Spinoza / Michael Della Rocca.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Della Rocca, Michael.

Series:

Routledge philosophers

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spinoza, Benedictus de, 1632-1677.

Spinoza, Benedictus de.

Physical Description:

xii, 341 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2008.

Summary:

Spinoza (1632-77) was one of the towering philosophers of the seventeenth century, described by Bertrand Russell as "the noblest and most lovable of all the great philosophers". His work investigated some of the deepest questions of philosophy and whilst renowned for his metaphysics, he also made significant contributions to understanding the human mind, the emotions, moral philosophy, and political philosophy.

In this outstanding introduction to Spinoza's philosophy, Michael Della Rocca takes Spinoza's fundamental conviction that everything exists for a reason - a principle that came to be known as the 'principle of sufficient reason' - as the key to unlocking his thought.

Beginning with an overview of Spinoza's life in the context of his Jewish background, Della Rocca carefully unpacks and explains Spinoza's philosophy: his metaphysics of substance and argument at the center of his whole system that God is the sole independent substance and that finite things are merely ways in which this one substance exists; Spinoza's account of the human mind and its relation to the body; his theory that human beings tend towards self-preservation and the role of the emotions; the central arguments in his most famous work, the Ethics, above all the problem of free will; and his writings on the state, religion and scripture. Della Rocca concludes with a chapter on Spinoza's legacy and how modern philosophers, such as Hume, Hegel, and Nietzsche, responded to Spinoza's challenge.

Ideal for those coming to Spinoza for the first time as well as those already acquainted with his thought, Spinoza is essential reading for anyone studying philosophy and also those in related subjects such as religion and history.

Contents:

Spinoza's understanding and understanding Spinoza

Spinoza's understanding

Understanding Spinoza

The metaphysics of substance

Descartes and substance

Spinoza contra Descartes on substance

Modes

Necessitarianism

The purpose of it all

The human mind

Parallelism and representation

Essence and representation

Parallelism and mind-body identity

The idea of the human body

The pancreas problem, the pan problem, and panpsychism

Nothing but representation

Representation, will, and belief

Skepticism

Psychology : striving and self-preservation

Conatus

Desire, joy, and sadness

Love, hate, and all that

The ethics of the ethics

The good notion of the good

The right notion of the right

Knowledge and morality

Freedom and morality

Helping others

Lies and degrees of freedom

The state, religion, and scripture

Rights and power

Religion and the state

Scripture

Prophecy and the truth of the Bible

From PSR to eternity

The aftermath of Spinoza

Leibniz

Bayle and Hume

The pantheism controversy

Hegel

Nietzsche

Prospects of spinozistic rationalism.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [318]-332) and index.

ISBN:

9780415283298

0415283299

9780415283304

0415283302

9780203894583

0203894588

OCLC:

180753752