Steven Nadler talk on Spinoza - Part 1Steven Nadler talk on Spinoza - Part 2
Steven Nadler, Chair of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, gives a talk on Baruch Spinoza at Beyond Belief 2006, touching on Spinoza's conception of God and morality.
Spinoza heavily influenced Einstein's beliefs about God and ethics. He said:'It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropomorphic concept which I cannot take seriously. I feel also not able to imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. My views are near to those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order and harmony which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly. I believe that we have to content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding and treat values and moral obligations as a purely human problem — the most important of all human problems.'
Beyond Belief: Science, Reason, Religion & Survival
