Baruch Spinoza

Feelings of rootlessness, fragmentation and loneliness are endemic in today's secular societies. In the late nineteenth century, Emile Durkheim described this kind of social malaise as anomie, a concept which this book locates within a historical narrative of the emergence of Modernism from Modernity. The book focuses on two representative figures, Benedictus de Spinoza and Vincent van Gogh, on whose work it offers some significant new perspectives. Spinoza drew up a blueprint for Modernity, which is to say, the cultural transformations (...) that took place as a result of the Scientific Revolution and the Protestant Reformation. In counterpoint to his overriding confidence in reason, a persistent current in Spinoza's writing shows how concerned he was about a possible loss of confidence in his governing idea of a single Substance, the philosophical God with which he sought to replace the creator God of the Bible. In promoting art as a means of filling the gap left by the absence of Spinoza's philosophical God and the failures of traditional Christianity, Van Gogh also discovered the limitations of the vocation to which he had dedicated himself. (shrink)

Spinoza was not a materialist, at least not as typically understood today. He is a substance monist and a pluralist about what kinds of things exist. Nevertheless, Spinoza has often been read as a materialist, and one prominent strand of this materialist reading may be traced back to the Russian Marxist Georgi Plekhanov, who, beginning in the 1890s, engaged in a series of polemics in which he defended a comprehensive materialist reading of Spinoza—one that would cover both ontological and dialectical (...) materialism, or “old” and “new” materialism—that would cement Spinoza’s status as the great progenitor of political radicalism. In the controversies that would follow, Plekhanov’s followers Abram Deborin and Lyubov Akselrod, would offer their own versions of the materialist reading of Spinoza. In this paper, I analyze the distinct materialist readings of Spinoza advanced by Deborin, Akselrod, and Plekhanov. I argue that Deborin’s approach, according to which Spinoza identifies Being with matter, fails as an interpretation, that Akselrod’s alternative, according to which ideas are in some sense asymmetrically dependent on bodies, fails either as an interpretation of Spinoza or as an account of materialism, leaving Plekhanov’s interpretation of Spinoza, which takes materialism to be compatible with panpsychism, as the most plausible of the bunch. While the resulting metaphysics is probably not best described as materialism, it is, in crucial respects, closer than many early modern versions of materialism are to contemporary materialism. (shrink)

Baruch Spinoza began his studies learning Hebrew and the Talmud, only to be excommunicated at the age of twenty-four for supposed heresy. Throughout his life, Spinoza was simultaneously accused of being an atheist and a God-intoxicated man. Bertrand Russell said that, compared to others, Spinoza is ethically supreme, 'the noblest and most lovable of the great philosophers'. This book is an exploration of (a) what Spinoza understood God to be, (b) how, for him, the infinite and eternal power of God (...) is expressed, and (c) how finite human beings can have a true idea of this greatest of all entities. Sherry Deveaux begins with an analytic discussion of these three questions, and an explication of three different views held by contemporary commentators on Spinoza. She then shows that the commonly held views about Spinoza are inconsistent with Spinoza's texts, especially his magnum opus, the Ethics. Next comes an analysis of topics in Spinoza that must be understood in order correctly to answer the three questions. For example, the notions of 'power' and 'true idea' are discussed, along with Spinoza's definition of the 'essence' of a thing, which is shown to be central to the discussion of Spinoza's God. Deveaux then claims that Spinoza defines God's essence as 'absolutely infinite and eternal power' and that, contrary to the commonly held view that God's essence is identical with the attributes (e.g., thought and extension), God's essence or "power" is expressed through the attributes. (shrink)

Despite Spinoza’s prominence in Joyce’s Ulysses, almost nothing in the Joyce Industry’s hundred years has been written about him. My first section reviews three exceptions to this trend, which view the character Leopold Bloom as modeled on Spinoza’s (1) life, (2) redefinition of prophecy, and (3) the “attribute” of thought thinking thought. My second section follows a fourth Joycean to the Marxist Antonio Negri’s essay on Spinozist freedom and Joyce, from which I derive a fourth figure of Bloom as (4) (...) a liberating prosthesis for infinite democracy. And my final section applies my previous interpretation of Spinoza’s “intuition” as poetry to Ulysses, interpreted as an epic prose poem where Joyce as a Spinozist God poly-conjugationally persecutes a poly-subjugated Bloom, including with pervasive antisemitism, thus making Ulysses more satirical Inferno than happy Divine Comedy. However, strategically channeling Spinoza and his philosophy more powerfully into Bloom renders him an ethically-politically Stoic hero, defiantly prophesizing a democratization of Joycean conjugation, from persecuting poly-subjugated Others to joyful self-conjugating in search of radical democracy and just peace. (shrink)

This is a MANUSCRIPT VERSION of my book The Nondual Mind: Vedānta, Kashmiri Pratyabhijñā Shaivism, and Spinoza (incl. material omitted from my Dogma Revue articles). The book compares Hindu nondual philosophy to that of Baruch Spinoza, demonstrating the similarity of Spinoza’s ideas to Kashmiri Pratyabhijñā Shaivism. The book is well researched, but it is written in an informal style suitable for both scholars and the educated general public. There is already some scholarly literature comparing Spinoza’s philosophy to Śaṅkara’s Vedānta, but (...) none of it has focused, as this book does, on philosophy of mind, and none of it has included nondual Kashmiri Shaivism in the comparison. Among other things, the important distinction between Śaṅkara’s Vedānta and nondual Kashmiri Shaivism is brought to the fore by looking at those two philosophies through the lens of Spinoza. “I liked James H. Cumming’s The Nondual Mind a lot. It is beautifully written, thoughtful, and very clear.” (Prof. Yitzhak Y. Melamed, Charlotte Bloomberg Professor of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University) “James H. Cumming’s scholarly interpretation of Spinoza’s works, persuasively showing how 17th century European ideas that ushered in the Enlightenment find a precursor in 10th century Kashmir, is a masterpiece of reason and philosophy that will leave the reader with profound thoughts on the meaning of history, God, and life itself. As a senior staff attorney in my chambers for many years at the California Supreme Court and a top scholar of ethics and philosophy of law, Mr. Cumming never ceased to amaze me with his outstanding research and intellect. This scholarly book is a must read for all who want to know why Spinoza continues to influence contemporary philosophy and how his work is still relevant in today’s challenging, interconnected world.” (Hon. Ming W. Chin, Associate Justice (Retired), Supreme Court of California, 1996–2020). (shrink)

This 2nd edition Handbook of Spinoza retains a unique focus on the biographical details of Spinoza's life, as well as essential scholarship on his influences and early critics. A glossary of key Latin Spinozan terms with English translations remains a key feature alongside short synopses of Spinoza's writings. Adding to the updated contemporary scholarship on Spinoza from across Europe and the US is the recognition of Spinoza's influence more globally. Distinct from other reference works on Spinoza, this book offers the (...) tools and methodology necessary for students and scholars who are completing their own research. Accompanying each main section is an updated and detailed bibliography that situates both the summative and original scholarship therein. This 2nd edition includes a revised biography from Jeroen van de Ven who has systematically revisited the archive; influences will now include reference to Machiavelli and Hobbes primarily, as well as remarks on the De La Court brothers, La Perèyre, and Delmedigo. A new entry on the critic, Willem van Blijenbergh, alongside a reconstruction of dozens of letters now lost from Spinoza consolidates new directions of study which are supported by additional glossary terms on Axioma (cf. Ordo geometricus), Definitio (ibid.), Excommunicare, Lumen, Methodus, Negatio, Pax, Ratio, (Cf. Cognitio), Scientia intuitiva, and Tempus amongst others. Maintaining an approach that is refreshingly independent of the historicist/analytic/continental divide, this work features scholars from across these traditions, and remains an essential point of reference for students and scholars alike. (shrink)

Harry Wolfson’s celebrated two-volume study of Spinoza – The Philosophy of Spinoza: Unfolding the Latent Process of His Reasoning – appeared in 1934 with Harvard University Press. The book originated in a series of five studies Wolfson published in the Chronicon Spinozanum between 1921 and 1926. In the Chronicon, Wolfson announced that the studies published in the journal are instalments from a planned larger work, to be titled: “Spinoza, the Last of the Mediaevals: A Study of the Ethica Ordine Geometrico (...) Demonstrata in the light of a hypothetically constructed Ethica More Scholastico Rabbinicoque Demonstrata.” In the preface to the 1934 book, Wolfson notes that the original title “had to be abandoned, as it did not seem advisable to have the title begin with the word ‘Spinoza’”. Thus, whatever stylistic reasons motivated Wolfson to amend the title, he was clearly not withdrawing from his view of Spinoza’s Ethics as being “More Scholastico Rabbinicoque Demonstrata.”. (shrink)

A new approach to the theism-scientism divide rooted in a deeper form of atheism. -/- Western philosophy is stuck in an irresolvable conflict between two approaches to the spiritual malaise of our times: either we need more God (the “turn to religion”) or less religion (the New Atheism). In this book, Brook Ziporyn proposes an alternative that avoids both totalizing theomania and atomizing reductionism. What we need, he argues, is a deeper, more thoroughgoing, even religious rejection of God: an affirmative (...) atheism without either a creator to provide meaning or finite creatures in need of it—a mystical atheism. -/- In the legacies of Daoism and Buddhism as well as Spinoza, Nietzsche, and Bataille, Ziporyn discovers a critique of theism that develops into a new, positive sensibility—at once deeply atheist and richly religious. Experiments in Mystical Atheism argues that these “godless epiphanies” hold the key to renewing philosophy today. (shrink)

The aim of this dissertation is to develop an account of Gilles Deleuze’s philosophical project as a departure from ontology and ontological thinking. Ontology can be broadly understood as the study of being or the study of the meaning of being. Traditional ontology examines the nature of being while more contemporary philosophy often understands being itself as becoming or a process. In this respect, Deleuze has often been interpreted as a process or differential ontologist. This project departs from that interpretation (...) by arguing for a non-ontological Deleuze. The dissertation is broken into three papers where each presents a different account of what I call the non-ontological Deleuze through his work on the major pre-Kantian modern philosophers: David Hume, Benedict Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz. Each paper then uses the non-ontological Deleuze to engage with a related movement in post-Deleuzian Continental Philosophy. The first paper focuses on Deleuze’s early work on Hume to argue for a re-reading of the history of modern philosophy with a basis in transcendental empiricism rather than Kantian transcendental idealism. This paper uses Deleuze’s reading of Hume to respond to and critique the Speculative Realist movement’s charge that post-Kantian philosophy suffers from what they call correlationism. The second paper uses Deleuze’s work on Spinoza to argue for what the former calls ethology as a replacement for ontology. The claim here is that we should think of things in terms of what they do rather than what they are: in terms of their motion and affects rather than their being. There I contrast my reading of Deleuze’s Spinoza with those thinkers who have recently used that work to develop what is often referred to as New Materialism. The final paper argues that understanding things in terms of what they can do requires a nomadology, which is Deleuze’s play on Leibniz’s monadology. This paper uses Deleuze’s nomadology to create a dialogue with the emerging literature on Critical Posthumanism and subjectivity that has been influenced by Deleuze to suggest that posthumanist subjectivity should be understood in non-ontological terms. (shrink)

Bu makale kapsamında, XII. yüzyılda yaşamış önemli Yahudi din âlimlerinden Musa bin Meymûn (öl. 601/1204) ile XVII. yüzyılda yaşamış olan ve düşünceleri neticesinde ateist olduğu suçlamasıyla yirmi dört yaşındayken aforoz edilip bağlı bulunduğu Yahudi cemaatinden kovulan Spinoza’nın (öl. 1088/1677) vahiy ve nübüvvet anlayışları ele alınmıştır. Spinoza, Teolojik-Politik İnceleme adlı eserinde, teolojinin felsefeden ayrılması gerekliliğini göstermek amacındadır. Spinoza’nın bu arzusu onu, İbn Meymûn’la ve onun temsil ettiği gelenekle karşı karşıya getirmiştir. Neticede Spinoza’nın vahiy ve nübüvvet konusunda İbn Meymûn’dan etkilendiği ve onunla (...) bir hesaplaşmaya girdiği görülmektedir. Onun İbn Meymûn’dan hangi bakımdan etkilendiği ya da onunla nasıl bir hesaplaşmaya girdiği makalenin asıl konusunu teşkil etmektedir. Çalışmamız giriş, ana bölüm ve sonuç olarak üç bölümden oluşmaktadır. Giriş bölümünde öncelikle vahiy kavramının ne ifade ettiğine ve hem İslam düşünürlerinin hem de İbn Meymûn’un beslendiği ana kaynak olması nedeniyle Platon ile Aristoteles’in kehanet ve rüya hakkındaki görüşlerine kısaca değinilmiştir. Ayrıca Spinoza’nın İbn Meymûn’dan etkilenmesi veya onunla hesaplaşmasının, İbn Meymûn’un da mensubu olduğu İslam filozoflarının temsil ettiği gelenekle alakalı olmasından dolayı giriş bölümünde, bazı İslam filozoflarının görüşlerine de ana hatlarıyla değinme gereği duyulmuştur. Bunu yaparken Müslüman filozofların ilklerinden ve en önemlilerinden kabul edilen Kindî (öl. 252/866?), Fârâbî (öl. 339/950) ve İbn Sinâ’nın (öl. 428/1037) düşüncelerine özlü şekilde değinilmesi yeterli görülmüştür. Bu arada tarihsel açıdan İbn Meymûn’la Spinoza arasında bir yerde duran diğer bir Yahudi filozof Levi ben Gershom’un (öl. 745/1344) fikirleri de kısaca ele alınmıştır. Bu filozofların düşüncelerinden yola çıkılarak vahyin mütehayyile kuvvetiyle, ayrıca rüya ve kehanetle ilgisi gösterilmeye çalışılmıştır. Çalışmanın asıl bölümünde ise öncelikle İbn Meymûn’un vahiy ve nübüvvet anlayışı incelenmiş, akabinde bu, Spinoza’nın vahiy ve nübüvvet anlayışıyla mukayese edilmiştir. İbn Meymûn’un nübüvvet anlayışı incelenirken yer yer İslam filozoflarından etkilendiği kısımlara değinilmiştir. Bu mukayesede bilhassa İbn Meymûn’un Delâletu’l-Hâirîn adlı eseriyle Spinoza’nın Teolojik-Politik İnceleme adlı eseri ana kaynaklar olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Bu çalışma neticesinde hem iki düşünürün teolojik yaklaşımının daha iyi anlaşılması hem de Aydınlanmanın müjdecilerinden biri sayılan Spinoza’nın eleştirel dahi olsa İbn Meymûn’a kadar uzanan düşünce kodları gösterilmek istenmiştir. İbn Meymûn’a kadar uzanan bu kodların aynı zamanda İslam düşünce dünyasına uzandığı da vurgulanmak istenmiştir. Bu makalede, konunun kapsamı iki düşünürün peygamber, vahiy ve vahyin oluşmasında rol alan enfüsi ve afaki etmeler ile vahyin dili yönündeki düşünceleriyle sınırlandırılmıştır. İki düşünürün teolojiye ait mucize gibi diğer görüşlerindeki farklılıklar ya da benzerlikler makalenin kapsamı dışında tutulmuştur. (shrink)

Dans un monde de plus en plus marqué par le morcellement et l’individualisme, le concept d’inter-être propose une réorientation radicale : il affirme qu’aucun être n’existe en isolation mais en tant que partie d’un vaste réseau de vie. Popularisé par le moine bouddhiste vietnamien Thich Nhat Hanh, l’inter-être nous invite à concevoir l’existence comme fondamentalement interconnectée avec celle des autres.

This volume brings established scholars together with new voices to engage with the complex system of philosophy proposed by Spinoza in his masterpiece. Topics including identity, thought, free will, metaphysics, and reason are all addressed, as individual chapters investigate the key themes of the Ethics and combine to offer readers a fresh and thought-provoking view of the work as a whole. Written in a clear and accessible style, the volume sets out cutting-edge research that reflects, challenges, and promotes the most (...) recent scholarly advances in the field of Spinoza studies, tackling old issues and bringing to light new subjects for debate. (shrink)

Until recently, Spinoza's standing in Anglophone studies of philosophy has been relatively low and has only seemed to confirm Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi's assessment of him as a dead dog. However, an exuberant outburst of excellent scholarship on Spinoza has of late come to dominate work on early modern philosophy. This resurgence is due in no small part to the recent revival of metaphysics in contemporary philosophy and to the increased appreciation of Spinoza's role as an unorthodox, pivotal figure - indeed, (...) perhaps the pivotal figure - in the development of Enlightenment thinking. Spinoza's penetrating articulation of his extreme rationalism makes him a demanding philosopher who offers deep and prescient challenges to all subsequent, inevitably less radical approaches to philosophy. While the twenty-six essays in this volume - by many of the world's leading Spinoza specialists - grapple directly with Spinoza's most important arguments, these essays also seek to identify and explain Spinoza's debts to previous philosophy, his influence on later philosophers, and his significance for contemporary philosophy and for us. (shrink)

Over the last few decades, Spinoza scholarship has developed in the United States, providing new perspectives on the work of this major philosopher. Spinoza in 21st-Century American and French Philosophy unites for the first time French and American scholars in conversation with each other and illustrates the fecundity of bringing together analytic and Continental scholarly traditions. Spinoza in 21st-Century American and French Philosophy gives readers a unique opportunity to discover the most consequential and sophisticated aspects of American and French Spinoza (...) research today. Featuring chapters by American scholars with French experts responding to these, the book is structured according to the themes of Spinoza's philosophy, including metaphysics, philosophy of mind, moral philosophy and political philosophy. The contributions consider the full range of his work, with chapters addressing the Ethics, his ideas on individuals and community, and the nature of embodiment, among other topics. (shrink)

Aphoristiker und andere Vertreter kleiner Formen des Denkens lieben Spinoza. Dies ist eine Merkwürdigkeit, denn gerade die Aphoristiker, die das Antisystematische propagieren, den blitzartigen, schlagenden Einfall vor der konsequenten Entwicklung eines Gedankens favorisieren, sollten doch eigentlich mit dem zusammenhängenden, systematischen und konsequenten Denken more geometrico Spinozas wenig bis gar nichts anzufangen wissen. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die Spinozarezeption ausgewählter Aphoristiker und analysiert das hier zum Ausdruck kommende Verhältnis von Aphorismus bzw. kleiner Form und System. Die Art und Weise, wie sich (...) aphoristisch bzw. in kleinen Formen operierende Autoren mit Spinoza befassen, wirft ein signifikantes Licht auf ihre Aphoristik selbst. Wer über eine Theorie der kleinen Form nachdenkt, ist gut beraten, sich um das Spinoza-Bild der Aphoristiker zu bemühen. Untersuchte Autoren sind Rudolf Kassner, Lichtenberg, Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis, Hebbel, Nietzsche, Peter Altenberg, Ludwig Hohl, Canetti, Peter Handke und Joseph Maurer. (shrink)

A brilliant schoolboy in 17th-century Amsterdam, Bento Spinoza-formally Baruch and later Benedict de Spinoza-quickly learns to keep his ideas to himself. When he is 23, those ideas prove so scandalous to his own Jewish community that he is cast out, cursed, and effectively erased from their communal life. The scandal shows no sign of waning as his ideas spread throughout Europe. At the center of the storm, he lives the simplest of lives, quietly devoted to his work as a lens (...) grinder and to his steadfast search for truth, striving to embody a philosophy of tolerance and benevolence. Spinoza does not live to see his ideas change the world. What caused such an uproar? Spinoza challenged age-old ideas about God, the Bible, and religion. His God was the sum total of nature, not a father-figure who created the world and takes care of humankind. His bible was a book like any other, not a holy text to be interpreted only by religious authorities. His religion was a commitment to basic moral behavior, not a collection of superstitions or rituals. For such ideas, Spinoza was reviled, but he emerged from his experience as one of history's most articulate voices for freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion. (shrink)

Au monde harmonieux des Anciens, la science moderne a substitué un univers régi par des forces matérielles indifférentes à nos sentiments et nos valeurs. Tandis que certains déplorent ce désenchantement du monde, Spinoza (1632-1677) a voulu montrer que la connaissance rationnelle de la nature pouvait néanmoins conduire au bonheur le plus parfait. Mais comment concilier l'affirmation de l'universalité du déterminisme avec l'idée de liberté humaine? En quoi aborder les sentiments comme des figures géométriques permet-il d'en devenir maître? Cet ouvrage propose (...) d'éclairer les paradoxes de la philosophie de Spinoza et de montrer comment, jusque dans l'abstraction de son mode d'exposition géométrique, elle enrichit notre compréhension de la vie humaine."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

1. Bd. Tractatus theologico-politicus. Theologisch-politischer Traktat, hrsg. von Günter Gawlick und Friedrich Niewöhner.--2. Bd. Tractatus de intellectus emendatione. Ethica. Abhandlung über die Berichtigung des Verstandes. Ethik.