philosophy help: SPINOZA... anyone know lots about this freak?

[urameatball]

I'm supposed to do a presentation on Baruch Spinoza tomorrow afternoon, and after reading the text, all I could say is that he is one dumb freak.

or maybe I'm the dumb freak? I don't know...

anyway, I'm supposed to do part.I and the appendix of Part.I.
so if anyone could clue me in on what's really happening and maybe provide some insight to what I should be looking for, that would really help.

from what I'm understanding right now (which is not much).

god is the controller of everything, and that everything happens for a reason... this way, although we think we have our freedom, we are actually tightly bound and our actions are never of our own will, for our will is also controlled by god.

or something like that... then he goes into some details about natural naturans, and natural naturata... and dumb stuff like that... this text is screwy, HELP ME!

 

[urameatball]

no philosophy students out there eh?

 

[Jfur]

I think you might be driving them away by insulting one of the Great Ones

try this link😛

 

[thEnEuRoMancER]

I think Spinoza's god is not a controller at all, only omnipresent or something 🙂

Check here

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

philosophy major here, and never understood spinoza. i had no idea what the hell he was trying to say, and i also couldn't figure out why he had to invent so many new terms.