PHILOSOPHIC PONDERING
We
shall not cease from exploration
And
the end of all our exploring
Will
be to arrive where we started
And
know the place for the first time[i]
Philosophy and a curious mind was a legacy from my
grandfather. Recently I read a book by Rebecca Goldstein “36 Arguments for the Existence of God, a work of fiction” In her
appendix Argument 36 The argument from
the Intelligibility of the Universe ( Spinoza’s God)
My grandfather was old, in his late 80s when I was a
teen. He spewed out words of Spinoza, and Greek philosophers. In Grade XIII I
wrote an essay for Peggy Fulton’s English class on Spinoza “ A Great
Philosopher”. I still have the hand written paper. I see it is pretty much
plagiarized. At any rate the essence of Spinoza’s thought is that the universe
is perfectly lawful and necessary, worthy of our awe, provides all the answers about itself- is
God, neither transcendent nor transcendental. Seeds were planted in my mind, and later germinated
as I studied philosophy with Frank Doan at Lakehead University. It seems odd that 50 years after my grandpa’s death I should come upon a novel with Spinoza’s
philosophy, as its theme.
Goldstein’s novel led me to another of her books
Betraying Spinoza. She tells the reader that Spinoza received a vehemence letter from a student, who turned
aside from his teacher’s thought, and told him why, in terms. Spinoza was
dying of tuberculosis but he gathered enough strength to respond
(December 1675):
”the first and foremost rule to remember is that we
have no control over anything other than the progress of our own understanding.
And the second rule is to care only about that which we have control. We don’t
have control over others’ understanding no matter how hard we try to help them
advance.”[ii]
Spinoza was unable to keep the student ‘Albert Burgh
from descending into narrow minded confusion.
As teachers we have to keep in mind that the power to pursue knowledge,
understanding. and truth remains with the student. We can do what we can. We
can encourage and set examples. But we cannot learn for the student. This
desire to make the effort to seek knowledge, and understanding lies with the students themselves. Students must learn to set aside superstitions and false beliefs. According to Spinoza[iii]
“Superstitions as opposed to religion
offer us false cures for our finitude. They make us believe that we are more
cosmically important than we are…,”
To become fully functioning autonomous human beings
learn to make judgments based on reason,
be objective, balance the facts.
No comments:
Post a Comment