A Study of Spinoza's Epistemology and its Educational Supplies with a Critical Approach Based on Islamic Teachings

This paper is an attempt to study Spinoza's epistemology and its educational supplies with a critical approach based on Islamic teachings. To achieve the objectives of this research, conceptual, descriptive, analytical and critical methods have been applied. The results revealed that issue of recognition plays an important part in his philosophical system. Spinoza divided knowledge into four categories including: knowledge from the senses, experiences, inference and intuitive. Based on his epistemology, the most important educational supplies consist of indoctrination in education, the manifestation of the rational nature in education, the attainment of unity and high stages in the education, the efforts and perseverance of educators, the emphasis on the role of nature in education, paying attention to religious institutions in moral education and avoiding conflicts in learning process. Despite the positive points that exist in the epistemological and educational theories of Spinoza including the activation of educators and the emphasis on rationality, there are also challenges that can be criticized based on Islamic teachings. These include humanistic epistemology of Spinoza's theory, cognitive relativism in Spinoza's theory, and Spinoza’s emphasis on indoctrination in education, ignoring individual differences in education, and lacking of attention to critical thinking in education.