Benedict de Spinoza

Notes

Benedict de Spinoza (1632–1677), Dutch rationalist, excommunicated by Amsterdam's Jewish community at 23. Identified God with nature, denied miracles, providence and free will, and held that we feel free only because we are ignorant of the causes of our actions. The respectable ancestor of "I believe in Spinoza's God", which is not a god in any sense worth arguing over.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Spinoza

Also see

Freewill vs Determinism
Pantheism
Neutral Monism, of which his one substance with two attributes is the ancestor
God

Linked from

Freewill vs Determinism

Benedict de Spinoza: "Men believe themselves free because they are conscious of their own actions, and ignorant of the causes by which they are determined." (Ethics, Part II, Prop. 35, Scholium)

Neutral Monism

The lineage. Benedict de Spinoza's single substance, with thought and extension as two of its attributes, is the ancestor. Ernst Mach held that the world is made of "elements" (colours, pressures, sounds) which are physical when considered…

God

Pantheism ("God is the universe"). This is a relabelling, not a claim. I already believe in the universe. See Benedict de Spinoza.

Pantheism

Spinoza. Benedict de Spinoza was excommunicated in 1656 for a God who is identical with Nature, has no will, no plans, no preferences, and no afterlife to offer. Deus sive Natura: God, or Nature, take your pick. His contemporaries saw at o…