Reveals Spinoza's connections to literature, politics, the environment and beyond. This book brings Spinoza out of academic philosophy, presenting him as a thinker who is relevant to contemporary ...problems and questions across a variety of disciplines. Discover how Spinoza's theory of bodies transforms our understanding of music, and how it grounds 'collective subjectivity' in contemporary politics. Learn how his idea of freedom was instrumental to the Haitian revolution of 1791, and how it inspired Samuel Taylor Coleridge's prose and George Eliot's novels. Find out how early modern physics, contemporary architecture, and ecological activism can be rethought through Spinoza's theory of affectivity. These 12 engaging and original essays argue that Spinoza is the interdisciplinary thinker for our times.
Baruch Spinoza fue un filosofo holandes del siglo XVII que ideo un enfoque racional y sistematico para el estudio de la naturaleza. El enfatizo la importancia de un enfoque critico y esceptico en el ...conocimiento cientifico. Para Spinoza, el conocimiento cientifico debia ser difundido de manera clara y accesible, basado en el metodo cientifico que implica una observacion minuciosa, formulacion de hipotesis, experimentacion y analisis critico de los resultados. El creia que la ciencia debia ser accesible para todos, para que pudieran beneficiarse de ella y avanzar hacia el bien. En esta investigacion bibliografica, se busca explorar las contribuciones de la teoria de Spinoza a las ciencias. Para ello, se realizo una revision sistematica de escritos narrativos en Google Academico, utilizando los descriptores "Baruch Spinoza y las ciencias", "Baruch Spinoza y la ensenanza de la ciencia", y "Baruch Spinoza, ciencias y ensenanza de las ciencias". Entre los resultados y discusiones, se desarrollan los conceptos de afectos, la superacion de la supersticion a traves de la racionalidad, el valor del espiritu colectivo en las ciencias, constituyendo hitos importantes en la teoria de Spinoza. El autor tambien hablo sobre la metafisica, que contribuyo al pensamiento indisciplinado de Einstein, llevandolo a la Teoria de la Relatividad. Entre las consideraciones finales, se puede destacar que Spinoza contribuye de manera significativa a la ciencia, senalando que a traves de la razon es posible desmantelar los pensamientos supersticiosos, lo que significa libertad consciente, critica y autonomia, que es el objetivo del conocimiento cientifico.
Nancy Levene reinterprets a major early modern philosopher, Benedict de Spinoza - a Jew who was rejected by the Jewish community of his day but whose thought contains, and critiques, both Jewish and ...Christian ideas. It foregrounds the connection of religion, democracy, and reason, showing that Spinoza's theories of the Bible, the theologico-political, and the philosophical all involve the concepts of equality and sovereignty. Professor Levene argues that Spinoza's concept of revelation is the key to this connection, and above all to Spinoza's view of human power. This is to shift the emphasis in Spinoza's thought from the language of amor Dei (love of God) to the language of libertas humana (human freedom) without losing either the dialectic of his most striking claim - that man is God to man - or the Jewish and Christian elements in his thought. Original and thoughtfully argued, this book offers fresh insights into Spinoza's thought.
Rocco Gangle addresses the methodological questions raised by a commitment to immanence in terms of how diagrams may be used both as tools and as objects of philosophical investigation. Gangle ...integrates insights from Spinoza, Pierce and Deleuze in conjunction with the formal operations of category theory.
For many years, philosophers and other scholars have commented on the remarkable similarity between Spinoza and the Stoics, with some even going so far as to speak of 'Spinoza the Stoic'. Until now, ...however, no one has systematically examined the relationship between the two systems. In Spinoza and the Stoics Jon Miller takes on this task, showing how key elements of Spinoza's metaphysics, epistemology, philosophical psychology, and ethics relate to their Stoic counterparts. Drawing on a wide-range of secondary literature including the most up-to-date scholarship and a close examination of the textual evidence, Jon Miller not only reveals the sense in which Spinoza was, and was not, a Stoic, but also offers new insights into how each system should be understood in itself. His book will be of great interest to scholars and students of ancient philosophy, early modern philosophy, Spinoza, and the philosophy of the Stoics.
Muchos autores consideran a Spinoza un adalid del liberalismo. No poca razón tienen, pues en el Tratado teológico-político (TTP) defiende el autor algunos de los pilares fundamentales de la ...democracia liberal: la exaltación de la democracia como la mejor forma de gobierno, la libertad de expresión como consustancial a la actividad política, una teoría del pacto social (transferencia del poder) y un énfasis en el papel clave del individuo en el Estado político. Este artículo propone que una lectura de conjunto de la teoría spinozista, impide entenderlo como un pensador liberal o, por añadidura, como un filosofo utilitarista. Analizaremos tres elementos esenciales: el rol del individuo y su constitución, sus concepciones epistemológicas y su entendimiento de lo propiamente político. Se concluye que la filosofía de Spinoza contiene una contundente crítica a la democracia liberal. Palabras clave: democracia; liberalismo; Spinoza; individuo; política. Spinoza has been named "champion of liberalism" by many distinguished authors. And this could not be more accurate, because in the Theological-Political Treatise (TTP) the author defends fundamental principles of liberal democracy, such as the exaltation of democracy as the best form of government, freedom of expression as consubstantial to political activity, the theory of the social pact (transfer of power), and the emphasis on the key role of the individual in the political state. This article proposes that an overall reading of Spinozist theory will prevent us from understanding him as a liberal thinker, and consequently, as an utilitarian philosopher. Thus, three essential elements will be analyzed: the role of the individual and its constitution, its epistemological conceptions, and its understanding of the properly political. It is concluded that Spinoza's philosophy critiques liberal democracy with solid arguments. Keywords: democracy; liberalism; Spinoza; individual; politics
In The Democratic Soul, Aaron L. Herold argues that liberal democracy's current crisis—of extreme polarization, rising populism, and disillusionment with political institutions—must be understood as ...the culmination of a deeper dissatisfaction with the liberal Enlightenment. Major elements of both the Left and the Right now reject the Enlightenment's emphasis on rights as theoretically unfounded and morally undesirable and have sought to recover a contrasting politics of obligation. But this has re-opened questions about the relationship between politics and religion long thought settled.To address our situation, Herold examines the political thought of Spinoza and Tocqueville, two authors united in support of liberal democracy but with differing assessments of the Enlightenment. Through an original reading of Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise, Herold uncovers the theological foundation of liberal democracy: a comprehensive moral teaching rehabilitating human self- interest, denigrating "devotion" as a relic of "superstition, " and cultivating a pride in living, acting, and thinking for oneself. In his political vision, Spinoza articulates our highest hopes for liberalism, for he is confident such an outlook will produce both intellectual flourishing and a paradoxical recovery of community.But Spinoza's project contains tensions which continue to trouble democracy today. As Herold shows via a new interpretation of Tocqueville's Democracy in America, the dissatisfactions now destabilizing democracy can be traced to the Enlightenment's failure to find a place for religious longings whose existence it largely denied. In particular, Tocqueville described a natural human desire for a kind of happiness found, at least partly, in self-sacrifice. Because modernity weakens religion precisely as it makes democracy stronger than liberalism, it permits this desire to find new and dangerous outlets. Tocqueville thus sought to design a "new political science" which could rectify this problem and which therefore remains indispensable today in recovering the moderation lacking in contemporary politics.