The three final doctrines of Spinoza: intuition, amor Dei, the eternity of the mind

Pro-Fil 21 (1):41-50 (2020)
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Abstract

The study deals with the matter of three of the most puzzling doctrines of Baruch Spinoza's system, the so-called 'final doctrines', which are intuitive knowledge, intellectual love of God, and the eternity of the (human) mind. Contrary to many commentators, but also in concordance with many others, this account strives to affirm the utmost importance of these doctrines to Spinoza's system as a whole, but mostly to his ethical theory. Focusing specifically on the cultivation of the human mind, the paper offers partial analyses of the central notions of these doctrines and their conceptual contexts. It is argued that the cultivation of the human mind, i.e., its determination to its perfect activity, should be considered as Spinoza's ultimate ethical goal, and that the mind truly only advances to this goal by means of these cognitive, affective, and intellectual transformations of thinking.

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Author's Profile

Michaela Petrufova Joppova
University of Presov (Alumnus)

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References found in this work

A Study of Spinoza's Ethics.Jonathan Bennett - 1984 - Cambridge University Press.
Five Types of Ethical Theory.C. D. Broad - 1930 - Paterson, N. J.,: Routledge.
Spinoza's Metaphysics: Substance and Thought.Yitzhak Y. Melamed - 2013 - Oxford: Oxford University Press USA.
A Study of Spinoza's Ethics.Jonathan Bennett - 1984 - Critica 16 (48):110-112.
Five Types of Ethical Theory.C. D. Broad - 1930 - New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.

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