Sunday, October 31, 2010

Spinoza--Good and Evil

According to Spinoza, 'Good' and 'Evil' are ideas that exist only in the mind of a finite entity, as perceptions of external objects as constructive or destructive, respectively, of it. Hence, God, an infinite entity, has no concept of either, and, since an 'adequate idea', in Spinoza's system, is one that God thinks, 'X is good' and 'X is evil' are always inadequate ideas. On the other hand, God has an adequate idea of every finite entity, and, hence, has one of every modification of a finite entity. Thus, he has one of every harmful encounter in the experience of a finite entity. But a harmful encounter of P with X, is, by definition, one in which X is 'evil' for P. Hence, Spinoza seems to have not precluded that God does have thoughts of Evil, and, for similar reasons, of God, in a relativized sense. So, if God does think 'X is evil for P', it is an adequate idea. Thus, if P thinks 'X is evil for me', e. g. P is aware of being allergic to X, then it is not necessarily an inadequate idea, depending on the degree of reasoning involved, and likewise for thoughts of 'Good'. However, Spinoza seems to give no indication of recognizing the adequacy of 'Good' and 'Evil' in this relativized respect, without which, he seems committed to the potentially harmful dismissal of any individual perception of a legitimate threat to them as an 'inadequate' idea.

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