Baruch de Spinoza Part Four: Ethics Part II, The Mind, Emotions, and Ethics

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It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong - Voltaire

The fourth episode of our four-part series on Baruch de Spinoza picks up where we left off with the last episode, and finishes our examination of his Ethics. Specifically, this episode focuses on parts two through five.

After understanding how Spinoza viewed God in our last episode, we then look at how he viewed the individual within the universe, or substance. We picked up our prior discussions of the monism v. dualism, or mind-body problem, as look further into Spinoza's claims of parallelism of mind and body. We consider how Spinoza argues for freedom, given his deterministic position, and how that differs from those who came before and after him, and point out the similarities and differences where appropriate.

Then we discuss Spinoza's view on emotions, and how it plays a central role in understanding individual freedom and that knowledge and control can allow for greater freedom, even in a deterministic world. From here, we will begin looking at the Stoics and their useful philosophy that will complement our discussion of Spinoza, who was strongly influenced by Stoicism, bridge the gap from prior episodes, and lay the foundation for future discussions.

Always feel free to let us know what you think, or if you have any episode requests. We would love to hear from you in the comments or on Twitter! Thank you for listening and as always we’ll see you next time as we search for truth on the road that never ends!