Spinoza's Reasoning was Childish

There's a tendency to pomposity in all this, to make it all deep and profound. My son is taking a course in philosophy, and last night we were looking at something by Spinoza--and there was teh most childish reasoning! There were all these Attributes, and Substances, all this meaningless chewing around, and we started to laugh. Now, how could we do that? Here's this great Dutch phiosopher, and we're laughing at him. It's because there was no excuse for it! In that same period there was Newton, there was Harvey studying the circulation of the blood, there were people with methods of analysis by which progress was being made! You can take every one of Spinoza's propositions, and take the contrary propositions, and look at the world--and you can't tell which is right. Sure, people were awed because he had the courage to take on these great questions, but it doesn't do any good to have the courage to take on these great questions, but it doesn't do any good to have the courage if you can't get anywhere with the question.

Notes:

Feynman talks about reading the great Dutch philosopher with his son.

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The Smartest Man in the World

Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book Chapter: Feynman, Richard (1992), The Smartest Man in the World, Omni Publications Internation, Ltd., Retrieved on 2010-11-13