Here is a presentation on Spinoza—idea of Nature and God—Pantheism— concept of substance and modes—Cartesian dualism vs Spinoza‘s monism and a pantheistic reading of Walt Whitman's ―On the Beach at Night Alone.

1. Philosophy for Literature (EN 1431)
Module 2
Enlightenment and After
Spinoza—idea of Nature and God—Pantheism— concept of substance
and modes—Cartesian dualism vs Spinoza‘s monism- Walt Whitman.
―On the Beach at Night Alone.

2. Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
 Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) was a seventeenth-century Dutch
philosopher.
 He is considered one of the first rationalist philosophers.
 Spinoza’s philosophy influenced the Age of Enlightenment in
Europe during the eighteenth century and continued to inspire
modern thinkers like Hegel, Freud, Albert Einstein, Immanuel Kant,
Friedrich Nietzsche, and Karl Marx.
 The Principles of Cartesian Philosophy (1663), Theological-
Political Treatise (1670), Ethics (1677, Posthumous) are some of his
major works.
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3. Major Ideas
1. Rationalism: Spinoza was a rationalist who prioritized reason
and judgment over opinion and superstition
2. Determinism: Spinoza believed that free will was an illusion. For
Spinoza, the natural laws of the universe dictate a cause-and-
effect relationship that is beyond human understanding or
control.
3. God or nature: Spinoza believed in God’s existence within the
context of pantheism rather than the context of traditional
religion. Spinoza wrote about “deus sive natura,” meaning “God
or nature,” to describe his belief that God is the core substance
of the universe.
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4. Major Ideas
4. Moral relativism: Spinoza rejected the ideas of Judaism and
Christianity that there is such a thing as good and evil. Spinoza
instead believed that the nature of the human mind is to
categorize the things that improve well-being as good.
5. Monism: Spinoza’s metaphysics rejected Cartesian dualism and
assumed that everything is a part of God
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5. Substance and Modes
 According to Spinoza, everything that exists is either a substance
or a mode
 Substance: A substance is something that needs nothing else in
order to exist or be conceived. Substances are independent
entities.
 Mode: A mode or property is something that needs substance in
order to exist, and cannot exist without substance.
 For example, being furry, orange, hungry, angry, etc. are modes
that need a substance which is furry, orange, hungry, angry, etc.
Hunger and patches of orange color cannot exist floating around
on their own
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6. Substance and Modes
 According to almost all of Spinoza’s predecessors (including
Aristotle and Descartes) there are lots of substances in the
universe, each with their own modes or properties.
 According to Descartes a cat is a substance which has the modes
or properties of being furry, orange, soft, etc.
 Spinoza rejects this traditional view and argues instead that
there is only one substance, called “God” or “Nature.”
 This idea is called Substance Monism
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7. Substances and modes
 The God according to Spinoza doesn’t have a personality, he sees
nature as God.
 Cats, people, rocks, ideas, thoughts etc. are not substances in
Spinoza’s view, are just modes or properties of one substance,
which is God.
 One can think of substance as an infinite space.
 Some regions of this one space are hard and brown (rocks), other
regions of space are green, juicy, and soft (plants), while still other
regions are furry, orange, and soft (cats), etc.
 Spinoza’s monism is entirely different from Cartesian dualism.
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8. Monism vs Dualism
• Cartesian Dualism is based on the
premise that the mind is distinct from
the body
• The body is not essential to existence
because it does not contribute to being
a thinking thing, and consequently, the
mind is the sole necessity for existence.
• Descartes considered that there were
two types of substance, extended and
non-extended
• Descartes states that by the word 'God’
he understand a substance that is
infinite, independent, supremely
intelligent, supremely powerful, and
which created everything including him.
• Descartes's Meditations is built on doubt
• Spinoza did not think that the mind and
body are distinct entities, rather two
aspects of the same reality.
• In contrast to Descartes' mind, which
interacts with the body via the pineal
gland, Spinoza's mind and body interact
seamlessly as two of God's infinite
attributes.
• Spinoza held that there was only one
particular substance, which he refers to
as Nature, or God.
• Spinoza's denies a personality to God, he
insists that God has no intellect, no will, no
purposes and no emotions.
• Spinoza’s Ethics is built on certainty that
God is the only substance.
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Cartesian Dualism Spinoza’s Monism

9. Nature Or God: Pantheism
 In The Ethics Spinoza argues that there is only one substance, which is
absolutely infinite, self-caused, and eternal. He calls this substance "God", or
"Nature".
 In fact, he takes these two terms to be synonymous (in the Latin the phrase
he uses is "Deus sive Natura“ means God or Nature).
 This belief that reality is identical with divinity, or that all things compose an
all-encompassing, immanent god or goddess is called Pantheism
 Pan means ‘All’ and Theism means ‘belief in God’. So according to pantheism,
‘God is everything and everything is God’
 For Spinoza the whole of the natural universe is made of one substance, God,
or, what's the same, Nature, and its modifications (modes).
 God is “the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly
not an individual entity or creator”.
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10.  According to the traditional Judeo-Christian conception of
divinity, God is a transcendent creator, a being who causes a
world distinct from himself to come into being by creating it out
of nothing.
 By contrast, Spinoza’s God is the cause of all things because all
things follow causally and necessarily from the divine nature.
 Pantheists also reject the idea of God's personhood.
 The Pantheist God is not a personal God, the kind of entity that
could have beliefs, desires, intentions, or agency.
 Pantheist, God is the non-personal divinity that pervades all
existence. It is the divine Unity of the world.
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Nature or God: Pantheism

11. On the Beach at Night Alone
On the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining, I think a thought of the clef of the universes and of the future.
A vast similitude interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets,
All distances of place however wide,
All distances of time, all inanimate forms,
All souls, all living bodies though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes,
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages,
All identities that have existed or may exist on this globe, or any globe,
All lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future,
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann’d,
And shall forever span them and compactly hold and enclose them.
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Walt Whitman

12. On the Beach at Night Alone
 The poem starts with the speaker placing himself on the beach,
looking at the stars.
 They inspire him to think about the broader universe, and how
connected all spheres, places, forms, and structures are.
 These things, no matter how far out of humanity’s reach, are part
of existence in the same way human beings are.
 All life, civilizations, languages, and peoples are part of the same
similitude as well.
 This is a unifying message, one that should be uplifting and
inspiring.
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13. Summary
 In the first lines of ‘On the Beach at Night Alone,’ Whitman sets
the scene, describing the beach and how he’s there, along with
“the old mother” who is singing her “husky song.” The old woman
here is the sea.
 The speaker describes watching the “bright stars shining” and
thinking about where everything (universe) began, as in a piece of
music.
 In the next five lines, the speaker notes how there is a “similitude”
that “interlocks” or connects everything. There is a state of
similarity that connects all things that have ever existed and will
ever exist, living and dead.
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14. Summary
 All the spheres of the universe are connected, as are all the
“places however wide” or small. The distance, shape, form, or
location don’t matter. Each thing is locked together.
 All inanimate forms are also connected. Just because something
is not human or not traditionally alive doesn’t mean it isn’t
connected to the broader universe.
 All souls, “all living bodies” even when they’re “ever so different” or
are in “different worlds” are also connected. No matter how
different everything is, it is all connected to each other.
 In the next lines, the speaker adds in “gaseous, watery, vegetable,
mineral processes, the fishes, the brutes,” noting that they are
connected
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15. Summary
 Rather than speaking broadly about the universe and spheres, he
now brings the language to earth and specifically mentions
“civilizations” and “languages.”
 Everyone who has ever lived or will ever live is connected.
 The poem concludes with the speaker using the word “similitude”
again.
 He says, no matter how our personal lives change, how people
relate to one another, or the broader state the world is in, we are
always going to be connected to one another.
 The similitude is all encompassing and it will forever holdand
enclose everything forever.
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16. Pantheism in On the Beach at Night Alone
 Pantheism is a philosophical principle which interprets the nature
of god.
 It is derived from the Greek words 'pan' which means 'all', and
'theism' that means 'belief in God’.
 It focused on accepting the differences of forms by focusing on
the inner divine nature.
 Thus in the poem 'On the Beach at Night Alone', the narrator
realizes the pointlessness of dividing or differentiating things
which are actually the same at the core.
 All things are connected by their inner divine nature.
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17. Pantheism in On the Beach at Night Alone
 Whitman explains this by stating that "A vast similitude interlocks
all".
 This means that diverse objects, states and forms are all the
different manifestations of the Great Being who is God.
 All spheres, grown, ungrown, sun, moon, planets, distances, souls,
living bodies, different world, gaseous and mineral Processes are
but Parts of the Great Whole, thus the image of God".
 Whitman explains that across time, space and matter, divinity
'spans’.
 Whitman feels reassured by the pantheistic revelation, stating
that the divinity would 'compactly hold and enclose' these diverse
entities.
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18. Thank You
Arya R Krishnan
Department of English
KSMDB College
Sasthamcotta
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