PHILOS 14 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: East Los Angeles College, Nicolas Malebranche, Baruch Spinoza
Document Summary
Held that the world is not the separate creation of god. Instead it is a natural hole that is completely determined by eternal truths or laws that are knowable by reason. The philosophically informed moral agents task is not to obey god"s commands, but to understand the divine law of nature as the expression of eternal truths and thus grasp the object of law as the supreme good. Spinoza had the idea that there were certain eternal truths, evident by the light of reason, which provides us with the knowledge of the law we ought to live by. The truly wise human being, issues of obedience to law is a secondary consideration, if you understand nature as a whole, you will understand that everything is as it must be, including human freedom. Spinoza rejects the notion that the laws of nature (standards or rules of human conduct) issue from the will of god alone.
