Ep. 24: Spinoza on God & Metaphysics

Product Description

Discussing Baruch Spinoza’s Ethics (1677), books 1 and 2 on God and metaphysics.

This first discussion (we cover the rest of the book in episode 25) focuses on Spinoza’s weird, immanent, non-personal conception of God: God is everything, therefore the world is God as apprehended through some particular attributes, namely insofar as one of his aspects is infinite space (extension, i.e. matter) and insofar as one of his aspects is mind (our minds being chunks or “modes” of the big God mind).

Other readings brought up during the discussion include Spinoza’s Short Treatise on God, Man & His Wellbeing, Karen Armstrong’s The Case for God, Matthew Stewart’s The Courtier and the Heretic, and Gilles Deleuze’s Spinoza: Practical Philosophy. Mark also refers to a dumbed down presentation of the Ethics: The Ethics Of Spinoza: The Road to Inner Freedom.

Read more about it and listen to an episode preview. You can also purchase this episode through the iTunes store. Read more about our vintage episodes.

Running Time: 1 hr., 38 min. Recorded: August 2, 2010. Participants: Mark, Wes, Seth.

As a bonus, your purchase includes a high-bitrate mp3 of the song that concludes the episode, “Spiritual Insect” recorded for the 2000 Mark Lint and the Fake album, So Whaddaya Think?