Spinoza: An Early Proponent Of Spiritual-Romantic (Pantheist) Philosophy

An important early precursor to the German and English Romantic movement in the late 1700s was Baruch Spinoza.

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Western Philosophy
17th century philosophy

Benedictus de Spinoza
Name
de Spinoza

Birth
November 24, 1632 (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Death
February 21, 1677 (The Hague, Netherlands)

School/tradition
Rationalism, founder of Spinozism

Main interests
Ethics, Epistemology, Metaphysics

Notable ideas
Pantheism, Deism, neutral monism, intellectual and religious freedom / separation of church and state, Criticism of Mosaic authorship of certain books of the Hebrew Bible, Political society derived from power, not contract

Influences
Hobbes, Descartes, Stoics, Avicenna, Maimonides, Nicholas of Cusa, Aristotle, Bacon, Plato

Influenced
Kant, Hegel, Davidson, Schopenhauer, Deleuze, Einstein, Leibniz, Goethe, Nietzsche, Althusser, Hardt, Negri, Fromm, Santayana, Schelling

Baruch de Spinoza (Hebrew: ברוך שפינוזה‎, Portuguese: Bento de Espinosa, Basque: Benedict de Spinoza, Latin: Benedictus de Spinoza) (November 24, 1632 – February 21, 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death. Today, he is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism. By virtue of his magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, Spinoza is also considered one of Western philosophy's definitive ethicists.

Spinoza lived quietly as a lens grinder, turning down rewards and honours throughout his life, including prestigious teaching positions, and gave his family inheritance to his sister. Spinoza's moral character and philosophical accomplishments prompted twentieth-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him "The absolute philosopher" (Deleuze, 1990). Spinoza died in February 1677 of a lung illness, perhaps tuberculosis, or silicosis caused by fine glass dust inhaled while tending to his trade.

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One of the paradoxes of Spinoza's philosophy is that while he is generally viewed as one of the great 'rationalists' in Western philosophy -- and often very, very difficult to understand in his more abstract, logical moments -- he is also much more than a rationalist and is generally viewed as one of the most important precursors and influences on the birth of German and English Romanticism in the middle 1700s. What he did was try to -- successfully for some, not for others -- integrate God, Nature, and Man all into one wholistic, integrative package. God is in everything and everyone -- was his principle. God is in every element of Nature and in each and every man, woman, and child. Indeed, God is in everything -- which is a significantly different perspective and viewpoint than the normal religious belief that 'God is above everything and created everything.'

In Spinoza's spiritual and pantheistic philosophy -- God, Nature, and Man are all wholistically connected in the same package. God is 'All of Creation' rather than the Creator. This idea became very attractive to later day romantic philosophers who very much liked the idea of integrating God, Man, and Nature together. Man needed to embrace Nature and become an integral part of it; not try to conquer and overpower it which was more of the preceding 'Enlightenment' perspective.

This 'pantheistic-wholistic-God-is-all-of-Creation' idea became the starting point of German and English Romanticism.

Much of what is summarized below can be found in greater detail in the book, 'Introducing Romanticism' by Duncan Heath and Judy Boreham (published in 2000 in The United States by Totem Books).

Heath pinpoints the start of German Romantic Idealism with Kant's 'Critique of Judgement' (1790). This was Kant's follow up to his philosophical masterpiece, 'The Critique of Pure Reason' (1781,1787) which along with Hegel's 'The Phenomenology of Spirit-Mind' (1807) can be regarded as two of the most important works in the history of Western Philosophy.

In 'The Critique of Judgement', Kant writes about the 'dynamic sublime' (the overwhelming force of natural powers) and this, in combination with Spinoza's earlier idea of 'pantheistic divine wholism between Man, God, and Nature' can be viewed as the two main driving engines behnind German Romantic Idealism.

From these 'romantic' ideas about nature, came the charge of the German Romantic Movement and the separate but integrative creative German forces of Herder (1744-1803), Goethe (1749-1832), and Klinger (1752-1831).

Herder advocated the idea of 'organic history' which was a different perspective than the Enlightenment concept of 'linear history'. The idea of linear history advocates the idea of history evolving in a nice, neat, orderly, reasonable fashion towards greater and greater perfection.

In contrast, the idea of 'organic history' advocates the idea of history proceeding in a more organic format of 'birth', 'growth', 'decay', and 'death'. This was one of the areas of conceptual departure between Enlightenment philosophy and Romantic Philosophy -- the former emphasizing science and reason, the latter stepping outside the realm of science and reason and into the realm of the 'natural sublime and uncontrollable forces of nature'.

With science and reason, everything is predictable -- or at least ideally so; whereas with 'the natural sublime' nothing is predictable, unpredictable natural forces often reign supreme over man's science and reason, and even more than this, science and reason does not offer the 'be all and end all' of living -- and particularly living with a type of romantic and natural passion that steps beyond the boundaries of all that is offered by science and reason.

In romantic philosophy, 'cold, hard, scientific logic and reason' is not viewed as the full embodiment of what it means to live a passionate, vibrant, creative, intuitive and inspirational life.

In the view of Romantic Idealism, there is much, much more to ideal human living than all that Enlightenment Philosophy has to say to us with its emphasis on science, reason, logic -- and even human rights.

Romantic, natural, human emotion, passion, excitement, and an integration with both God and Nature, as well as mind, spirit, and body all play an important -- indeed, imperative -- part of what it means to be human, and to live life 'humanisticly', meaning both 'reasonably' and 'romanticly'.

-- dgb, April 12th, 2008, modified May 2nd, 2008.