Cause and Effect (Spinoza)

Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) is another interesting philosopher, who I find much more compelling than the 'father of modern philosophy' Descartes. And if you think about cause and effect as Spinoza did, then you could say Spinoza would not exist if it were not for Descartes and his theories that influenced Spinoza. But let us save the bios and historical contexts for another time, and concentrate on summarizing the great rationalist Spinoza's thoughts on Cause and Effect:

Spinoza believed that (1) the universe is not random; that it is perfectly organized and everything is determined; (we'll consider his specific theory on 'God' another time); (2) because the universe has a certain predetermined sequence of events, all human actions are subject to prior causes that effect current actions -- for example, you are reading this blog, but according to Spinoza your decision to read this blog did not arise spontaneously out-of-nothing, but because of some prior decisions or influences. Only 'God' is truly free because his actions do not have prior causes; only he is outside the chain of cause and effect.

Spinoza seems to be suggesting that humans are in bondage, not free from cause and effect (unlike 'God'). However he tempers this pessimistic view by suggesting we take moral action through reason, and act not in response to external causes but due to internal causes that are determined by reason ie, we refuse ourselves to be in the grip of 'passions.' (People who are held captive by their passions are slaves; they are vehicles of passion, and respond to external causes, because they do not apply reason to understand the true causes of actions/emotions.) This would be the key to living a truly moral life and experience happiness, and this would make us more *fully* human, which according to Spinoza, means more God-like.