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Hey, you're listening to The Partial Examined Life, episode 165 Part 2,

still talking about Spinoza's Tractatus Theological Politicus, the first half of it.

So we've given a pretty good overview of the various issues that are brought up.

So I think we might want to move on to, on the one hand, giving some of the details that we've skipped over

and going pretty fast through these sections.

And then, on the other hand, as we're doing that, actually doing some evaluation.

Do we find this convincing? Do we find this valuable?

What is he really aiming at? How does it speak to us today? That kind of stuff.

Well, I think we should turn back to chapter 4 and talk about law in the divine law.

So, again, I think reading is worthwhile.

So the beginning of chapter 4 of the divine law.

The word law taken in the abstract means that by which an individual or all things,

or as many things as belong to a particular species, act in one in the same fixed and definite manner,

which manner depends either on natural necessity or on human decree,

a law which depends on natural necessity is one which necessarily follows from the nature

or from the definition of the thing in question.

A law which depends on human decree and which is more correctly called an ordinance

is one which men have laid down for themselves and others in order to live more safely or conveniently

or for some similar reason.

So I think it's fairly clear that he's setting out to immediately position

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