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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that A sovereign-defined obligation to God collapses the distinction between civil law and conscience, making Spinoza's own criterion of piety incoherent.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Spinoza distinguishes obedience to law (civil duty) from understanding (conscience); one can obey without losing independent rational judgment.
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    • 2.The sovereign can define minimal obligations to God while protecting substantial space for individual conscience to develop freely.
      ?

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    • 3.Piety as rational love of God survives state authority over external conduct because internal assent to God's necessity remains philosophically independent.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.If the sovereign defines what counts as obligation to God, citizens cannot appeal to conscience as independent check on sovereign power.
      ?

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    • 2.Spinoza's piety requires rational understanding free from external compulsion, but sovereign-defined religious duty enforces belief coercively.
      ?

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    • 3.Civil law operates through external commands while conscience operates through internal rational conviction; merging them destroys both.
      ?

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