...Those individuals to whom we owe the great creative achievements of science were all of them imbued with a truly religious conviction that this un… - Benedictus de Spinoza

Like Socrates, Spinoza avers that blessedness comes only from a certain kind of knowledge—specifically, the "knowledge of the union that the mind has with the whole of Nature."
...the life of contemplation is also a life within a certain type of community—specifically, a fellowship of the mind. Like Socrates with his circle of debating partners, or Epicurus in his garden with his intellectual companions, Spinoza imagines a philosophical future... upon achieving blessedness for himself, he announces in his first treatise, his first step is "to form a society... so that as many as possible may attain it as easily and as surely as possible." For, "the highest good," he claims, is to achieve salvation together with other individuals "if possible."

Spinoza is a highly systematic thinker, but still I do not think I can offer a single key for all things Spinozistic. Personally, one thing which got me excited about Spinoza is his philosophical boldness, i.e., his willingness to pursue philosophical exploration as far as he can, making very little concessions to commonly accepted beliefs and norms. In terms of content, I take his attempt to conceive of God, nature, and ethics in a manner that is free from anthropomorphism and anthropocentric illusions as one of the deepest elements of his philosophical thinking. A closely related issue is his advocacy of actual infinity (an issue that has been mostly neglected in recent literature). Finally, the very attempt to do philosophy systematically (rather than rely on fragmented and disassociated intuitions) and transparently (laying bare the logical structure of his arguments) commands my respect, indeed admiration.

إنَّ بعض اليهود يَرَون أنَّ الله لم ينطق بألفاظ الوصايا العشر حرفيًّا، ويعتقدون أن الإسرائيليين سَمِعوا مُجرَّد ضوضاء عالية لا تتميَّز فيها الكلمات، وخلال هذه الضوضاء أدرَكوا بالفكر الخالِص الوصايا العشر. ولقد كنتُ أنا شخصيًّا أَميل إلى هذا الرأي بعدَ أن لحظتُ أن نصَّ الوصايا العشر يختلف في سِفر الخروج عنه في سفر التثنية، فبدا لي بناء على ذلك (نظرًا إلى أن الله لم يتكلَّم إلَّا مرَّةً واحدة) أنَّ الوصايا العشر لا تنقِل إلينا كلمات الله بعَينها، بل تُعبِّر عن معناها فحسب، ومع ذلك إذا لم نشأ تحريف الكتاب يَجِب أن نُسلِّم، على أية حال، بأن الإسرائيليين قد سمِعوا صوتًا حقيقيًّا، فنحن نقرأ صراحة (التثنية، ٥: ٤): «وجهًا لوجه تكلَّم إليكم الرب.» أي كما تَنتقِل الأفكار من شخصٍ لآخر بِتوسُّط بدَنِهما، فَلِكي نكون أكثرَ اتفاقًا مع الكتاب نقول: إنَّ الله قد خلق صوتًا حقيقيًّا ليُوحي من خلاله بالوصايا العشر