Spinoza on Animals and Species: A Response to Susan James's paper to Celebrate Spinoza's 390th Birthday Today (updated)

Happy Spinoza Day to all Spinozists, on this his 390th posthumous birthday! 🎂🥂🍾🎇🎆 

After watching Susan James presenting her paper: 'Spinoza on Animal Species' (available on YouTube here) it struck me that maybe she was talking about, and assuming, knowledge of taxonomy. So I started to wonder what biological categorisation systems were and were not in place in Spinoza's time. Otherwise, we Spinozists could accidentally write off his ideas as mere wild imaginings or we could simply wonder what on earth he was talking about 🤔. Especially post-Darwin, we tend to make modern day assumptions and so are puzzled why Spinoza is not fitting in with our expectations. This is particularly relevant to refer to today because Darwin's The Origin of Species was first published on this day in 1859. So the contemporary reader may ask themselves: Has Spinoza got it wrong? After all, Spinoza was a physicist (designing high-end lenses for scientists, for instance, for telescopes), not a biologist. 

As philosophers, we can be inclined to become fancy and start talking metaphysics and getting into that type of terminology (such as common notions; particulars and universals) which, I think, misses the point. Spinoza was a scientist so I don't think he'd put forward scientifically inaccurate metaphysics, or at least to the extent of making his metaphysics consistent with the scientific knowledge that was available to him in his era. However, did not just stay with being a physicist, he happily corresponded about biology and chemistry, including cutting edge experiments and his own original thoughts. In this sense, academics in the Early Modern era, such as Spinoza and Cavendish, didn't suffer from over-specialising in one field, so they had a very holistic approach and could make more wide-ranging connections than perhaps many do today. By not going to university to choose only one small subcategory of science to study eg biochemistry or medicine or physics, they didn't narrow down their research fields. Early Modern philosophers kept building up their knowledge and research over the course of their whole lives. They didn't separate out fields of research, but rather intertwined and combined fields of study at will, both within philosophy as well as between philosophy and other subjects eg biology and philosophy. After all, science was called Natural Philosophy during that period. Both philosophers and scientists were doing similar or the same work at times. This is not the case now, when they are unhelpfully separated into STEM and not STEM, making Philosophy 'not STEM', a distinction that never crossed Early Modern thinkers' minds. 

Nevertheless, there are contemporary exceptions, one being Susan James because she has such a strong scientific family background that she can briefly, almost causally, refer to obscure biological facts in her papers that the rest of us have no idea about. In this way, she can go over our heads in her research, particularly when it touches on science. In order to understand her, you need a good scientific background yourself, which luckily I possess! Maybe this is why I understand her better and click more easily with her thinking and method. It's not a mystery why this is. It's a scientific approach that speaks to me more than someone who jumps around in their train of thought and suddenly introduces literary references almost randomly, as Arendt is inclined to do. Susan James can therefore sometimes assume scientific concepts and knowledge that most philosophers simply don't have sitting in their head. Perhaps she takes her scientific knowledge for granted and assumes all educated people share the same knowledge as her. A perfectly reasonable assumption. However, her scientific abilities are part and parcel of her schooling and their exam board requirements (OCR?) which is not the identical scientific education of most other philosophers in the UK or abroad. In addition she had (and still has) the advantage of being able to discuss science over the dining room table. I was lucky enough to be able to do the same with my uncle (Josef) but he didn't live with us so the input was obviously less. Luckily, my mother could take up the slack but she'd never pretend to be as good at biology as Susan James's  father. 

It is just possible that since Susan James's paper isn't a philosophy of science paper, but has different focuses, such as emotion, she maybe thought that too much scientific explanation would be off the point. But I think it does have relevance to our understanding some of what underpins her general outlook, therefore helps for understanding her interpretation and methodological approach. 

Thus, without Susan James explicitly saying so, I feel she is somewhat assuming knowledge of taxonomy in this paper. I always think she should be less brief in her papers, because with such a breadth and depth of knowledge that she possesses people can fail to appreciate the subtle points of her argument and therefore get a bit lost, lose the thread and fail to assess it accurately. 

So, I want to pick up on the background concept of taxonomy because I've always had a scientific approach to metaphysics. In other words, I like to scientifically fact-check metaphysical concepts to avoid the well-known problem with metaphysics which is that it can be so theoretical that it becomes irrelevant and runs the risk of being plain wrong, scientifically speaking. Why is that a problem? Because it impacts on the truth of the metaphysical statements and concepts. 

So, I wish to assess Spinoza on animals and species by comparing it with the scientific classification system of taxonomy. However, to be fair to Spinoza, we cannot criticise him for not possessing our present day scientific knowledge about species. 

Therefore, I began by researching the history of taxonomy so I could chart the progress of the knowledge of taxonomy down the ages to assess:

What was the information possibly available to Spinoza?

What advancements in knowledge have been made since? 

Does it impact on Spinoza's views on animals and species in general? 

So what is Taxonomy? 

There is neither a single definition of the term taxonomy, nor a robust definition of species so we are still relying on what Spinoza refers to as inadequate ideas in this area of science. Taxonomy works on two interconnecting layers: macrotaxonomy (higher classes and subgenuses) and microtaxonomy (which examines how to define what a species is). 

What is the field of Taxonomy? It's the science of creating a classification system and defining the subcategories within the Taxonomic structure, often depicted using hierarchical flow charts. The category of species is one of the main subcategories within this classification structure. The present day system is based on 18th century Carl Linnaeus (1707-78) whereas Spinoza lived in the 17th century (1632-77). 

Therefore, I suggest, there is an historical gap between Spinoza's 17th century knowledge, perspective, and arguments going on around him, compared with those surrounding us in the 21st century. For instance, nowadays we have the benefit of using a Taxonomy /classification system which fully takes into account the theory of evolution. So we can't expect Spinoza to account for our modern day knowledge, whether it be scientific, political, feminist or anything else. 

Gaspard Bauhin (1560-1624) created a classification system but focused on vegetation. Although Bauhin was before Spinoza's time, he nonetheless influenced the 17th century Taxonomist, John Ray (1627-1705), an Englishman who lived during Spinoza's lifetime. Ray argued against having fixed, binary either/or way of categorising nature. Instead, Ray categorised things, usually plants, based on his observations and classed them according to how similar or dissimilar they were/are. Spinoza may have heard of him because Ray became fellow of the Royal Society in 1667 and Spinoza was aware of the scientific experiments and findings of those involved in the Royal Society in the UK. Irrespectively, I think Ray's way of classifying nature could be relevant and makes for an interesting comparison because Spinoza also uses similarity and dissimilarity to compare animals, amongst other things, so he could be working within a similar approach to Ray. This gives Spinoza contemporary relevance too, because scientists still draw on a selection of Ray's discoveries today. Moreover, Ray is a key figure in taxonomy because he was a pioneer in initiating, what people believe to be, the first definition of species, which depicts them as not only being organisms which have similar characteristics, but also as having an ancestor in common with each other. How Darwinian of him! And contemporary, given that present day genetic researchers still argue over the possibility of what's known as a mitochondrial Eve, who has been claimed by some to be the first ancestor of humans, I'm terms of DNA. 

After Ray, the next well-known Taxonomist was Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708) whose main contribution to Taxonomy was progressing our knowledge of taxonomy by setting out a distinction between the categories of genera and species.

Tournefort influenced perhaps the most famous Taxonomist, Carl Linnaeus (1707-78). Indeed, classifying animals was not a priority until the 18th century, partly because they were more concerned about classifying things which impacted on their health or food supply, hence their focus on vegetation, which includes vegetables and herbs. 

So in Spinoza's lifetime, pre-18th century, animal categorisation was seen as a mere manmade, slightly random and messy way to classify things in the world. This is significant because Spinoza expresses similar views, which makes him up-to-date and the norm for his era. This may also mean that only assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Spinoza's classification, or lack of contemporary style classifications, need not rely solely on his metaphysics. His concept of animal descriptions and classifications, I think, is just as much reliant on the science of his era as it was on his monism. 

To be continued......

Thoughts on Spinoza on World Humanism Day

Happy World Humanism Day today! 🎉🎊🎉 While researching the history of Humanism in philosophy, I came across some fascinating facts which sparked some thoughts for me about Spinoza's life and philosophy. For my post on Humanism, see my philosophy blog post here. There I also ponder whether Spinoza doesn't come across as a non-religious Humanist because he possibly is an Educational Humanist, ie believes in expanding the human intellect for flourishing. However, this Educational Humanism should not be mistaken for atheism, agnosticism or a non-religious Humanist viewpoint in Spinoza's philosophy.  

There I mention the 15th-16th century Dutch Religious (Roman Catholic) Humanist, Erasmus and how, despite Erasmus's huge popularity and influential, undogmatic religious humanistic scholarship in Europe, the Spanish Inquisition persecuted his followers and he was nevertheless labelled an heretic. This reminded me of Spinoza because his family was also persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition and later Spinoza was also branded an heretic. 🤔 So we can see by Erasmus that, despite the fact that he was conservative and a theist who stayed within the Roman Catholic faith, he was still called an heretic. (Erasmus was the illegitimate son of a priest and himself became an Augustinian monk and priest, although he hated monastic life, preferring a scholarly life.) Hence, likewise, I think that Spinoza being labelled an heretic is essentially irrelevant to an examination of his life and ideas: he need not be any less religiously conservative and orthodox than Erasmus to be called an heretic, especially in that era. Indeed, Spinoza was not even as boldly humanistic as Erasmus was, 100 years earlier! And Spinoza wasn't even a skeptic, unlike Erasmus! 

More fascinating still, is that, when Spinoza is around 21 years old, a man named Huet (a liberal Christian skeptic) stopped off on his travels to have a little chat with one of Spinoza's Rabbis, Menasseh Ben Israel (the liberal-minded one). These discussions eventually led Huet to publish his Demonstratio Evangelica, which argued for a liberal, empirical, skepticism (even stretching to maths and theology). This surely shows that: 

• One, Spinoza's Rabbis/synagogue had strong connections with Christians, even possibly influencing what Christians wrote within academia. And Huet was not himself uninfluential or obscure, so this was no mean feat: Huet had studied with Jesuits, gained a degree in maths and went on to become an enormously influential figure. Huet remained very close to the Jesuit order throughout his life, even to the extent of giving his whole library to them towards the end of his life. Even Leibniz didn't take him lightly despite being friends with him but Spinoza was afraid of him because he was seriously worried that he was writing a contra to his philosophy. Huet's style was anti-Cartesian (even accusing Cartesians of irreligion) and philosophically skeptical. Huet also overlapped with Spinoza by wanting to find some common ground between all religions, which I think could be somewhat reminiscent of Spinoza's idea of universal religion to create toleration between different faiths. 🤔
• Two, given the above, the harassment Spinoza suffered at his synagogue, leading to him being thrown out, could have plausibly spilt over into his Rabbis generating academic and religious problems for Spinoza within academia/philosophy after he was no longer with them. Also, conversely, we cannot rule out the possibility of Christian thinkers influencing the Rabbis's decision to excommunicate Spinoza without any recourse for him to return to that synagogue, since influential Christians were clearly meeting with his Rabbis before they threw out Spinoza. After all, chronologically speaking, only a few years after Huet meets Rabbi Menasseh in that Amsterdam synagogue, Spinoza is thrown out of this very synagogue.
• Three, in addition, it shows that 1) the Rabbis could hardly have genuinely objected to Spinoza philosophising with Christian academics since they were clearly doing so themselves; 2) having academic exchanges with so-called Christian friends does not make someone so automatically influenced by Christianity that they start incorporating it into their system of philosophy. So Spinoza's philosophy is no more Christian-influenced; Christianised; and non-Jewish or anti-Jewish than his Jewish Rabbis! 😅 

Anne Lister on Euclid

What can I say, I'm always thinking about Spinoza and philosophy in general. 🤷

I was watching the wonderful TV drama Gentleman Jack 🎩🏳️‍🌈 last Sunday (BBC 1, Series 2 episode 7, still available to watch on demand here) and was fascinated by the way Anne Lister (1791-1840, a highly educated woman and 'out' lesbian living in Jane Austen's era) explained Euclid to a class of children. It made me think - do some Spinozists assume Spinoza shares Euclid's approach to God and mathematics, simply because he made use of Euclid's geometric explanation in his Ethics? 🤔

A few times I've heard philosophers (Spinozists and non-Spinozists) maintain that everything in the world is not, and should not, be reducible to maths. I've never been sure why this was of such great concern to them. So what if it was reducible to maths? Once, over a philosophy society dinner back in 2016, in answer to a question thrown out to everyone around the table: what would the description of everything in the world look like? one said it would be an impossibly long written description, I interjected that the explanation of everything could perhaps be all reduced to an equation. I wasn't thinking of Spinoza or Euclid at the time because it was in the context of contemporary philosophy, it just came to mind. 🙂 💭

However, while watching Anne Lister, it struck me: Do some Spinozists, or even philosophers in general, think that, through his use of Euclid's geometry, Spinoza is suggesting that the world / creation has been created through God's mathematical thoughts, via the laws of nature? Does this trigger some religious reaction in some philosophers? Although I haven't quite figured out yet why this should religiously bother them. 

Here's Anne Lister's summary of Euclid's approach and a brief example of his mathematics:

If the two interior angles are less than right angles then these two straight lines will meet at a point if you go far enough. 

Then a child asks her why this is important and why this relevant to the Sunday school they were attending. Lister's answer was:

Euclid deduced everything ie. his propositions and theorems from just 5 axioms / postulates. The Laws of Nature are the mathematical thoughts of God and God created the world as well as everything in it, such as leaves, trees, birds and so on. Hence, maths is the basis of everything in creation. 

Anne Lister agrees with Euclid about this. So she doesn't have any religious/Christian objections to Euclid. So why should anyone else? 

I've briefly researched who would object to the possibility (whether it is true of Spinoza's intentions or not) that maths could explain the universe. Of course, Spinoza was Jewish so his assessment of Euclid's maths and whether there is any pagan religion in it would not be the same as for Christians. So I'm not sure why this would even be an interpretive concern for philosophers. 🤔🤯 

Anyway. In fleshing out the issue of how people have interpreted and misinterpreted Euclid, here's what I discovered:

People in the medieval era did not see any religious concerns about relating maths to understanding the world because they saw it as two sides of the same coin when wrapping their head around God's creation:

"if God applied geometric principles to the creation of the world, then an understanding of those principles should aid in interpreting that divine act. What we may think of as two ways of looking at the world - the religious and the scientific - were, to the medieval mind, one." (Perry)

Nevertheless, apparently, many Christians have been Christianising Euclid's pagan text and rewriting it (and with it the history of mathematics):

"Adelard’s translation of Euclid’s Elements enjoyed no such flexibility: it was a purely pagan text. But while there may have been little room for manoeuvre in terms of content, there was nothing to prevent the makers of individual copies of the Elements, such as the manuscript housed at the Fisher, from including extra-textual details that cast the work in a Christian context. And so we find our Christ-like Euclid placed prominently on the first page, a reminder to the reader to approach this text from a Christian point of view." (Perry)

The last sentence refers to a book with a medieval illustration of Euclid but depicted with Christian symbolism, based on an image of Christ as the Geometer creating the world and skies above while using a mathematical compass.

So this made me wonder whether there is some Christian twist to Euclid that had passed me by. I, probably very much like Spinoza, just took Euclid to be a pagan mathematician and that maths, like logic, can simplify complex ideas into a succinct, brief, clear format. If I remember rightly, Spinoza had originally written the Ethics in prose and only re-wrote it as a geometric explanation later at the suggestion of some Cartesian philosopher who claimed it would make his Ethics more understandable, accessible and make it easier to follow his arguments simply through rational deduction. Thus, I merely thought of it as being a result of peer review, not part of Spinoza's authorial intention as such, therefore not entirely an essential property of the text or overly representative of Spinoza's fundamental system of philosophy. After all, Spinoza wrote all of his other treatises in prose not in the style of Euclidean geometry, so it can't be that big a deal. If he was that fixated on Euclid's mathematical system or the Christianised version of Euclid, Spinoza would have used it across all of his texts. But he didn't!

I still haven't quite got to the bottom of what aspects of Euclid's maths Christians have adjusted for their own purposes; whether this results in a completely different reading of Euclid; or any religious objections to Euclid's mathematical explanation of the universe or not. However, reading around, I did discover that religious references to Euclid can appear almost randomly in not just traditional Christian thought but even in Christian cults. 

For instance, apparently, the American Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910, the founder of the sect Christian Science) referred to Euclid a few times in her writings, although I'm not entirely sure exactly where she was going with it. 

Especially since her version of Christianity involved drawing inspiration for her arguments from Hindu philosophy, or more specifically, Indian Vendanta Philosophy, which is based on a type of monism whereby everything in the world is one, and this is the non-personal god Brahman, who is a world-soul which permeates everything. Indeed, apparently Christian Science is also monist but, instead, believing only in a spiritual reality (the material world is all unreal). So what seems to have a physical cause, is only really caused by mental states. However, for them, Spirit with a capital S refers to God, whereas spirit with a small s refers to quality, although I'm not sure what that means. I am not at all familiar with Vedanta or Christian Science, I'm only just beginning to investigate to what extent they have any bearings on philosophers' opinions within the fields of philosophy I research, so I'm exploring the issue here in my Spinoza Research Diary. 

Why is this this important? Spinoza is famously known as a substance monist and there is a great deal of secondary literature arguing for and against Spinoza's monism. However the term monism wasn't invented until after Spinoza's lifetime, when the philosopher Christian von Wolff (who adapted Leibniz) used it in the 18th century, in his book Logic (1728). This makes me wonder🤔: 

Is monism the best description of Spinoza's metaphysics? Is it the exact, complex concept he had in mind, given that he wouldn't have known the term or anything particularly similar to it? 

Both Vedanta and Christian Science are idealist but in different ways. Vedanta sees ideas and ideals as rooted in Spirit/Self. For them, god is the highest ideal, not the mind. Whereas Christian Scientists are radical philosophical idealists, who think all ideas and ideals are rooted in the Christian God's mind, and so people form their ideals from God's ideas. This is relevant to Spinoza because I've often found myself baffled by idealist interpretations of Spinoza and his monism. 🤔 I don't see any idealism in his philosophy. 🤷 

It is worth bearing in mind that Eddy's version of Vendanta Philosophy has a twist to it, so it's not identical. She claimed that matter is not real (as well as related things such as illness and suffering which she also thought were not real). Indeed, after reading around, I've now discovered that it's common knowledge in philosophy that Eddy's Christian Scientist argument (in her book 'Science and Health') claiming that evil is merely an illusory false belief, is based on Vedanta Philosophy which considers the phenomenal world and evil within it to be what they term maya ie an illusion/magic. For Vedanta Philosophy (a philosophy based on ancient Hindu religious scripture) this means that a god creates illusions through magic powers thereby causing false beliefs in people (at least in the Advaita school of non-dualist Vedanta anyway). Nevertheless, unlike in Western Philosophy, Indian Philosophy is not preoccupied with relating its monist and non-dualist arguments to mind-body problems. It's not clear to me yet which of the schools of Vedanta Philosophy Eddy was drawing on, or whether she combined several, and exactly how she adjusted it to put her own Christian spin on it. 

Now that's cultural appropriation! Because it's not about appreciating Indian Philosophy and respecting its cultural, religious Hindu context in its own right, but rather distorting it for Western, Christian purposes. 

It never crossed my mind before that there were any Christian Scientist beliefs hidden in the middle of Philosophy! 😲 

Eddy was keen on Spirituality, although she sometimes denied it. But one has to be careful about what someone means by spirituality because it signifies different things to different people. In Eddy's case, it involved doing séances, being a medium and going into trances, claiming she could channel the spirits of the (twelve) Apostles. Nevertheless, she seemed to reject Spiritualism in her writings despite trying to convert people to Christian Science during some of her séances. This spirituality strangely combined in some of her more metaphysical thought about matter. For example, apparently, she argued that only spirit exists, whereas matter is not real. So spirit is not within matter, although it may appear to be so. This is a problem for anyone researching Spinoza or Margaret Cavendish's vitalism. Not to mention Cavendish's references to spiritual substance, or spirits, or arguments in favour of everything comprising of matter, with the only exception being God. Such early modern concepts must be very prone to misinterpretation for anyone who superimposes any such later arguments onto it, such as Eddy's rejection of matter and her focus on a very narrow, specific version of spirits and spirituality. Such conflations between Eddy's Christian Sect metaphysics and early modern metaphysics could be an issue for some, given that her favourite subjects as a child were, amongst other complex subjects, natural philosophy, logic and ethics, so there may be appear to be some topic overlap. 

So what's my overall point here? It's simply this: it's unwise to make gross assumptions, superimpose views or conflate people, arguments or concepts. For instance:

• conflate Euclid's (pagan) aims and world views with Spinoza's;
• conflate a Christianised Euclidean geometry with Spinoza's use of Euclid's geometry in his Ethics
• jump to the conclusion (or hope!) that Spinoza must be secretly hoping to convey some medieval Christian theology via a Christianised Euclidean approach; 
• conflate Christian thought which has nothing to do with the early modern text you're reading, with the early modern philosopher who wrote it, eg conflating Mary Baker Eddy's concept of spirit and matter with arguments for or against Spinoza's or Margaret Cavendish's concept of spirit and/or matter;
• assume that other philosophers (whether speakers; attendees asking questions; philosophical discussion at socials etc) are on the same page as you eg making the same assumptions, working with the same background knowledge and concepts as you just because you are all trained in (usually analytic) philosophy. If you come from different religious and/or non-religious perspectives then you end up talking at cross purposes! Because someone's personal critical stance may draw on sources that you are completely unfamiliar with and they probably won't explain any background to their views, so you'll find yourself trying to wrap your head around some unknown, alien concepts in order to answer their questions or understand where they are really going with it;
• you can also misspeak in the sense of assuming your philosophical audience shares the same definitions and concepts as you so there's no need to explain everything ad nauseam. So when I happily work with non-religious, secular, agnostic and Jewish concepts, perhaps I need to explain it in a variety of ways so philosophers of all backgrounds can follow my argument and not slip into relating it to irrelevant (Christian or otherwise) concepts and world views. 

Having said that, it would be rather unwieldly to try to account for every possible worldview, especially if a philosopher doesn't explicitly state what their personal views, stances and perspectives are and where they have come from. And, surely, we are meant to be analysing philosophical texts in terms of 1) the content; objective properties in the text 2) the philosopher, not superimposing/projecting our worldviews onto the texts or constantly accounting for others superimposing/projecting their religion and/or worldviews onto the texts and your papers/books. 

And the reason for this is simple: 

we researchers have to stay on task: in the history of philosophy, the historical philosopher; their political/societal context; and their texts are everything - it dictates the whole interpretation. If one wants to set out one's own system of philosophy/ own philosophical thought, then one mostly does that within the field of contemporary philosophy. 

Perhaps it all just comes down to everyone communicating well! I have seen excellent examples of good communication in research, so it's not unrealistic. 🙂 But, at other times, I feel there's a hidden ingredient that changes the flavour of the stance/interpretation and it's only by chance that I may hit upon this hidden ingredient and thereby arrive at the aha moment! However, secondary literature shouldn't be so hit and miss because there can be so many suppressed premises and implicit assumptions going on in philosophy, despite a certain amount of analytic and logical underpinning. Years ago, I bought and read an excellent book on Euclid which explained everything very well. But I can't account for someone having a Christianised view of Euclid (as they often do with Aristotle and Plato too). So it was only when the TV drama related Euclid to Christianity that it crossed my mind that this was a relevant connection so I thought I'd address here because this blog is not just for my books but for my research thoughts about Spinoza, as they occur. 

On the Relevance of Rabbi Manis Friedman's Explanation of the Jewish Destination to Spinoza

Recently, I came across a short video of a Rabbi posted on a Jewish learning Facebook page. It's a snippet of a speech made by Rabbi Manis Friedman, titled 'Judaism is NOT just another religion'. I don't remember hearing of this Rabbi before so I am not familiar with or dealing with his general outlook. I can't account for everything he may or may not have said or meant throughout his entire career as a Rabbi. I can identify with most of what he says in this video and I love his style of humour. And I don't think it's just because he's Czech. Here, I'll just be sticking to his views expressed in this particular video, namely on the uniqueness of Judaism and how it is different from every other religion. Furthermore, Rabbi Manis Friedman is steeped in a very old-fashioned approach to Judaism so he is closer to an Early Modern concept and purpose of Judaism than many Rabbis today, making his views on why one would identify as Jewish more relevant to an analysis of the 17th century Jewish philosopher, Spinoza.   

For some, there may be a linguistic barrier: he throws in Yiddish words and the subtitles can misspell things. Here's an essential word you'll hear: kvetch - Yiddish for having a moan, grumble. It doesn't mean complaining as in making a complaint. My granny was always kvetching and taught me that word by acting it out, other than she had a slightly different accent, it wasn't such a crisp German accent for it. It's a key word in Jewish culture.  

I shared this video on my timeline and I commented on the main ideas to grasp in the Rabbi's speech on my Facebook post. 

Here I shall expand on my Facebook comment about what I found exciting about this speech. I shall highlight Rabbi Friedman's points in bold, red italic while adding my thoughts in black standard font. 

Religion amounts to "behaving in a certain way to gain something from heaven....when you get past all the theology and philosophy". Religion is "a way of life that gives you some benefit from heaven. You'll get something from G-d". But that's not Judaism - Jews have a different destination!

People don't run around shopping for a religion. 🛒 🕉️☸️☯️☪️✝️☦️✡️🕎

What does Rabbi Manis Friedman mean by this? Why not shop around religions? Because each religion has a different destination in life so only one religion will fit where you are going as a person. There's no need to try out religions for the sake of it, despite them not fitting with who you are and where you are going in life. He clarifies this with an airline analogy. 

Rabbi Friedman is the Dean of a Chabad educational institute for girls (15+) and women where he teaches those with various backgrounds who have no knowledge of Judaism. He's packaged his explanation in such a way that means anyone of any prior education, ignorance, bias, social and religious background can grasp his point / argument. 

Furthermore, it's even an explanation that's designed to elucidate Judaism to a guy who has somehow ignored the fact that it's a women-only students educational institute to attend the women-only class on Judaism and then have the nerve to badger Rabbi Manis Friedman with daft, repetitive questions about why he's only teaching Judaism?! 🤷🤦 Just goes to show that the TERF's claim that men crossdress and claim to be trans just to access women's spaces is a total myth! I digress. My point was - if the Rabbi expects even this random man to understand it, no excuses for anyone else! 🤣 

After this video and airline analogy you should understand:

1 what's unique about Judaism that means it's not (just) a religion 

2 and that Judaism is not particularly structured like a religion

3 each to their own destination - we don't all have to use the same airline! There is such a thing as religious plurality, as Spinoza points out. 

Is Judaism the only or the best? Why not try other religions? The airline analogy: it's all about the destination not the airline. 

Rabbi Friedman used Northwest Airlines (he's from Minnesota) because he needed to go to New York. He's particular about the destination not the airline. Imagine if someone asked him - Have you tried the Southeast airline? But it goes to Florida. Should he take a flight to see if it really goes to Florida? No, he doesn't care about Florida, he doesn't want to go there. If he needed to go to Florida he would TAKE the Southeast airline but he wouldn't TRY it. The reason would simply be because it takes him to Florida, if that's where he wanted to go. 

Religions as airlines:

🧘The destination of Buddhism is Nirvana, bliss and enlightenment (no not as in the age of enlightenment in philosophy). These are the objectives of Buddhism so if you want this destination, take the Buddhist airline! ✈️🧘⛰️

But you are Jewish and don't want to be that happy! 🤷🙂 No kvetching?! 😮 So perhaps you don't want that airline. 

✝️ The destination of Christianity is to go to heaven 🌫️ to be saved from Satan 👹 and not go to hell 👺🔥- salvation!😇 If you want this destination, take Christian airlines. ✈️✝️☦️🌫️ 

Neither I nor this Rabbi can relate to this Christian mentality.  It's not who we are or where we're going in life. So we don't want this airline. And this is equally true of Spinoza!

What is the destination of Judaism? 

Mostly nobody Jewish knows or cares! 🤷 Anyway, there's a virtue in being loyal to who you are, without stopping to think - where am I going? What am I getting from it? A Jew is a Jew. Why keep Jewish holidays? Because it's Yom Kippur! It's Pesach! etc. 

True! I can identify with what the Rabbi says here. I am not a (Humanistic) Jew in order to get something from it now, at any point in this world or after death. Therefore, I don't have a 'use' as such (e.g. psychological, practical, emotional) for Judaism or G-d in my life. I am just simply Jewish and it fits with my sense of who I am and my destination in life. As a Humanistic Jew, I don't see Judaism as just a religion, I see it as first and foremost an identity, that sits alongside and coheres with my other identities. 

What airline was Spinoza on? 

As can be seen in the letters between Albert Burgh and Spinoza (September 1675), and some letters between Spinoza and Oldenburg, Spinoza was never going to take or even try out the Southeast airline/Christian airline! Burgh was trying to put Spinoza on the wrong airflight for his destination when he attempted to convert Spinoza to Catholism. Burgh used many of the concepts depicted in the Christian destination: devil, sin, hell/heaven, needing to be saved and praying for the sinner. Indeed, Burgh did more than just attempt proselytising, he was astringent and insulting about it, and, in the apt words of Curley, Burgh's tone was "highly abusive" (Curley 2010, p11). This was especially disgusting behaviour from someone who had tried to be Spinoza's close friend and admirer! 😡 

Spinoza was unhappy that Burgh converted to Catholism, even though Burgh was merely converting from one branch of Christianity to another. Perhaps this is because it had unpleasant connotations for him of Catholic conversion during the Spanish Inquisition, which forced his family to flee their homeland. 😢 When pushed to answer Burgh's hysterical insistence that Spinoza should become Christian, all Burgh received back was Spinoza adamantly telling him that he can take a very long walk off a short plank! 👍

Spinoza is making philosophical points that every philosopher should be able to understand. But when it comes to Spinoza's religion, beyond philosophy and theology, he's on a different flight from his Christian contemporaries in his day as well as Christians these days. And because this informs his thought, even though every philosopher should be able to understand his philosophy through reason alone, misunderstandings are more likely to occur because his philosophy is based on a different airline than the one the Christians are on. So it's possibly harder for Christians to wrap their heads around Spinoza's philosophy. 

And now, for Destination Judaism: ✈️✡️🕎

As Rabbi Manis Friedman rightly points out: Most Jews keep the holidays on the Jewish calendar 📆 🧐. But not because they are convinced that they are going to heaven if they do. They are not necessarily observant. But it's Pesach and you don't mess around with it. They are not rushing to a synagogue 🕍 🏃on Yom Kippur in order to get to heaven. They are just going because it's Yom Kippur - and there's something simple and beautiful about that. 🙂

What am I going to get from keeping mitzvahs and being a good Jew? 🤔 Persecution? ☹️😕😢 

✡️🕎 The destination of Judaism is: G-d gives me everything I have, and when I'm lacking I kvetch to G-d and ask for more. But it feels wrong to always take and not give back so what can I give G-d? So 'destination Judaism' is what can I do for G-d? Why does G-d need that I can give? 

This sounds like a much more religious, heavy-going task than it is. But as Rabbi Manis Friedman explains:

Judaism wants to do something for G-d but G-d is interested in earth not heaven. This can be seen in the Torah: in the beginning, G-d created heaven and earth, and that's the first and last time we hear about heaven. So G-d wants ungodly earth to become godly, "as a result of our efforts" - make it a comfortable home for G-d. 

Looking at it another way: What can I give G-d?

There's 3 different answers for 3 different religions 

🧘The Buddhist answer: the ultimate is bliss, happy and content as possible. 'G-d' doesn't need anything. But we'll teach you how to be happy. 

✝️The Christian answer: you were born in sin 👺, you are in trouble,😱 you need to be saved😇. God doesn't have problems, thank you very much. 🤨 And then they'll pray for you. 🙏

Then you ask a Rabbi: Isn't there one thing I can do for G-d that G-d really needs?

✡️🕎 So the Rabbi (a good one, ie. not a dull-witted one🤣) gives you a  typically Jewish style answer by replying with a question - why just one thing? 🤷 There are 613 things you can do. 🙂 

So here's a major difference between Judaism and Religion: 

Religion is about getting something from G-d now and after death.

Whereas Judaism is about giving something to G-d, doing something for G-d now in this world (which includes acting in ways that benefit fellow human beings). 

All other religions: the reward is:

1 some other place, outside and above this world in some nebulous transcendent space

2 at another, later, future time, once you're dead and it's now beyond earth-time 

This video shows why, I think, Spinoza is not a materialist or too this-worldly to be considered a religious Jew. He's just being a good Jew because Judaism is focused on this world not some heavenly world beyond. If this aspect of Judaism is not understood, then much of what Spinoza writes appears to endorse materialism and naturalism, because superficially, there seems to be an overlap of content and argumentation. Consequently, this leads to the erroneous assumption that Spinoza isn't in line with Judaism because materialism and naturalism are the opposite of religion. Well, yes, but not Judaism because it doesn't function the same way as other religions.

Judaism is home-focused so Spinoza can happily carry on being observant and continue his journey to his Jewish destination. The synagogue doesn't disrupt the airflight or his destination. He can still observe Shabbat, put on Tefillin, tallit, tallit katan, kippah, pray from his Siddur, keep festivals, fasts, do mitzvahs, keep kosher, and study Torah. And at the end of his life, he still held that reverence for Hebrew. 

Again, Christians possibly fail to appreciate this aspect of Judaism because their faith is centred on the Church and going to church on a weekly basis. ⛪🏃You often hear Christians argue that Spinoza could have fought his way back to his synagogue. That's assuming he only had to put his back into it and they would have embraced him wholeheartedly. Unlikely! And what if Spinoza decided it was too dangerous to do so since someone had made an attempt on his life on the steps of the synagogue?

He also, like Hume, was not too enamoured of institutional religion. Neither am I! Unlike Spinoza, I didn't attend any religious institution growing up. But, just because a person doesn't attend a place of worship it doesn't automatically mean they don't have a personal belief or don't express that belief through prayer, observing festivals or reading Scripture and so on. Neither Hume nor Spinoza were keen on superstitious beliefs. This does not, however, mean they were atheists. Conversey, the notion that Spinoza was a God intoxicated philosopher makes no sense whatsoever either. He was far too rational for that. Zealotry was not something he would subscribe to. Spinoza was just sticking to his airline which took him where he wanted to go and that was to be the best Jew he could be!

Curley, E. (2010). Spinoza's exchange with Albert Burgh. In Y. Melamed & M. Rosenthal (Eds.), Spinoza's 'Theological-Political Treatise': A Critical Guide (Cambridge Critical Guides, pp. 11-28). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511781339.002

Happy International Darwin Day 12th February

IDD is about the enormous scientific achievement of the freethinker, Darwin 🐵🦧🦍🐒🐻🧍🧍‍♀️🧍‍♂️as well as encouraging interest in science.🧬🧫🧪⚗️🔭🔬 

Although the day is mainly promoted by humanists it's, nevertheless, a day that marks an historical break from the religiously founded belief that everything in the world was created, in one go, by a superior being called a Creator. This is an issue which is, and always has been, a hot potato. At one end of the spectrum, religious fundamentalists go so far as wanting to ban the teaching of Darwin in schools. I'm not sure how they expect these children to grow up and take their place in the outside world where Darwin's evolutionary theory is common knowledge. Even George W Bush waded in on the debate (2005) when Intelligent Design became a fad to be taught in US schools as an alternative to teaching Darwin and his scientific theories. Bush wanted both sides to be taught but a judge threw this out as against the American Constitution which forbids 'the establishment of religion'. Quite right too! Religion has no place in the public arena. Freedom of religion means all can worship wherever they wish and hold whatever beliefs they wish but they mustn't impose those beliefs on others, especially if it's to the other's detriment.

Some have continued trying to prove Darwin wrong but with little success. Even, surprisingly enough, some philosophers, for example, the 20th century Austrian born Czech-Hungarian/Sicilian British Jewish (Sir) Karl Popper (1902-1994). Popper originally thought Darwin's theory of natural selection was untestable and unscientific. However, he later backtracked as evidence from biologists showed that natural selection wasn't a tautology, in other words, it wasn't just stating the obvious. Nevertheless, Popper is right to argue that, even though science has much to contribute to our understanding of the world, it doesn't provide unfalsifiable knowledge. (His library is at Klagenfurt Uni, Austria). At the other end of the spectrum, recent research in genetics shows Darwin to be along the right lines.  

I learned about Darwin almost by the by. It was just there on the wall chart. My mother studied Darwin and people's reaction to it, especially the response of ecclesiastical authorities (who most likely never read Darwin), during her B.D degree when she chose the history option which focused on this era, in an unbiased way. Therefore, being knowledgeable about it she inserted Darwin with ease and without any religious overtones. I also went to science museums and science played a large role in my education. I was used to handling science equipment and having a hands-on approach to the subject. Since I was not taught any religious beliefs at home I didn't have the usual conflict of Genesis (Old Testament) v Darwin.

However, it never occurred to me that I would be needing this knowledge on Darwin when studying Philosophy even down to Darwin's last book on worms, something Spinoza also wrote about in some of his letters. I refer to the latter in my volume 2 on Spinoza. Thus, writing a paper on Spinoza as a forerunner to Darwin happened by chance when responding to a CFP's on Spinoza, which included everything from Aristotle to Darwin, if one wished to go there. I always like to draw upon acquired past knowledge and further it. Here was my chance. Feeling I needed to be more up-to-date and at a higher level to fend off science specialists, I studied a module on Genetics (MA level). This clearly showed how Darwin was right. Enthused, I decided that this would help to understand Spinoza's conatus theory. Not that 17th century Spinoza could be influenced by 19th century Darwin but they may well have both read the same earlier source in the pre-Socratics. This is not to argue that Spinoza's conatus is an evolutionary theory. Neither is to argue that, therefore, Spinoza was an agnostic/atheist which he wasn't. But it lends credence to the notion that Darwin's evolutionary theory had its seed way back in history and was not as revolutionary as many tried to pretend. It perhaps also indicates that Spinoza's conatus is very much a scientific concept. This is not surprising given he was a scientist, albeit in physics (lenses, telescopes) but he did correspond with scientists about chemistry and biology. 

It follows, therefore, I think, that an interest and ability in one of the sciences usually means an interest in science, generally. The 17th century was the era of scientific awakening so any erudite individual would need to be versed in it. Thus, even if Spinoza had not engaged in science and earned his living from it, he would still have had to understand what was going on around him. This also applied to Spinoza's awareness of political and religious views around him which were different from his, for example, Christianity. Just because he debated with Christians, it doesn't mean that he became one; that he was influenced by them; that he expounded or advocated Christian theology in his works. However, there was a tension between science and religion in the 17th century. A tension that still exists today. This tension came to a head, for Spinoza, at his own synagogue and probably led to his expulsion by the more orthodox of the two rabbis there. The other rabbi, at the time, was in England, and being the more scholarly of the two and liberal-minded he would not have allowed things to turn out so badly for the now orphaned Spinoza who, still in his early twenties, was mourning and missing his father. Had this liberal rabbi, who greatly influenced Spinoza, been present at the time, it's unlikely Spinoza would have been banned from his synagogue which was like home to him, not only because his father had been a warden there, but also because all his education had taken place there too. Hence, I do not take his expulsion from his synagogue seriously. This idea he was some infamous heretic is an exaggeration and unnecessarily paints Spinoza in a negative light which people still feed off today. This negative attitude then reflects on his works and encourages harsh, unwarranted criticism. Small wonder Spinoza said don't look at my life but my treatises. Spinoza was just a freethinker like Darwin, and his father Robert and brother Erasmus. Simplistically, that means he wanted to think freely without constraints or limits to his thoughts. Progress can never be made if we keep imposing dogmas of one kind or another on people, restricting freedom of thought. 

But, some say, he could have returned to his synagogue, surely?  Others did. Yes, in theory he could, but that would have been as effective as 'conversion therapy' and as damaging! Spinoza's ban was also more final than others so we can't be sure he would have been able to reverse it. Even today, scholars can't seem to manage to reverse the ban for him despite it being nearly four centuries later! Besides, Judaism can be practised away from the strictures of a synagogue which all too often depends on which rabbi holds sway, or who the wardens are and even who sits on the council. Spinoza believed that religion is a private matter. And, unlike Christianity, it can be practised at home because rabbis are not priests. They do not act as intermediaries between God and the individual. Blessings are recited in the home. After all his mother died when he was very young so he would have seen his sister take over her role. In this way, Spinoza may have learned many of the rituals women undertake in an Orthodox home. All Jewish rituals can be conducted at home, even the blowing of the shofar, if you can buy one, or these days, you can even watch wonderful videos of shofar blowing on the internet! However, Spinoza may well have attended a synagogue far from home for high holy days or other days. I doubt he would have been recognised. 

So, part of my reason for researching the Early Modern period is not only an interest in History, engendered by my mother's excellent teaching, but also because it's a time when there was much progress, especially in the realm of science. Although not all the science is valid today. For example, vitalism has been superseded. Nevertheless, it takes one back to the time when religion was challenged as the main source of knowledge. This is important because this religion versus science debate rages on and is one which must confuse children who are brought up in a strict religious environment. Hence, the importance of education which ensures that children, teenagers, and young adults have access to up-to-date knowledge, devoid of bias. It is then up to them what they choose to think or believe. Therefore, I think it is very important that pupils in schools learn all the various scientific disciplines as separate disciplines, including those studied less often, such as, astronomy. I find it unbelievable that given that space exploration and travel is something going on here and now, it seems not to appear on the school curriculum. How can it not? 

This is why I think a day devoted to Darwin and science is a helpful way to engender and foster an awareness of all things scientific for everybody, not just those in educational establishments.

Having said that, I don't agree with the government's over emphasis on and financial bias for STEM subjects for pupils and students. The humanities, social sciences, philosophy, languages, creative arts and music are vital too. Is not Einstein one of, if not the, most influential scientist in history? Yet he credited his scientific inspiration and discoveries to his daily violin playing. 🎻 Science needs creative minds! It needs passion! It's not all rational thinking, test tube in hand!👩‍🔬🧪🥽

Freethinkers Day: Was Spinoza a Freethinker?

Today is Freethinkers Day inspired by the British freethinker, Thomas Paine, born in Thetford in 18th century England (1737?-1809). Although freethinkers tend to be humanists, that is, their morality is based on human needs e.g. compassion, empathy, other freethinkers, nevertheless, can believe in God or some higher being. The mark of a freethinker is that they believe in verifiable truth rather than truth based on revelation steming from religious belief/dogma. Paine was a Deist who believed in one God. Spinoza also believed in one God but that didn't make him a Deist because that would take him somewhere he doesn't want to go.  

Freethinkers place reason before faith. If they do follow a particular religion they reject superstition and allow their reason to inform their faith and their reading of Scripture, much as Spinoza did. This does not make Spinoza an outright freethinker because he remained a religious Jew (Orthodox Jew, since that was the only type that existed in the 17th century) and his Judaism comes through clearly in his writings, on my theory. 

However, nothing is only either/or with nothing in between. So there is an overlap between Jewish Spinoza and Freethinkers. For instance, just like them, he has a high regard for critical thinking, thinks outside the box, doesn't just accept perceived wisdom, and elevates reason to a level where it helps people understand their Jewish faith. But Spinoza wrote for everyone so the same would apply to all faiths, including Christianity. However, in his opinion,  religion is a private matter and therefore, there should not be a state religion because this could reduce religious tolerance. Freethinkers, following Paine, equally believe that religion and state should exist separately and argue against religious institutions, as did the 18th century Scotish philosopher, David Hume (1711-1776) who influenced Paine.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970, an aristocratic British analytic, agnostic philosopher, historian, public intellectual and political activist and a freethinker who was influenced by J.S. Mill's writings) emphasized not what beliefs you hold but how to hold those beliefs and what's the reasoning behind why you hold them. I think Spinoza would see eye to eye on this with Russell but that doesn't mean Spinoza suddenly becomes an atheist or an 'apostle' just because there is an overlap here with him. Unlike Russell, though, Spinoza was a scientist and, in this way, is also in line with freethinkers who promote knowledge grounded in scientific enquiry. This is why, maybe, Spinoza's Ethics is set out deductively in a geometric style. He isn't saying that Maths solves or explains everything he is just using this style, very common in the 17th century, to clarify his theory and thoughts. And I think it does just that. Although Spinoza wrote his TTP non-axiomatically, his Ethics was often besieged by intellectuals claiming they couldn't understand his philosophy. So he changed the original writing style in his Ethics and decided geometric method it is then. 

Thus, Spinoza is a Freethinker if we simply take the kernel of the Merriam-Webster definition of a Freethinker as a non-dogmatic person "who thinks freely or independently: one who forms opinions on the basis of reason independently of authority". But he is not a Freethinker if we erroneously conflate this with being an atheist or agnostic or Deist. 

To my mind, both Margaret Cavendish and Mary Shepherd were also freethinkers. Both thought outside the box, held strong opinions at variance with received wisdom and were not afraid to voice them. I see both as strong-minded feminists who said what they thought. Although both were Christians, nevertheless, they kept their religion and philosophy separate which is a position I uphold. Indeed, Shepherd expressly states that this is her intention. In many ways, I think, they are very similar to Spinoza. Hence, I am attracted to their philosophy because they are all types of Freethinkers. 

Thoughts on Spinoza's Posthumous Birthday

Today is Spinoza's posthumous birthday (24th November) so I've been thinking about him and philosophy and here are my thoughts. 

At the risk of repeating myself, I choose philosophers to research based on three things:

One, they are adamant that Philosophy is not Theology and the two must be kept distinctly separate. Examples of such philosophers are Shepherd and Spinoza. I totally agree with this, which is why I am not a theologian, and have no intention of ever becoming one. Moreover, I am not a philosopher of religion. If religion crops up somewhere I'll address it, but it's not something I seek out or am personally interested in, especially when doing philosophy.

Two, they are not religious eg JS Mill and Hume

Three, I can connect with them, I can empathize with them and I like them. 

Last week I watched the London Spinoza Circle's workshop available to replay on YouTube since we are not meeting in person at the moment due to the pandemic. It got me thinking about the differences between a Spinoza researcher's personal take on religion and Spinoza himself and how it does or does not influence their interpretation of him. 

Clare Carlisle, in her book, reads Spinoza through a Christian lens. She seems to repurpose Spinoza's philosophy for Christianity and devotion. To be honest, I'm struggling with how this works. 🤔I personally fail to see any Christianity in his philosophy. 🤷And I think it would be very difficult for him to want to incorporate it  into his system of thought, given that his family had to flee Catholic (Christian) religious persecution and, in so doing, become refugees in a foreign country. Spinoza was also aware and worried 😟 that his Ethics may be banned by the Vatican before he died. And indeed Spinoza was banned by the Vatican shortly after his death when a so-called friend of his submitted a copy (of questionable accuracy and merit given that Spinoza had explicitly not permitted anyone to run around with that copy) of a work by, presumably Spinoza, to the Vatican Office. With friends like that, who needs enemies! So I would question the urgency of reading Spinoza through the lens of such Christian so-called friends around him. Besides,  I'm not sure why the Vatican was interfering with and banning a work by a non-Christian. They should only be concerning themselves with fully fledged Roman Catholics who are in 'communion with the church' (which means those who have done all the required sacraments, are fully on board with Roman Catholic dogma, doctrine, mission, and leading an active Catholic life). I read that Catholics who are not fully in communion with the church cannot even function properly within it e.g. they do not have full status and are not granted certain things. So surely the Vatican should not be interfering with a Jew in Amsterdam. Even Darwin didn't manage to get into the Vatican's banned book list! 

However, I was delighted that Susan James stated clearly that "in her own life" she "finds no personal use for the name of God". A rather obtuse way of saying she's not religious, which I've known all along and is part of what I've always enjoyed about her philosophy lectures, talks, papers and books but I'm pleased she's actually stating it and giving us that personal insight. It's about the freedom to be who you want to be. We shouldn't be in the same place as we were back in the 17th century when everyone had to be religious. It was a problem for Hobbes that he professed to be an atheist. Some people aren't religious. If they are not feeling it then they shouldn't feel pressure to be otherwise. Philosophy should not just feel like a branch of religion whereby religious people are dictating what you can write or say! At least with Susan James I never feel like I'm getting fed religion through the backdoor, unbeknownst to me. Which, to my mind, makes it more pure philosophy! 

Philosophy is not attempting to take over theology/religion so theology shouldn't attempt to take over philosophy. They are two separate disciplines and never the two should meet. You can lead a perfectly good moral life just through being philosophical. You can use philosophy as a way of life, or you can use religion as a way of life, or a combination of both, but you should have a choice and whatever you choose should be respected. 

As for me, I interpret Spinoza within the context of his Jewish identity because it is simply who he was so, of course, it comes through in his texts and is an internal feature of his philosophy. But I've never used Spinoza's philosophy as a way of leading a religious life myself. 

Even though I have a Jewish interpretation of Spinoza, I don't project Judaism onto him. I'm not spreading my mind onto the world and his texts, as Hume would put it in his theory of Projectivism. I'm attempting to merely explain the properties I objectively notice in his writings and respect his Jewish heritage. I see his Dutch and Jewish identities as coexisting in him throughout his life. I don't have a religious agenda. I'm not peddling Judaism. I'm not saying 'Look at Spinoza! Isn't he amazing! Be Jewish!' Jews do not go around  converting people to Judaism. If they do then they are strange. My Jewish interpretation purely comes from believing Spinoza when he says he's an Orthodox religious Jew and appreciating when he draws on Judaism in his works. I'm simply giving Spinoza his voice as a Jew in philosophy. 

Although I lead a Jewish way of life myself, as far as it's possible, I'm not, however, strict about it because I wasn't brought up to be religious. Nevertheless, I do have some quirks due to my (Czech born) grandmother. She somehow instilled in me certain old-fashioned Jewish habits. For instance, how to wash my hands in a certain way, having a horror of finding and removing insects when preparing food 😱(even though I'm otherwise fascinated by insects and collect/study them), seeing blood spots in eggs (the egg had to be thrown away)😱 and separating meat and dairy and so on. I don't follow these Jewish habits in my daily life just as a way of being religiously observant. It's a part of me and is a way of keeping my granny's memory alive. I don't see it as illogical, because I think, as Spinoza also explains, there are some customs in Judaism that are not based on reason but exist so that the Jewish people stay bonded and survive so, in that way, they have a value in themselves. 

I see myself as a Jewish feminist so the typical sexism issues in Judaism don't affect me as much because I draw on alternative, positive scriptural explanations given by feminist Torah scholars. I have been particularly inspired by certain Orthodox feminist Jewish Torah arguments I've read and the Orthodox Jewish women in the Original Women of the Wall, who tirelessly argue their cause, fight for their feminist religious rights and bravely attempt to pray at the Western Wall as Orthodox feminists. Sadly, they are currently only a group rather than an entire branch of Judaism with synagogues around the world so it's not easy to publicly wear what you want, pray and read Torah in a synagogue as they attempt to do at the Western Wall. If the Original Women of the Wall opened a feminist LGBT+ synagogue, I'd be first in line, wearing my kippah and tallit katan, clutching my tallit bag! 🙂 Jewish women are merely not obligated to wear certain garments e.g. a tallit and a tallit katan. They are not, however, banned from doing so yet you could be forgiven for thinking this is the case, even in progressive branches! Not being obligated doesn't mean women shouldn't do it! Basically, it all stems from the golden calf idolatry incident when men became bored and wandered off to worship Ba'al but none of the women did. Ever since then, men were not trusted to stay faithful to Judaism and, therefore, had obligations imposed on them to prevent future idolatry. I think women should be allowed the opportunity to show that they don't take it easy as soon as they are not obliged to do something and that they are prepared to do their mitzvahs alongside the men.

I lead a Jewish life in a non-binary way as a genderfluid woman. This means that I wish to lead a Jewish life without gendered restrictions on how I can pray, what I can do or wear. So I not only sometimes wear my own (men's/gender neutral) kippahs, tallit and tallit katan for feminist reasons, for me, it's also about expressing my genderfluid/genderflux gender identity. As with feminist Judaism, there are some great gender identity debates going on. However, it's not until quite recently that Jews, and some rabbis, are raising awareness of non-binary Jewish people and supporting how they wish to live their Jewish life differently. There is also the occasional lesbian rabbis!🙂🌈 But even progressive branches are still way behind on LGBT+ needs and inclusion.

In addition, it's not just cultural pressure but also institutional pressure to gender conform to some feminine ideal that isn't even in scripture! I've looked at and been involved in many different progressive congregations and all or almost all women do not wear any Jewish distinctive clothing e.g. Kippah or tallit. And if they do, it's usually only someone assisting or conducting the service and they wear a very different design of tallit made for women only. It's hugely noticeable by the tallit's thinness of material, colour, smallness and patterns. Yet even non-Jewish men are required to put on a Kippah and sometimes also expected to wear a tallit on attending a service at a synagogue. However, a great fuss leading to a meltdown happens if women do it! So, I can see how Spinoza could easily fall foul of a convention of a particular synagogue. He need not be at loggerheads with them. It happens even when you are perfectly nice and polite! So I definitely agree with Spinoza's criticisms of institutional religion and rabbis, some of whom are also too political! Spinoza was against rabbis being involved in politics and I think he was right. Hume also was against institutional religion. I'm very much on the same page mainly because I had already thought that before I studied philosophy.

I think Spinoza was right to not strain himself to get readmitted to his synagogue. Just by looking at Uriel Acosta's excommunication and how abusively this synagogue behaved towards him on his return, shows that Spinoza wasn't losing out on anything by not returning! Indeed, Spinoza protected his mental wellbeing and survived the experience. Whereas Acosta didn't. He was forced to lie down at the entrance of the synagogue and let everyone trample him on their way into the building. As a result of the synagogue's excessive bullying and cruelty, Acosta committed suicide in 1647, when Spinoza was 13 years old. Why would Spinoza want to risk being subjected to this kind of treatment himself? He was much better off writing philosophy and persevering in his being and mental wellbeing away from the toxic culture of that synagogue. Perhaps Acosta's tragic life informed Spinoza's views on suicide as being caused by external forces rather than an internal failure of the conatus. We cannot in all conscience victim blame Spinoza while knowing that the same synagogue was responsible for the suicide of another Sephardic Jewish man and an exciting intellectual. 

Frankly, I don't care how potentially heretical someone might have been (not that Spinoza had been), or what they might have done or not done or paid. It's against Judaism to treat another sentient being in such a gross and inhumane way. There's no excuse for the synagogue to behave in this way. It was plain bullying and harassment in both Acosta and Spinoza's cases. 

Sadly, 😥serious bullying and harassment can still exist in the occasional synagogue today, even to the extent that it has reached the British tabloids:

https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/i-tried-to-alert-west-london-synagogue-but-got-nowhere-says-former-leader-1.496785

This is still an ongoing issue at this synagogue.

I think there should be an independent support group for victims and survivors who have suffered bullying, harassment and trauma at a synagogue of any denomination. 

I've come across it myself (e.g. Anti-feminist, and anti-LGBT+ attitudes, and even Anti-Semitic comments) and I have known others who have spoken out about bullying and what happened to them and I fully support them as a fellow victim and am available to add my voice! Of course, this is by no means true of all synagogues neither is it only something that occurs in synagogues/Judaism. It is, I think, a feature of institutional power (secular or religious) as Foucault points out. It's, nevertheless, very sad because synagogues are beautiful and should be easily accessible places of worship open to all. The security surrounding synagogues is excessive and it's interesting that Muslims declined such security around mosques because they worried it would put people off from attending.

Such personal experiences of the dark side of synagogue life has greatly improved my understanding of and empathy with Spinoza and helped me understand his situation. So I wouldn't change my position on Spinoza's excommunication, and I would refuse to lay the blame with Spinoza. I've seen it for myself, four centuries later! 

In an ideal world, all religions and non-believer groups would receive the same state funding and tax breaks as each other. They then can all thrive together on equal footing and eradicate bigotry and discrimination both under their own roof and out in the world. 

I find rabbinic debates fascinating because they are rigorous, logical and full of interesting argumentation between a myriad of opposing stances. Do I believe everything? No! But you can find some unusual facts and arguments in rabbinic debates! Rabbis are not revered in Judaism, they are akin to teachers, not some intermediary between you and God as Christians see priests. Thus, it's easy for me to hold in tension a rational, academic stance with an embracing of the traditions, joy and prayers which are said or sung in Hebrew. (I only pray in Hebrew.) Speaking of Hebrew, Spinoza was writing a Hebrew grammar book at the end of his life, so once again, I feel that love of Hebrew that we both share. He had to write in Latin because it was the language of scholars. Indeed, it was not that long ago that Latin was required if you wanted to 'read' a subject at Oxford or Cambridge.

I also identify with Spinoza's style of scriptural analysis because it is very similar to how my mother chats about it: the texts are imperfect documents written down by humans; you can't take it literally; there are contradictions and errors in it; you need to apply geographical, historical and archaeological facts to the scripture, and so on. Imperfect though it is, I see my Torah and Hebrew scripture books as (albeit damaged and often mistranslated) copies of historical texts, not books containing a type of mythology. Nevertheless, I follow all the respectful customs surrounding Torahs and Hebrew Bibles. I hold in tension that it's sacred scripture, together with not believing it is a reliable source for the word of G-d. 

Unlike Spinoza, I personally leave the exact existence of God an open question. Based on my experience, I feel that there could be a greater force of some sort in the universe. I think this is what people call God and for me is the God of the Hebrew Bible. However, I am not dogmatic about it. God may exist, or may exist differently from how we believe him/her/they to exist or, indeed, may not exist at all. If it turned out that this force isn't God, but rather some other phenomenon, I certainly wouldn't have some crisis of faith. I remember reading about a study years ago that argued that the brain is capable of producing experiences of the presence of God all by itself without any need for a God to cause it. This is a very interesting and plausible study. But since these questions are almost impossible to know with certainty, I keep an open mind and don't rule anything out. 

Like Spinoza, I have never held Christian concepts of God, Jesus or faith. I know less about Christianity than even he did and I have never attended church. I could count on one hand the amount of times I've been inside a church during a service. I have, however, entered various churches here and abroad, including in the Czech Republic, simply to look at the architecture (and any artworks by famous painters displayed for free) or even to attend a free classical music concert. But I could never connect to Christianity or feel anything in a church. 

Furthermore, I have never received any instruction in the Roman Catholic faith or any other Christian denomination. (It took me decades to remember that Joseph, father to Jesus, was not Joseph of the Hebrew Bible. 😂 I had, as a child, studied the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) with my mother so I was good at that.) 

It was my choice not to have any religious Christian instruction and my mother was a firm believer that it's up to me to make up my mind when I became an adult as to whether I wanted to follow a religion, which one or none at all. My mother was (and is) very open-minded and liberal so I could choose to be a Christian if I wanted to. But by the age of 10, I made a conscious decision that I didn't want to be a Christian, then or ever. I crossed it off. I've never changed my mind! And I have no intention of ever doing so. I'm exercising my freedom to follow the religion I identify with without suffering discrimination or pressure to convert to Christianity. I'm not against Christianity per se, it's just not for me.

Here's a pause ☕🍪 for everyone to take a deep breath and look shocked and surprised!😮😯🤯

However, much as I have a rational, academic stance towards Judaism I do also have an emotional attachment to it. In my early twenties I went to Pilsen in the Czech Republic and to the Great Synagogue there. As soon as you enter, you just feel something really powerful. I connected with its atmosphere immediately. I found it so very moving. It's very difficult to put into words but I connected with that synagogue on so many different levels: emotionally; religiously (I could feel the Shechinah dwelling in the sanctuary) and I felt connected to the Jewish community of the past and present: culturally; politically; historically including through the tragic events of the Holocaust. Granny told me about her life during the Nazi era. Her emotions and experiences swam into my mind as I stood there looking around the empty sanctuary, tears streaming down my face. I'll never forget that moment. I think this emotional attachment is one that draws me to Spinoza and always will! 

My Spinoza Teleology Paper and beyond

Continuing from my previous post, I was surprised by the questions Susan James was asked. Mainly because they seem more relevant to my Spinoza paper on Spinoza and Teleology, which tracked this topic from Pre-Socratics to Darwin and beyond to present day genetics. This was a paper that was very broad in scope because I wrote it in response to a call for papers sent to me by email for a Summer School in 2016 at the University of Groningen. This 2016 summer school seems to have mysteriously evaporated off the university's website and other websites but luckily I have paperwork to show it did happen and that I presented a paper there as well as presenting a paper at a workshop there earlier in Spring 2016.

This Aristotle to Darwin paper was subsequently expanded (2016-2017) and included in my first volume on Spinoza (published January 2018, see Part 3 from intro-chapter 12). I would never choose to write anything as broad as this paper (which I could have narrowed down but I found it fascinating to track the topic through the ages) because it can become unwieldy and leave you open to difficult questions at Q&A due to its sheer breadth, meaning I had to cover philosophers and areas which were not my research speciality but were for many around the table. For example, I included Aristotle and Maimonides in my paper, even though I'm not an Ancient or Medieval philosophy scholar. Equally, I discussed Darwin but I've never been a philosopher of Science although I had recently taken a postgraduate module in genetics (and other science courses after my degree) and generally just enjoy discussing science. 

Consequently, I could have had a very tough time at Q&A but I didn't. The questions I was asked matched up with the content of my paper that I was giving there and then, so that made it easy. Point being, they didn't even, for instance, ask me about topics I had covered in my previous paper (political philosophy and true worship) only a couple of months before at the same university. Whereas the questions Susan James was asked were not tight to the paper she had just presented, despite the zoom attendees receiving her paper in advance. Whereas my paper was not distributed ahead of my talk. I did give out a handout but that was only passed around just before I began my talk so there was no time to read it in advance. 

The questions during my Q&A session were constructive ones that I could answer, build on and discuss. Some didn't ask a question but preferred to chat to me afterwards about my paper, ranging from a lecturer who wanted to discuss pantheism (so I explained my thoughts about Spinoza being more similar to a panentheistic approach than a pantheistic approach), to a postgraduate in Biology who wanted to talk about the scientific aspects of my paper over lunch. I had a great time discussing what I love doing, which is talking about my philosophy research! 

At all of my talks, I found that, if attendees wanted to ask me questions that were more off-piste, they left it until after the talk on a one-to-one basis in more relaxed surroundings eg break time, lunch or dinner and they were very friendly and happy to broaden out and discuss it with me. Interestingly my panentheism topic in Spinoza has become a big thing since I discussed it in the summer of 2016.🤔 I've spotted two funded projects on it: Jan 2017 - Sept 2019: 'The Pantheism and Panentheism Project'1; and 'Panentheism and Religious Life'2 Jan. 2020 - Dec. 2021, both funded by Templeton. 

As for me, I have always maintained (since early 2016 and I checked/discussed panentheism in relation to Judaism {but not Spinoza} with an Orthodox Rabbi) that Spinoza was a panentheist in a way which coheres with Judaism. To be a pantheist he'd have had to be an atheist, which he certainly was not.  

As an aside but still relevant to the backstory to my research on Spinoza: 

Templeton funding was suggested to me for my Spinoza research by a male lecturer over breakfast at the Aristotelian Society Annual Conference 2016. So I created a profile with them in all innocence, not realising what I was doing. After all, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks received a Templeton prize in 2016 so I assumed that my Jewish interpretation of Spinoza would be in their wheelhouse. However, I never actually used my profile to apply for any funding and just as well. Because I later discovered to my horror that the founder was an US-born ultra-conservative billionaire and that the foundation is known for being the top funder of rightwing popularism in the UK, according to the Guardian newspaper in this article and another. In the latter article, they call this foreign interference in British politics. Of course, Templeton exploited a loophole by living in the tax haven of the Bahamas thereby making himself also British which led him to be eligible for a knighthood from the Queen (1987). Templeton, therefore, affects British policy by donating to UK think tanks and pressure groups, such as the Centre for Policy Studies, founded by Thatcher and Keith Joseph, which promote a conservative ideology. 😱 (Liz Truss gave a speech at the CPS in December 2020). 

Unfortunately, I didn't come across this academic journal article until recently which clearly states who they are, rather than who they pretend to be. That is, they like to give the appearance of being open-minded and pro-science when they are actually a zealous, rightwing Christian group who are evangelical about their religion and anti-science so quietly skew research they fund accordingly. Anyway, this very long article by Bains in Evolutionary Psychology titled 'Questioning the Integrity of the John Templeton Foundation' discusses this and demonstrates how the research they fund has little credibility, as a result. 

Much as I have done the topic of religion and science in my Spinoza/Darwin paper and later in my Spinoza volume 1, I in no way agree with the aims of the Templeton foundation or with the way they go about realising these aims. Both politically and religiously they have never fitted with who I am. But I didn't know that at the time because there wasn't much on them on the internet and, besides, I rather trusted that this lecturer wouldn't make an unhelpful suggestion! Moreover, they are anti-gay marriage, as this article shows, so, since I am gay, that makes them completely off my radar! No way am I going to support or be linked with any anti-LGBTQIAPD2S+ organisations, institutions etc. 

Furthermore, I am a philosopher not a theologian. I am also not a philosopher who wishes to push a religious agenda. Religion is, or at least should be, a personal matter not something foisted on others and certainly not something you should try to convert people to or convert them to a specific religion. For me, philosophy and theology are two separate, distinct disciplines that do not mix well, and indeed should not be conflated with each other.

I have tried to remove my profile on the Templeton website but cannot find a delete profile button to do so. I'm not sure why not, it's a standard feature for all sites and profiles and usually clearly visible. I also haven't found any instructions on how to delete my profile. I and other researchers should not be stuck with a profile on a website of an organisation with which they do not wish to be associated.

1For more information on this 2017-2019 project, see:

https://www.templeton.org/grant/the-pantheism-and-panentheism-project

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/ptr/departments/philosophy/research/projects/pantheism-panentheism.aspx

https://sites.google.com/site/pantheismandpanentheismproject/stipends/funded-projects

For more information on this Jan 2020 - Dec 2021 or Jan 2022 project, see:

https://www.templeton.org/grant/panentheism-and-religious-life

https://panentheismproject.org/work-2/