The 100th Post - Some Spinoza with Stoicism

I was told by the theologian Dr. Jorgenson, MA-Divinity, from the Baptist Student Union at NCSU that Philosophy in Latin is literally Bios. That is, the Romans saw philosophy as a way of life.

Sometimes people ask me what I'm going to do with philosophy. My impulse is to play with them. My gut reaction is to tell them that I plan on doing philosophy with my philosophy degree. The truth of it is, I'm hoping that I can use this everywhere, almost all of the time.

Burke says people, when reading the things that they were supposed to do in 7 Tips for Success books and so on, rarely actually do what the books tell them. He says the people really only read these books in order to be close to success, not actually apply the strategies.


Back in the day, people really set their passions for success, but it was really bad success. People were so passionate that they ended up getting themselves in trouble back in the day. For example, Spinoza's philosophy partially deals with the passions. The passions are almost exactly what you would expect. He thought that by ditching these passions we could get back to reality and truth. He saw that people who were abusing religion, and this goes specifically for Protestants, Catholics, and Jews of the day, were just too passionate. What was too passionate back in the day? Two of Spinoza's friends, who were handing out Spinoza-Pamphlets, were beaten up and then, I'm not making this up, eaten. They were beaten up and eaten.

Spinoza, as the rogue and rebel that he was, wanted to put a big painted sign in the street of his apartment that said, "Ultimi Barbarum" that is, it was a sign that called the mob Ultimate Barbarians, but no one knows if the mob in its rage would have been able to figure this Latin out. They might have thought Spinoza was the greatest hair cutter in the whole world. Mobs have no reason about them and we can rest assured that really good haircuts at affordable prices would have really pissed them off. Damn you, ultimate barber. We'll never know for sure because Spinoza's roommate locked him in his room for a couple of weeks, without putting the sign up.

Anyway, I just found this quote from Jarrett's Spinoza: A Guide for the Perplexed. Spinoza used the Stoics, who were a school from the Ancients who opposed Epircureans. I cannot remember all that I'm supposed to about the Epicureans, but I remember that it seems like the two schools are the same.

The Stoics thought that this world obeys a natural order, and that we have to get rid of our passions. Spinoza took this to heart in a big way, and these are cornerstones of his greater Metaphysics. He believes, to semi-religious adherence, that this world is causally organized and determined, and that we have to get rid of our passions.

Here is the quote from Jarrett on Spinoza, where Jarrett talks about Epictetus (presumably a Stoic but I haven't looked it up):

"Epictetus reminds us in Enchiridion [literally handbook - Jake] that a ceramic cup is the sort of thing that can break. So to avoid distress, it is best not to become too attached to any particular cup. his point, however, is that people, including your spouse and child, are like this as well (98)."

I've also got a note on here that 81-101 are on Spinoza's concept of mind, and pages 152-153 are about Spinoza on suicide.