Question

Please give a well-written response for Baruch Spinoza's view on ibn Ezra.

Please explain his views and so fourth.

thanks

Answer 1

Baruch Spinoza was a Jewish philosopher, who was outracised from Jewish community for his negation of God's existence, his power and supremacy. Baruch Spinoza derived basic principles of his philosophy from ibn Ezra's philosophy of God who was a renowned Jewish philosopher in his community and was a devout believer of God but with a different perspective.

Baruch Spinoza negated God's existence based on ibn Ezra's view that God does not involve in the affairs of the earth. The affairs of earth are maintained and run by the laws of nature that are perfect and just. Evil or bad is due to the self-centered and selfish interests of human beings, which causes harm to ither people.

ibn Ezra emphasizes that prayers, meditation and other superstitions are unnecessary because everything has been predetermined by the laws of nature, and nothing can convince God to change what has been already determined. If, anything that can be changed is human behavior by focusing and finding out wrong ways, that should be corrected for better life for oneself and others in this world. The same principle is used to attack the various practices as prayer, meditation and other practices to convince God to change the situation by Baruch Spinoza.

The next principle that was taken from ibn Ezra's philosophy is, man is not the center or attains the topmost position in nature, but he is just a part of nature. It's man's life and behavior that is influenced by nature and not nature influenced by man.

Thus, Baruch Spinoza takes principle of ibn Ezra to negate the existence and supremacy of God over the creation and universe and emphasize the importance of nature and natural laws in man's life and universe.