Sir Frederic Pollock in gesprek met een jonge student over Spinoza
In zijn Spinoza His
Life and Philosophy uit 1880 behandelt Frederic Pollock [cf. blog] hoe volgens hem Spinoza in zijn attributen-leer een
idealistische filosofie schetst. Niet het subjectieve idealisme dat vanuit het
intellect in gedachte dingen ziet die daar in werkelijkheid niet zouden zijn,
nee, in het denken is de wereld zowel subjectief als tegelijk objectief (in de
zin van “object van het denken”). Vanuit het denken kunnen we nooit bij de werkelijkheid
buiten het intellect komen - bij elke poging daartoe, blijken we in het denken te blijven. Pollock is door Berkeley en Kant beïnvloed en schrijft Spinoza dus dogmatisch
denken toe, althans ziet het als louter speculatief zoals Spinoza de ‘werelden’
(attributen) van denken en dingen aan elkaar knoopt – ze als onlosmakelijk parallel
verlopend ziet. Na Spinoza's zgn. idealisme behandeld te hebben, last hij een intermezzo in:
At this stage some serious young students may be disappointed. Only a young and ardent student, indeed, can be much disappointed at finding that there is no last word in philosophy. But in such is the hope of us older learners who have lost the first free play of youth, and we owe them all the comfort and encouragement we can give them. Let us pause for a few words of talk with our unknown young friend.
— Is that the best you have to say for Spinoza?
— Yes; is it not enough ?
— You write a whole book about Spinoza and don't want me to be a Spinozist?
— The master himself did not want any Spinozists. What he did want was that posterity should go on building on his work.
— Then I am to regard Spinoza as a schoolmaster to lead us to something farther on?
— Yes, and let us thank God for such a schoolmaster.
— Whither is he to lead us?
— If you are of my mind, to some form of idealism; but you must seek for yourself, and you will surely find if you take Plato's advice and trust the argument. What you find may not be what you expect, but that does not matter.
— But what kind of idealism? for there are many.
— That, my good friend, is the whole problem of modern philosophy. No one man and no one system will ever be done with it. Set your own hand to the plough if you feel like it, and you may plough as good an acre — who knows? — as any other man.
— But is there no end?
— Yes: at infinity. If you want rest and infallibility, you
can do as Albert Burgh did; if not, go forward fearing nothing, and prosper.
But you will know better than Albert Burgh. And if any of the people who cannot
be happy without ready-made formulas ask you wherein you hope to be saved, you
may answer with Omar Khayyám — an answer which Spinoza would surely have
approved — "Because I never called the One two."
And so farewell. [p. 168-69]
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Hierna gaat hij over op het onderwerp ‘oneindigheid’ zoals Spinoza het vooral in zijn brief (nr. 12) aan Lodewijk Meijer behandelt.
