |
Position:Home>Philosophy> For philosophers?Question: For philosophers!? When I studied philosophy I learned that Spinoza was the father of modern ethics!. What makes his ethics so different from that of Aristotle!?
Personally I find Aristotle turgid!. I have heard that people who can easily understand Aristotle have trouble understanding Plato and vice versa!. Plato is easy for me, so hopefully I'm not a dummy!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Spinoza believed that every soul tends naturally to pursue pleasure and he defined various emotions accordingly!. In particular, love is pleasure accompanied by an idea of its external cause!. Such pleasure has a poor foundation if the object of our love, the external cause, can let us down!. But of course, if the object of our love is God, or nurturing Nature as a whole, that cause of our love can never let us down!. Thus, the most rational life is that spent in contemplation of God so understood!. That is the heart of Spinoza's pantheistic ethics!. It is very different from Aristotle, for a variety of reasons!. Aristotle's God is a rather distant one, the "first mover" or "unmoved mover," rather than the intimate God of Spinoza, the one true substance!. I don't believe that Aristotle ever spoke of humans loving God, much less would he have made that the foundation of a system of ethics!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I studied Spinoza in a Modern Jewish thought class and heard he was an agnostic Jew and a real secularist!. Hence, he was sadly ex-communicated at one point from the community!. But in those times, this was a common phenomenon!. Some people, for example, were executed for turning against Christianity during the middle ages!. My guess is Spinoza was more rebellious in his approach to finding reason!. He was resisting the idea of religious coercion!. Where as the Ancient Greek philosophers came across less resistance to their teachings!. In fact, Aristotle was well praised!. This was not the case with Spinoza at all!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Spinoza was brilliant, but his ideas were far evolved beyond those of Aristotle, because a lot can happen in terms of discovery in a couple thousand years!. That's like comparing a catapult to a cannon, in my opinion!. Personally, I understand both Plato and Aristotle, and I prefer Aristotle!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |