I cannot speak to what the 'Author' of that quote thought. However taken the question in good faith that this is not a 'Gotcha', my uneducated guess here, since I quit school in 7th grade, (although I took a few years of college while working at NAU as a research scientist I figured out how to stop bark beetles from killing trees in a lab the university provided me for 6 years) another story for another day; is this.....

'Spinoza was unique in that he incorporated the influence of such divergent sources as Stoicism, Jewish Rationalism, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Descartes, and a variety of religious thinkers of his day.' Quote not mine, but I saw this in his writings, that ability to reach beyond his own thinking. This impressed me to read more.... As for 'reason' some say he was hard to categorize because of these many sources of inspiration.... I think that he proceeded so many Enlightened Thinkers of his time and Spinoza's Ethical teachings took God out of the picture which really ties him in many ways to Kant's 'High Morality, where one learns to do the right thing because its the right thing to do and for no other reward or goal.... Heaven... Hell and the like, Spinoza under great pressure to conform to heterodoxy, the views of the church, stood fast in his belief's, to where he was persecuted and ostracized and had to relocate.... He was a genius, of that I have no doubt.....

Now if you wish to discuss philosophy that I adhere to and live by I suggest you read up on Jiddu Krishnamurti To me the greatest teacher who walked this planet and his teachings, plus, Taoism, Buddhism and contact me off this discussion group where this discussion really does not belong.

Hi Reagan (@reagan1mc) - To protect your privacy I flagged your post and asked a moderator to remove your email address. People can easily send a private message to another Connect member by clicking on their username which will take you to their profile page and then clicking the Send Private Message link under their profile description. Reagan you are correct that we should keep the discussion relevant.

Thank you,
John

I want that message to get across to the person who asked.... will that happen now or should I repost with my email removed

Hi @reagan1mc,

Thank you for all the support and information you are offering. You'll note that I removed your personal email from this public discussion. Posts to the discussion board are public, and we don't want you getting unwanted spam etc. We recommend sharing personal contact information by private message, which is secure from unwanted spam and trolls.
Thank you for understanding.

Mentor @predictable (who asked about Spinoza) will be able to view your post, as only your personal email address has been deleted.

Hi Reagan, It looks like the moderator has already removed your email address and left your message. When you also use the members username (@predictable) they automatically receive an email notification. So by me tagging him, he will see it but you can also copy the message text and paste it in a private message to him if you like.

John

Thanks for your response to my questions, @reagan1mc. I am pleased to learn of your commitment to philosophy and its possibilities for improving the human condition and the wellbeing of all living things that we know. Perhaps there is a symbiosis in Spinoza's studies with those of the great early thinker, Aristotle.

I also appreciate your choosing to emphasize Spinoza's ethical foundation, which "took God out of the picture" and led him to Kant's principle for doing the right thing. I have a similar preference for treating ethics as a discipline that proceeds from reason (philosophy) and the nature of beings rather than from religion and its mysteries and revelations. I benefited from that epiphany as a result of Thomas Aquinas who held forth on both philosophy and theology 400 years before Spinoza, building his ideas on Aristotle's thoughts and writings, and (as a scholar in both reality and religion) knew well that ethics can be -- and should be --fully articulated without resort to pleas and orders from a god whose nature is known only partially from philosophy.

That said, you are on point in suggesting that most conversations along these lines are off-shore from the discussions we have here on Connect. But I'll gladly respond to other thoughts you wish to flower and grow if you'll contact me directly with a private message.
Martin

Thank you for helping me figure out how to reply directly to this man. I do enjoy someone who has an intellect I can meet head on, it appears he has this quality. I will surely know soon....

Glad to help, he does ☺ Amazing thing intelligent conversation...