Spinoza and the Case for Philosophy

This book analyzes three often-debated questions of Spinoza's legacy.

Elhanan Yakira (Author)

9781107069985, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 December 2014

298 pages, 1 b/w illus.
23.5 x 16 x 2 cm, 0.57 kg

This book analyzes three often-debated questions of Spinoza's legacy: was Spinoza a religious thinker? How should we understand Spinoza's mind-body doctrine? What meaning can be given to Spinoza's notions - such as salvation, beatitude, and freedom - which are seemingly incompatible with his determinism, his secularism, and his critique of religion. Through a close reading of often-overlooked sections from Spinoza's Ethics, Elhanan Yakira argues that these seemingly conflicting elements are indeed compatible, despite Spinoza's iconoclastic meanings. Yakira argues that Ethics is an attempt at providing a purely philosophical - as opposed to theological - foundation for the theory of value and normativity.

Part I: 1. Spinoza and the question of religion
Part II. Mind and Body: 2. The exegetic inadequacy of parallelism
3. The context
4. Ethics II, propositions 1-13
Part III: 5. Bodies and ideas - a few general remarks
Part IV: 6. The norm of reason: adequacy, truth, knowledge, and comprehension
7. Man, a mode of the substance
Instead of a conclusion: Salus sive Beatitude sive Libertas.

Subject Areas: Jewish studies [JFSR1], History of ideas [JFCX], Religion: general [HRA], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ], History of Western philosophy [HPC], Philosophy [HP], Early modern history: c 1450/1500 to c 1700 [HBLH]