Understanding Spinoza with Neal Grossman

Video Description

Neal Grossman, PhD, is an emeritus associate professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is author of Conversations with Socrates and Plato: How a Post-Materialist Social Order Can Solve the Challenges of Modern Life and Insure Our Survival. He is also author of The Spirit of Spinoza: Healing the Mind. Here he points out that the 17th century philosopher, Benedict Spinoza, was excommunicated from the Jewish community of Amsterdam. He did not believe that God was wholly separate from creation, but rather that the universe is created from God and is, therefore part of God. We are like cells in the body of God. Spinoza was a rationalist. The main thrust of his philosophy was to enable individuals to have the experience of unity with the divine. As such, he was one of philosophy's greatest mystics. New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is a past vice-president of the Association for Humanistic Psychology; and is the recipient of the Pathfinder Award from that Association for his contributions to the field of human consciousness exploration. (Recorded on October 17, 2019) For a complete, updated list with links to all of our videos, see https://newthinkingallowed.com/Listings.htm. For opportunities to help support the New Thinking Allowed video channel -- please visit the New Thinking Allowed Foundation at http://www.newthinkingallowed.org. To join the NTA Psi Experience Community on Facebook, see https://www.facebook.com/groups/1953031791426543/ To download and listen to audio versions of the New Thinking Allowed videos, please visit our podcast at https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/new-thinking-allowed-audio-podcast/id1435178031. You can help support our video productions while enjoying a good book. To order The Spirit of Spinoza: Healing the Mind by Neal Grossman, click here: https://amzn.to/2JmK1tw. (As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.)