Benedict de Spinoza

The Building Blocks of Spinoza's Metaphysics: Substance, Attributes, and Modes

by Yitzhak Melamed

Forthcoming in Michael Della Rocca (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Spinoza (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Review of Michael LeBuffe, From Bondage to Freedom: Spinoza on Human Excellence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). Leibniz Review, 39-45.

by Yitzhak Melamed

“The Sirens of Elea: Rationalism, Idealism and Monism in Spinoza”

by Yitzhak Melamed

Forthcoming in Antonia LoLordo and Stewart Duncan (eds.), The Key Debates of Modern Philosophy (New York and London: Routledge).

Philosophical Strategies: Althusser and Spinoza

by Peter D. Thomas

“Philosophical Strategies: Althusser and Spinoza”, Historical Materialism 10.3, Brill, Leiden, 2002.

Salomon Maimon and the Rise of Spinozism in German Idealism

by Yitzhak Melamed

Ensaio sobre o direito de resistência: as concepções de Locke e Spinoza

by Taiz Costa

Why is Spinoza NOT an Eleatic Monist ? (or Why Diversity Exists?)

by Yitzhak Melamed

Forthcoming in Philip Goff (ed.), Spinoza on Monism (Palgrave, 2011)

Two Kinds of Definition in Spinoza's Ethics

by Kristina Meshelski

British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Volume 19, Issue 2 (2011)

Spinoza scholars have claimed that we are faced with a dilemma: either Spinoza's definitions in his Ethics are real,... more Spinoza scholars have claimed that we are faced with a dilemma: either Spinoza's definitions in his Ethics are real, in spite of indications to the contrary, or the definitions are nominal and the propositions derived from them are false. I argue that Spinoza did not recognize the distinction between real and nominal definitions. Rather, Spinoza classified definitions according to whether they require a priori or a posteriori justification, which is a classification distinct from either the real/nominal or the intensional/extensional classification. I argue that Spinoza uses both a priori and a posteriori definitions in the Ethics and that recognizing both types of definitions allows us to understand Spinoza's geometric method in a new way. We can now understand the geometric method as two methods, one resulting in propositions that Spinoza considers to be absolutely certain and another resulting in propositions that Spinoza does not consider certain. The latter method makes use of a posteriori definitions and postulates, whereas the former method uses only a priori definitions and axioms.

“Christus secundum spiritum”: Spinoza, Jesus and the Infinite Intellect

by Yitzhak Melamed

In Neta Stahl (ed.), The Jewish Jesus (Routledge, 2012)

Spinoza on the Essences of Modes

by Thomas M. Ward

British Journal for the History of Philosophy 19:1 (2011), pp.19-46 (This paper was awarded the 2009 BSHP Graduate Student Essay Prize)

This paper examines some aspects of Spinoza’s metaphysics of the essences of modes. I situate Spinoza’s use of the... more This paper examines some aspects of Spinoza’s metaphysics of the essences of modes. I situate Spinoza’s use of the notion of essence as a response to traditional, Aristotelian, ways of thinking about essence. I argue that, although Spinoza rejects part of the Aristotelian conception of essence, according to which it is in virtue of its essence that a thing is a member of a kind, he nevertheless retains a different part of such a conception, according to which an essence is some structural feature of a thing which causally explains other, nonessential features. I go on to develop an account of Spinoza’s metaphysics of essence, according to which essences, what he sometimes calls formal essences, are produced by the divine essence prior to and independent of the creation of finite modes, and according to which essences are the formal or exemplar causes of finite modes. I then argue that finite modes, in virtue of the formal essences which they actualize, are genuine causal relata. Finally, I offer some speculations about Spinoza’s answer to the question, “Why, in a necessitarian cosmos filled with formal essences, should there be temporal finite modes at all?”

Can Art Be Adequate in Spinoza?: Third-Order Knowing and Deleuze’s Essences

by Chris Davidson

Accepted to Memphis University's Philosophy Graduate Student Conference, “Contemporary Philosophers Reading the Moderns.”  Not given due to weather.

Where would one begin to look for a theory of art in Benedict Spinoza? There is quite simply no sustained discussion... more Where would one begin to look for a theory of art in Benedict Spinoza? There is quite simply no sustained discussion of art in his works. One could look to his accounts of imagination or sensation, but these don’t have any clear application to art specifically. Perhaps we can draw upon the work of Gilles Deleuze, who is avowedly inspired by Spinoza, to isolate possibilities regarding art in Spinoza. In Deleuze’s Proust and Signs, he gives a compressed and difficult account of pure “essences”, which one must seek in art. Essences are eternal, yet produced, he says. They are superior to other forms of thought because they are “spiritual”, whereas other forms of life and thought are too attached to what he calls “matter”. My intent is to connect these Deleuzian “essences” to certain ideas in Spinoza, to fulfill a number of aims. First, it will help clarify just what Deleuze’s essences are. It will also form the beginning of what could be a theory of art in Spinoza, based upon the adequate idea of a particular thing, commonly called “third-order knowing”. The combination of Deleuze and Spinoza on these points ought to clarify Deleuze, and make some headway towards thinking about art in the texts of Spinoza.

Sovereign Suicide- Spinoza's Sovereign Has No Conatus

by Chris Davidson

Updated 8-16-2011.

Is the sovereign of Spinoza an “individual”, in the sense detailed in his Ethics? Every true individual has a conatus... more Is the sovereign of Spinoza an “individual”, in the sense detailed in his Ethics? Every true individual has a conatus by which it strives to maintain its existence. Sovereignty is often assumed to strive to preserve itself, but this must be denied, since it can destroy itself through its own activity. Sovereignty’s risk of destruction comes not from outside, as is the case for any true individual, but arises internally: sovereignty commits suicide. Hence, sovereignty is not a true individual, but merely a collision of disparate forces, which has a number of political and practical implications.

"Goethe's Analysis of Exodus 34 and Its Influence on Julius Wellhausen: The Pfropfung of the Documentary Hypothesis."

by Bernard M. Levinson

Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 114 (2002) 212-223.

This article investigates the intellectual history of the argument for the antiquity of Ex 34,11–26. In the... more This article investigates the intellectual history of the argument for the antiquity of Ex 34,11–26. In the contemporary debate about pentateuchal theory, a question that remains insufficiently addressed is how and why the idea originally developed that the unit represents an ancient, independent, pre-Deuteronomic legal source. Wellhausen credited the idea to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s »Zwo bisher unerörterte biblische Fragen …« (1773). Like Goethe, Wellhausen regarded the unit as a »ritual Decalogue,« in contrast to the »ethical Decalogue« of Exodus 20. The distinction helped Wellhausen consolidate the classical model of the documentary hypothesis: he attributed the cultic Decalogue to the Yahwist and the ethical one to the Elohist. Despite the importance of Goethe’s essay to the history of pentateuchal criticism, it is not clear that its arguments have previously been investigated. The article addresses equally Goethe's construction of the Jew as "other" and as particularistic, in contrast to the German Protestant as "self" and universal. The article demonstrates that Goethe could not have read read Spinoza's Tractatus, despite the common belief otherwise.

Keywords:
Julius Wellhausen, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Baruch Spinoza, Zwo bisher unerörterte biblische Fragen, Dekalog, Decalolgue, cultic Decalog, ethical Decalog, German Jewish history, Christian Jewish relations, Ten Commandments, history of biblical scholarship, Exod 34:11-26; German Romanticism

The King James Bible at 400: Scripture, Statecraft, and the American Founding.

by Bernard M. Levinson

Co-authored with Joshua Berman, published as a special supplement in The History Channel Magazine, November 2010, pp. 1-11.

This short article addressed to a broader readership investigates the impact of the King James Bible upon the American... more This short article addressed to a broader readership investigates the impact of the King James Bible upon the American founding. In order to show that impact, the article's first half portrays the political context for the formation of the King James, charts the influence of the Bible upon early modern political thought, and then sketches the impact of the KJV upon the rhetoric and political thought of the Founders. The essay is accompanied by a timeline.

Key Words:
Authorized Version; King James Version; American Founding; Bible and political thought, religion and the founding, founders, Bible and intellectual history, Spinoza, Bible and constitution; Bible and democracy.