THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV:
A History of European Civilization in the Period of Pascal, Moliere, Cromwell, Milton, Peter the Great, Newton and Spinoza 1648-1715 by Will and Ariel Durant
(Selected Excerpts)
This volume of 'The Story of Civilization' is part VIII in a history whose beginning has been forgotten…The scene is Europe; the theme is the Great Debate between faith and reason. Faith was on the throne in this period, but reason was finding new voices in Hobbes, Locke, Newton, and Spinoza. This classical age was…the Age of Reason.
The chef-d’-oeuvre of modern philosophy was Spinoza’s book, Ethics, 1677. It analyzed the bondage of man to desire, and his liberation through reason.
Spinoza proposed to study the emotions—love, hate, fear, anger, etc.—and the power of reason over them. Not to praise or denounce them but to understand them; for “the more an emotion becomes known to us, the more it is within our power, and the less the mind is passive to it”
An emotion becomes a passion when, through our confused and inadequate ideas of its origin and significance, its external cause dictates our feeling and response, as in hatred, anger, or fear. “The mind is more or less subject to passions according as it has more or less adequate ideas.” A man with poor power of perception and thought is especially subject to passion; such a man, however violent his action may be, is really passive—is swept along by an external stimulus instead of holding his hand and taking thought. Emotions are our motive force, and reason can only be a light and not a fire. An emotion can neither be hindered nor removed save by a contrary and stronger emotion.
“An emotion, which is a passion" (hate, anger, fear) "ceases to be passion as soon as we form a clear and distinct idea of it.” That is, an emotion aroused in us by external events can be reduced from passion to controlled feeling by letting our knowledge play upon it until its cause and nature become clear.
“The endeavor to understand is the first and only basis of virtue,” in Spinoza’s sense of the word, for it reduces our subjection to external factors, and increases our power; but the best and most useful form of that power is power over ourselves.
“"I determined at last to inquire whether there might be anything truly good, and by which the mind might be affected to the exclusion of all other things.” He felt that riches could not do this, nor fame (honor), nor the pleasures of the flesh (libido); turmoil and grief are too often mingled with these delights. “Only the love towards a thing eternal and infinite feeds the mind with pleasure…free from all pain.”
Recalling his three kinds of knowledge, Spinoza describes merely sensory knowledge as leaving us too open to domination by external influences; rational knowledge (reached by reasoning) as gradually freeing us from bondage to the passions by letting us see the impersonal and determined cause of events; and intuitive knowledge—direct awareness of the cosmic order—as making us feel ourselves part of that order and “one with God.”
This escape from thoughtless passion is the only true freedom; and he who achieves it can be free in any state.
“The greatest good is the knowledge of the union the mind has with the whole of nature…The more the mind understands the order of nature, the more easily it will be able to liberate itself from useless things.”
He who rightly knows that all things follow from the necessity of divine nature, and come to pass according to eternal, natural and regular laws, will find nothing at all that is worthy of hatred, laughter, or contempt, nor will he deplore anyone; but as far as human virtue can go, he will endeavor to act well…and rejoice.
“A strong man hates no one, is enraged with no one, envies no one, is indignant with no one, and is in no wise proud. He who lives under the guidance of reason endeavors as much as possible to repay hatred, rage, contempt, etc, with love and nobleness…He who wishes to avenge injuries by reciprocal hatred will live in misery. Hatred is increased by reciprocated hatred, and, on the contrary, can be demolished by love…Men under the guidance of reason…desire nothing for themselves which they do not also desire for the rest of mankind.”
…”the life of reason must be inspired and ennobled by the intellectual love of God." Since God, in Spinoza, is the basic reality and invariable law of the cosmos itself, this “intellectual love of God” is not the abject propitiation of some nebular sultan, but the wise and willing adjustment of our ideas and conduct to the nature of things and the order of the world. Reverence for the will of God and an understanding acceptance of the laws of nature are one and the same thing.
Since “love is pleasure accompanied by the idea of an external cause,“ the pleasure we derive from viewing, and adapting ourselves to, the cosmic order rises to the emotion of love toward the God who is the order and life of the whole. Then “love toward a being eternal and infinite fills the mind completely with joy.”
Since reason postulates nothing against nature, it postulates, therefore, that each man should love himself, and seek what is useful to him and desire whatever leads man truly to a greater state of perfection (completion), and finally that each one should endeavor to preserve his being as far as in him lies.
All our desires aim at pleasure or the avoidance of pain. “Pleasure is one’s transition from a lesser state of perfection (completion, fulfillment). Joy consists in this, that one’s power is increased." Any feeling that depresses our vitality is a weakness rather than a virtue. The healthy man will slough off the feelings of sadness, repentance, humility, and pity; however he will be readier than the weak man to render aid, for generosity is the superabundance of confident strength. Any pleasure is legitimate if it does not hinder a greater or more lasting pleasure.