Deus sive Natura. God or Nature. Baruch Spinoza's revolutionary equation that shattered the distinction between Creator and creation made him the most dangerous philosopher of the seventeenth century. This three-hour exploration traces his journey from Amsterdam's Portuguese-Jewish community through excommunication, solitary lens grinding, and the development of a philosophical system that would influence Einstein, the Romantics, and contemporary thought.

Discover the geometric arguments of the Ethics: substance monism that declares only one infinite reality exists, mind-body parallelism that dissolves Cartesian dualism, the doctrine of conatus as the striving at the heart of all existence, and the path from human bondage through understanding to blessedness. Spinoza offers freedom through comprehending necessity, ethics grounded in nature rather than divine command, and the intellectual love of God that requires no supernatural belief.

For night listening, contemplation, study, or deep rest.

CHAPTERS:

00:00:00 Chapter 1: God or Nature: The Most Dangerous Idea00:10:47 Chapter 2: Amsterdam and the Portuguese Jewish World00:24:44 Chapter 3: Education, Doubt, and the Path to Excommunication00:41:18 Chapter 4: The Cherem: Cursed and Cut Off00:52:10 Chapter 5: The Lens Grinder and the Philosophical Life01:08:56 Chapter 6: The Geometric Method: Why Demonstrate Ethics Like Mathematics01:20:51 Chapter 7: One Substance: The Foundation of Everything01:34:28 Chapter 8: God as Nature: Infinite Attributes and Eternal Necessity01:50:32 Chapter 9: Farewell to Miracles, Providence, and Final Causes02:05:49 Chapter 10: Mind and Body: Parallelism and the Rejection of Dualism02:20:07 Chapter 11: Three Kinds of Knowledge: Imagination, Reason, Intuition02:34:38 Chapter 12: Conatus: The Striving at the Heart of All Things02:46:56 Chapter 13: Joy, Sadness, and the Architecture of the Emotions