Benedict de Spinoza is described as one of the "more difficult philosophers of the Rationalist school." (Philip Stokes, Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers, 78). Two influences dominate the thought of Spinoza: Descartes and Euclid.
Under the influence of Descartes Spinoza determined to establish a basis for knowledge in logic, while under the influence of Euclid Spinoza established a variety of ontological, metaphysical, epistemological beliefs, which are demonstrated in geometric fashion. (Philip Stokes, Philosophy: 100 Essential Thinkers, 79).
Leibniz chief work, Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonsrata or Ethics, was published posthumously. Evidencing the influence of Euclid, the book was written in a geometrical form utilizing geometrical constructs utilizing definitions, axioms, propositions and proofs. (Colin Brown, Philosophy and the Christian Faith, 54).
Spinoza is the only Jewish thinker among the rationalists. He was excommunicated from the Jewish community of Amsterdam, possibly on account of the heretical views that he held about the nature of God, and the immortality of the soul, views later elaborated in his great systematic work cited above, Ethics.
For this writer, Spinoza's conclusions vividly demonstrate more than his peers the interrelatedness of metaphysics and epistemology. When reading Spinoza, there is a complex interweaving of metaphysical conclusions, which are based upon epistemological convictions. This interrelatedness will be evidence in the present material with regard to the discussion of Spinoza’s three levels of knowledge.
Spinoza is often described as the God intoxicated philosopher. Regarding Spinoza's understanding of the nature of "God" it appears that the best word used to describe his approach is that of Pantheism. The emphasis of Spinoza’s work lies in his focus upon God’s immanence with the created order and his understanding of God as a substance inherently present in and related to all that exists.
As such, there is a predetermined power or force (God) at work in the world of the created order, which renders freedom and free will impossible. This divine force will inevitably have its way and will progressively work out its pre-arranged purposes.
Regarding the immortality of the soul, as substance the soul is eternal and unending. For Spinoza, there is no substantive difference between the substance of body and mind or soul. Mind and body are simply terminological ways for speaking of the divinity, which permeates all of reality.
Regarding the existence of evil and suffering in the world, Spinoza concludes that the existence of evil and suffering has its roots in one's limited perspective of those categories. At this point, Spinoza’s conclusions reflect his lack of confidence in the senses. In short, Spinoza proposes that when it comes to the presence of evil and suffering, we simply do not have the entire story since sensory perception is inadequate at the least and distorting at its worst.
Interestingly, Spinoza's conclusion closely resembles much of Christian's theology regarding the presence of evil and suffering in the world which would argue that we are unable to comprehend the reason for the presence of evil in the world and that we should find comfort in the potentiality that we will “understand it all better by and by.”
Spinoza speaks of three types of knowledge: random experience or knowledge of the first king, adequate ideas or knowledge of the second kind and intuition or knowledge of the second kind.
Spinoza first speaks of the knowledge gained through sensory experience or as he labels such knowledge the knowledge of random experience. In short, "Spinoza argues that we cannot have adequate ideas of the world through sensation (Ethics II, propositions 16-31; Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd ed., 772). The senses provide only a "superficial" acquaintance" of self and of the external world. For Spinoza the senses are "an invariable source of falsehood and error" and are also the source of "delusion." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online, "Baruch Spinoza")
In his Ethics Spinoza concludes that the senses may be a more remote means to authentic or legitimate knowledge, but the senses are never reliable enough to constitute a primary means or even an adequate means for knowledge. This is true since, according to Spinoza, the sense is imperfect and is derived from vague sensory experience. For Spinoza, sensory experience only provides inadequate ideas and cannot be relied upon as a source of truth.
Second, Spinoza also speaks of "adequate ideas." According to Spinoza, this knowledge begins with simple adequate and innate ideas and proceeds to analyze causal or logical necessity between objects. This knowledge of the second kind provides us with truth in contradistinction to any knowledge gained through sensory experience. According to Spinoza this level of knowledge "involves grasping a thing's causal connections not just to other objects, but also more importantly, to the attributes of God and the infinite modes that follow immediately from them" (SEP, Baruch Spinoza)
Spinoza's conclusions regarding this second level of knowledge optimistically supercedes the conclusions of Spinoza's predecessor Descartes and his optimism regarding the potential of Reason to enable us to grasp all of Nature or "God". In short, Spinoza seemed convinced that through the use of Reason we can know all there is to know of God, God's attributes, and all things related to God. (SEP, Baruch Spinoza)
In addition, Spinoza speaks of a third level of knowledge, the knowledge of intuition. Spinoza takes his theory of knowledge one step further with this level of knowledge and optimistically claims that the mind can genuinely and ultimately deduce and can intuitively come to the recognition that all Reality is the essence of God himself. "This third kind of knowledge, intuition, takes what is known by Reason and grasps it in a single act of the mind." (SEP, Baruch Spinoza)
