Spinoza’s Ethics
Imagine
that there is a God. Not a religious God, but just a thing, a power, called
God – it is in nature and is absolutely infinite, that is – it has no beginning
or end and causes itself. This is a key concept. It is the only such
thing in the universe and can only be so, as it causes itself and for anything
else to do so, would mean that it wouldn’t be by itself in the cosmos. You get
the idea.
This
‘God’ must exist. As a result, if it must exist and self-causes itself,
it must have some life-force. It cannot negate itself: it must thus produce
something to carry on living, says Spinoza: he calls these 'somethings' modes.
This is a very versatile term: they can be thoughts, imaginings, memories or anything
at all physical – not just human bodies, but animals, carrier bags, cars,
trees, the molecules and atoms that we breathe and come into a contact with on
a daily basis. Think of a mode like this: the cricket ball smashing the window,
the person tripping over the ball that was just kicked. Each of these, the
cricket ball, the window, the person are modes. These are produced endlessly, constantly. These are an
abundance of richness.
As each
of these is produced by God, which has a certain power as its life-force: the
power to exist and thus produce, each of these modes too, has a little bit of
God’s power in them. While they cannot, as God does, create themselves, they do
have a bit of life-force within them: the power to keep living at all costs. This
makes sense to us with humans: we snatch a hand away from intense heat, but
what about a table? Spinoza would say that its property of staying upright and
not breaking would consist as its life-force.
God has
this life-force and constantly has to pump these modes out into
existence, for that is what its essence and self-cause is: the force of needing
to do whatever is needed to carry on existing. God cannot negate itself – it must
keep on existing: by production of modes. As a result, we should see God as
a power.
What
sort of power? ‘One that creates all events and all things’, says Spinoza
rather simplistically. The things, we understand: modes. But events?
Each little event – the bag floating up into the air (caused by the movement of
air), or the cricket ball smashing the window? Really, this is caused by
God? Ultimately, yes; except to us, we don’t picture it as that; rather we
see it as the cricket ball that was thrown by the child, smashing the window.
In one way, that is of course true: the cricket ball did smash the
window; modes can still interact with one another – but God is, in Spinoza’s
eyes, the cause of events, as he produced the modes.
At this
point, then: What have we got? Let’s take stock. The following points should be
able to be seen:
An infinite (never ending, never
beginning), self-caused and producing being that must necessarily do this to
exist: ‘God’. It is non-religious. It produces a huge abundance of modes.
Modes – thoughts, memories, imaginings;
physical things – atoms, molecules, trees, animals, human beings, carrier bags,
cars, sugar, wood – you name it. These are produced by God and have a little
bit of desire to do what they can to survive within them.
At this
point, a couple of points should be made: if this has been set out well, it
should be clear by now that, while we traditionally think that life events
revolve around one another: the child cries and the mother sees this and picks
it up and makes it happy again; what actually occurs is that each of these
events is determined by God.
As a
result, choice does not exist. Everything is determined by God, through God: he
is the mover and shaker of the universe – he is within everything. Even though
modes (the child and mother, for example) can still interact, ultimately all
this is decided by God. We are, contrary to our beliefs not the most
intelligent things on Earth: we are just another mode, fighting for survival
like everything else (or so says Spinoza in part 1 of his Ethics, but will
he maintain this deterministic world view in later parts? - Ed).
The
traditional hierarchies of the Church, and indeed life, are now abandoned.
There is no more supreme being: he is in all of us, in all things. Equality,
should, according to Spinoza, now exist.
By Joe
Sturdy
