Spinoza's Critique Of Teleology

In the 16^th and 17^th centuries,the scientific revolution based on the principles of mathematics and experimentation disintegrated Aristotle's teleological cosmology,and transformed the ancient closed and ordered view of nature into a homogeneous and infinitely extended one.This ideological background constitutes an important source of anti-teleology in modern times.The impact of new science on Spinoza is clearly reflected in his geometric argumentation.Spinoza not only explicitly rejected the theological teleology that proposed by scholasticism and theology,but also opposed the use of teleological model to explain the movement of nature.Spinoza rejected the Aristotelian teleology tradition thoroughly through his efficient cause revolution,and redefined the basic causal structure of the universe based on the efficient cause.He tried to construct a dynamic theory system with"power"as the core in the light of physical order,so as to get rid of the traditional final cause by proposing an interpretation of the material world and even the spiritual one.The ethics behind the traditional teleology that broke down by Spinoza is the coextensiveness of existence and goodness.Based on the perspective of naturalism,he regarded goodness as a fiction and imagination.However,Spinoza has re-established the particularity of man by appealing to reason:due to the existence of reason,human beings can be generated and pursue perfection constantly,which is different from other limited modes.Spinoza tried to explain all kinds of human activities by using the causal necessity system that based on efficient cause,but he also endowed human beings with initiative?reason?,and so as to enable human minds to have the ability to reflect and make judgements,which exemplify the tension between his naturalist perspective and the agency of human beings.