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Episode 166: Spinoza on Politics and Religion (Part Two)

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Concluding on the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670) and Tractatus Politicus (1677).

What’s the relationship between ethics, reason, and revelation? What could “faith” possibly mean to a hard-core rationalist like Spinoza? Is it possible to buy into the non-denominational “true religion” without believing any of the dogmas of traditional religion at all? And what kinds of limits on free speech is Spinoza committed to?

Continued from part one, or get the ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!

End song: “Shittalkers” by Ken Stringfellow, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music ep. 39.

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Episode 166: Spinoza on Politics and Religion (Part One)

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On Benedict de Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670), ch. 12–20 and the Tractatus Politicus (1677).

What’s the relationship between ethics and political power? Given that religious factions tend to create strife, what’s the optimal role of the government in mitigating that damage? Is theocracy in any way a good idea?

Don’t wait for the rest of the discussion! Get the ad-free, unbroken Citizen Edition right now.

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Episode 166: Spinoza on Politics and Religion (Citizen Edition)

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On Benedict de Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670), ch. 12–20 and the Tractatus Politicus (1677).

What’s the relationship between ethics and political power? Given that religious factions tend to create strife, what’s the optimal role of the government in mitigating that damage? Is theocracy in any way a good idea?

End song: “Shittalkers” by Ken Stringfellow, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music ep. 39.

Episode 165: Spinoza on Biblical Criticism (Part Two)

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Continuing on the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670), ch. 1–11. We go more into natural laws vs. ordinances; does it make sense to say that God makes rules for people? Also, how does Spinoza deal with alleged miracles given that natural laws are absolute regularities?

Continued from part 1, or get the ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!

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Episode 165: Spinoza on Biblical Criticism (Part One)

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On Benedict de Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670), ch. 1–11.

For Spinoza, the Bible was a political issue, and he was interested in a way to read it that didn’t lead to people fighting wars and persecuting each other. Spinoza argues that a respectful reading is one that looks for the central message and doesn’t paper over many places where the text was tailored to its original audience’s prejudices, or where for historical reasons we can’t now really know what it meant to them.

Episode 165: Spinoza on Biblical Criticism (Citizen Edition)

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On Benedict de Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (1670), ch. 1–11.

For Spinoza, the Bible was a political issue, and he was interested in a way to read it that didn’t lead to people fighting wars and persecuting each other. Spinoza argues that a respectful reading is one that looks for the central message and doesn’t paper over many places where the text was tailored to its original audience’s prejudices, or where for historical reasons we can’t now really know what it meant to them.

End song: “Spinoza’s Dream” (2016) by Dave Nachmanoff, as discussed on Nakedly Examined Music ep. 20.

REISSUE-Ep. 24: Spinoza on God and Metaphysics

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Discussing Spinoza’s Ethics (1677), books 1 and 2. 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). A 2010 discussion with a new intro by Dylan and Mark.

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Spinoza Stock on the Rise!

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“Investors take note: this Dutch rationalist is a hot stock.” Thanks for Michael Benedikt for informing me of this article, which says a few words about how Spinoza (a favorite of Schleiermacher, don’t you know) fits into today’s landscape of ideas. -Mark Linsenmayer

Philippe Goldin on Emotions

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Here’s a talk from 2008 by Phiippe Goldin (now at Stanford) about the neuroscience of emotions, aimed at non-scientists, specifically Google employees: Watch on youtube. We’ve not talked a lot about on the podcast so far about the differences in approach between current psychology and philosophy. In this lecture, we get references to specific studies of external behavior, of discussion Continue Reading …

Spinoza Roundtable

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Haven’t had enough Spinoza? Watch a panel of Spinoza scholars weigh in via a two-hour Philoctetes Center roundtable. The video is configured so that I can’t embed it here; check it out on youtube here: http://youtu.be/v29FVZ0rry8 The discussion is rambling and badly needs editing. The panelists all monologuize (worse than we do on the podcast) and (particularly near the beginning Continue Reading …

“The Universe is in Us:” Science and Religious Awe

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To present another perspective on the “we are one with the universe” trope, here’s astrophysicist and science popularizer Neil Tyson, who is not a “reverend” so far as I can tell. Watch on youtube: http://youtu.be/XLvh64sMrWY According to Tyson, because of the Big Bang and the consequent commonalities among all matter, we and the rest of the universe are all from Continue Reading …

Spinoza and Leibniz: Anthony Quinton and Bryan Magee

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We talked a bit on Ep 24 about Spinoza’s relationship to Leibniz, and here’s the first of a series of videos that gives more detail on that relationship: To watch this on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmbGbo-oyKc McGee’s introduction for the first three minutes or so just repeats biographical information we gave on the podcast. Quinton focuses on the metaphysics of the two Continue Reading …

Episode 24: Spinoza on God and Metaphysics (Citizens Only)

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Discussing Spinoza’s Ethics (1677), books 1 and 2. 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).

End song: “Spiritual Insect,” by Mark Lint and the Fake from So Whaddaya Think? (2000).

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

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