Why Spinoza’s Work Remains Underappreciated Despite Its Influence

By Unknown author – , Public Domain

It’s late, and the air is thick with the stench of indifference. The kind of indifference that clings to you like a stain that won’t come off, no matter how much you scrub at it.

The kind of indifference that surrounds the work of Baruch Spinoza—a man who wrote some of the most profound, yet agonizingly obscure texts in Western philosophy, and for reasons that are both perplexing and crushing, is still not considered one of the “greats” by the masses.

Now, I’m not here to hand you a medal for having the guts to dive into Spinoza’s Ethics—a book that reads like a geometry textbook full of axioms and proofs—but damn, we should at least know what we’re missing.

Einstein and Hawking, two of the greatest minds of the modern age, used Spinoza’s philosophy like a mental toolkit. They praised him, they dissected him, and still, he’s shunted to the side.

So why is that? Why don’t more people read Spinoza? Is it the damn difficulty of the text, or is it something deeper, something more sinister?

The Brutal Truth: Spinoza’s Work Is Just Too Damn Hard

Spinoza’s work isn’t for the faint of heart. You can’t skim through his Ethics with a cup of coffee in hand and expect the universe to suddenly make sense.

It’s dense, technical, and a hell of a lot like solving a puzzle without all the fun. The guy was not interested in beauty for beauty’s sake. He was more about laying down the law of the universe with the cold precision of a surgeon. You want simple? Try Aurelius. You want a damn workout for your mind? Try Spinoza.

But what really gets under my skin is how many are too lazy or too scared to face it. Instead, they settle for the fast-food philosophy of today’s thinkers.

Spinoza? He’s an acquired taste, like a strong whiskey that burns but leaves you thinking. And that’s the problem.

Take a look at a simple passage from his Ethics: “Whatever is, is in God, and nothing is or can be apart from God.”

It’s the kind of sentence that makes most people drop the book and start watching Netflix.

Why? Because it challenges everything you thought you knew about the world. God’s not up there in the sky, waiting for you to wave—he’s the substance of everything, an immanent force, no different from the air you breathe. Try selling that to a world obsessed with personal gain and comfort.

The Philosopher’s Philosopher: Spinoza’s Niche Following

Spinoza isn’t exactly unknown. He’s popular in niche philosophical circles—academics, the thinkers with more time on their hands than they care to admit.

But Spinoza isn’t a regular at the philosophy bar with Descartes, Nietzsche, or Kant. He’s the grumpy guy in the corner, scribbling notes while everyone else is trying to dance to the latest intellectual trend.

Spinoza’s ideas have had a profound impact on modern thinkers, but it’s still far from mainstream.

Just ask any philosophy major; if they haven’t wrestled with Ethics or Theological-Political Treatise, they’re probably only half alive.

Still, his work has remained, oddly, a little bit of a secret. Maybe that’s because his ideas—his pantheism, his rejection of supernatural forces—don’t sit well with the status quo.

A Battle for Meaning

The beauty of Spinoza’s work, for me at least, is that it’s a punch to the gut to the whole “search for meaning” nonsense.

He shows you the mechanics of the universe and tells you that, in the grand scheme of things, it’s all interconnected and driven by the same forces.

You, me, the chair I’m sitting in, the stars above—all part of the same divine substance. It’s not about finding some grand purpose; it’s about understanding how the gears of life turn.

This gets tangled in the web of nihilism. You see, nihilism is that seductive little voice telling you that nothing matters. No matter how hard you try to grasp meaning, it slips through your fingers like sand.

But Spinoza—he says meaning isn’t something you find or make up; it’s something that is—in the patterns, in the relationships. It’s a hard pill to swallow, and one most aren’t ready to choke down.

A Simple Explanation: Spinoza for The ADD Minds

Alright, kid. You want to know what Spinoza was on about? Simple. You’re sitting here in this room, but everything around you—the walls, the air, the chair, even the thoughts in your head—they’re all connected in one big web.

Spinoza says that everything is made of one thing, which he calls “God” or “Nature.” Not some guy with a beard sitting on a cloud, but the stuff that makes up everything.

And the reason you feel so small in the universe? It’s because you’re part of it, and you’re as much a part of everything else as the stars in the sky.

There’s no “outside” of the system; you’re part of it, like a drop in the ocean.

Got it? Hope so (but honetly I also don’t care…).

Opposing Views: The Critics and the Dissenters

Now, for every Spinoza, there’s a critic ready to tear him down. Take Nietzsche, for instance.

The man called Spinoza’s philosophy “an impenetrable fortress.” And for good reason—Nietzsche hated the idea of a static, rational system like Spinoza’s.

Nietzsche wanted chaos, destruction, a breaking of all norms. Spinoza, in contrast, was trying to make sense of the chaos, to build a system that could explain it all. That’s why Nietzsche didn’t like him.

Then there’s the problem of religion. Spinoza rejected the anthropomorphic god and instead believed in a god that was everything and nothing at the same time. For many, this was the philosophical equivalent of sacrilege. You’d think he was asking for a ticket to hell with that line of thinking.

The Numbers Speak: The Longevity of Spinoza’s Influence

Let’s get a little scientific here and take a look at the numbers.

Spinoza’s influence, while immense, is often overshadowed by more digestible figures. Kant, Hume, Descartes—they’ve all had more mainstream success.

In terms of academic popularity, Ethics and Theological-Political Treatise are staple readings in philosophy departments, but they’re still nowhere near the curriculum gold standard of Plato or Aristotle.

PhilosopherInfluence in Modern ThoughtAcademic PopularityImpact on Science
SpinozaMajor (Einstein, Hawking)Niche, Grad-LevelStrong, especially in physics and metaphysics
NietzscheImmense (Existentialism, Postmodernism)Broad, PopularDeep influence on psychology
KantDeep (Ethics, Metaphysics)High, MainstreamCentral in epistemology
HumeFoundational (Empiricism)High, MainstreamCentral to the philosophy of science

Time For Some Final Words

Spinoza stands as both a beacon and a warning—a figure of such profound insight that his words reverberate through the cracks of our fractured understanding of the world.

But like all deep thinkers, he’s left us with more questions than answers. The abyss stares back, and maybe that’s the point. Maybe the point is to stare back and find peace in knowing that the universe is vast, indifferent, and yet intimately connected.

There’s no hand to guide us, not in the traditional sense. But somehow, Spinoza suggests, this is the point.

If the future is to be shaped by our choices, we’ve got to find meaning in the chaos. Whether we follow Spinoza into the void or cling to some semblance of order is up to us.

But don’t expect easy answers. There’s no guidebook for this one.

And in the end, maybe that’s the kind of freedom we’ve been waiting for.

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