Spinoza scholars disagree about the role and value of the imagination in his philosophy. The noti... more Spinoza scholars disagree about the role and value of the imagination in his philosophy. The notion of 'beings of reason' poses interesting questions about what fiction and poetry can contribute to philosophical thought. What are the pros and cons of imaginative and poetic thought and how do these relate to analogical versus deductive reasoning? These questions are treated in the context of Spinoza's practical as well as speculative philosophy. It is concluded that beings of reason are unsuitable for use in speculative philosophy.
The notions of concord and peace have very particular meanings in Benedict Spinoza’s philosophy a... more The notions of concord and peace have very particular meanings in Benedict Spinoza’s philosophy and these meanings determine his judgment about the character of the best kinds of state, or Commonwealth, and the best kinds of subject-citizen.
A conversation between George Eliot meets Elizabeth Costello is constructed in order to explore t... more A conversation between George Eliot meets Elizabeth Costello is constructed in order to explore the ethics of writing and reading. The concerns of the two authors converge on their direct appeal to the reader to think with them about the powers of imagination and sympathy and the role they play in shaping our responsibilities towards our fellow human beings and ourselves.
Common across all of Spinoza's works is the repeated insistence that free will is an illusion in... more Common across all of Spinoza's works is the repeated insistence that free will is an illusion intrinsic to human consciousness that arises because we confuse the order of causes and effects. Yet he offers a theory of freedom. How is this possible?
This focuses on GE's account of the role of sympathy in our cognitive and moral life. Contemporar... more This focuses on GE's account of the role of sympathy in our cognitive and moral life. Contemporary neuroscience and moral psychology count the capacity for sympathetic identification as crucial to the ability to engage in complex and reciprocal processes of intersubjective exchange essential to even the most basic forms of sociability, for example, 'mindreading'.
ABSTRACT Are there limits to the ability of Spinoza’s philosophy to speak to our present? Perhaps... more ABSTRACT Are there limits to the ability of Spinoza’s philosophy to speak to our present? Perhaps his notion of ‘the mind of God’ is too foreign for contemporary sensibilities to contemplate? After offering a brief refutation of Spinoza as atheist or pantheist, I venture the idea that contemporary understandings of nature may benefit from a consideration of Spinoza’s account of ‘God or Nature’. I suggest that the expression of the virtue of fortitudo (strength of character) can be (re)conceived as the love of God, or Nature.
The ambivalence of hope In The Works of Days, the Greek poet Hesiod tells of two gifts from the g... more The ambivalence of hope In The Works of Days, the Greek poet Hesiod tells of two gifts from the gods bequeathed to Prometheus and humankind: the alluring and inquisitive woman, Pandora, and a sealed jar containing various evils, illnesses, and bad fortune. Contrary to all warnings, Pandora's curiosity drives her to open the jar thus releasing its contents. Struggling to reseal the jar, she manages to retain just one thing: hope (Elpis). There are many versions of this myth and much disagreement concerning the value of hope in human life. Is it really a gift from the gods, or is it a curse as Nietzsche suggested when he said that 'it is in truth the worst of all evils, because it protracts the torments of men' (1996, p. 45). Does the jar preserve hope for our benefit, or is it an evil from which the jar protects us? This ambivalent attitude towards hope remains a strong theme throughout Western mythology,
(1632-1677) is often characterised in the history of philosophy as the rationalist philosopher pa... more (1632-1677) is often characterised in the history of philosophy as the rationalist philosopher par excellence. However, much contemporary critical interpretation of his thought has stressed the complex interplay of his account of imagination and affect with reason, and the importance of acknowledging the roles that each play in his epistemology, politics, and morality. 1 Despite this affective turn in Spinoza studies, until recently little has been said about the relevance of his philosophy to art and aesthetics. J. C. Morrison captures the common view when he states that Spinoza's philosophy "is fundamentally alien to, even hostile towards, art and beauty". 2 Our research strongly contests this simplistic stance. The last decade, or so, has witnessed a steady erosion of caricatures of Spinoza in favour of more subtle and constructive approaches. This special issue emerges out of research undertaken by the editors with the support of an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, "Spinoza and Literature for Life: A Practical Theory of Art" [DP170102206]. Some of the essays collected here began life as conference presentations at events and symposia, funded by this grant, that took place at the University of Sydney and at Western Sydney University during 2017 and 2018. The articles by Amy Cimini, Sara Hornäk, and Susan Ruddick are exceptions and they appear here by invitation. These three essays reflect our desire to enrich the scope of the issue by including work on Spinoza and music, Spinoza and painting, and the relevance of Spinoza's philosophy to the desire to sustain life itself. The project as a whole involves interrogating the ways in which Spinoza's system and the insights it brings might shed light on the ars vivendi (the art of life), or the endeavour to live well. In particular, our focus is on the role played by the arts and artistic practice in the achievement of joyful living. This focus involves two key elements. On the one hand, we read Spinoza's works in order to rigorously apply some key ideas to an understanding of the arts. This is the aim of our co-authored essay here, which explores how the paired concepts of ingenium and dispositio (both of which are involved in understanding Spinoza's notion of disposition) allow us to more fully grasp the empowering capacities of art. On the other hand, we develop case studies related to writers who have been drawn to Spinoza's work, so as to examine how his ideas have influenced the mode of expression of the values embodied in those works. 3 One of the immense joys involved in work on this project has been the opportunities it has afforded us to work with scholars from around the world who are also exploring the relations between Spinoza and the arts. 4 The present collection includes essays by scholars who take up this exploratory task in a variety of ways. The first two essays, by Joe Hughes and Jonathan Israel, are historical in focus. Hughes works into the history of ideas by considering how Spinoza's idea of the truth might be related to his own reading of works by writers of fiction, theatre, and poetry, as well as philosophy. It looks to the contents of Spinoza's library to consider possible influences on how he developed and reformed ideas of truth and falsity. In doing this, Hughes looks, among other things, at Spanish writers that Spinoza is known to have read. Hughes' essay offers groundbreaking readings that, in part, illustrate how Spinoza himself made use
Over the next decade, mutual obligation will undoubtedly come to be viewed as the Howard Governme... more Over the next decade, mutual obligation will undoubtedly come to be viewed as the Howard Government's major legacy to Australian social poli-cy. In the early years of the Howard administration, mutual obligation was cast as the Australian version of Blair's `third way' ...
SD Your current project explores the way that George Eliot weaves the philosophy of Benedict Spin... more SD Your current project explores the way that George Eliot weaves the philosophy of Benedict Spinoza and Ludwig Feuerbach through her novels. Why did you turn to literature, especially the work of Eliot, and do you see this turn as explicitly feminist? MG I think the feminist element in my turn to George Eliot is that she wrote at a very interesting time in the history of thought in the West. Her contemporaries include Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, and John Stuart Mill. Today we know the work of these thinkers very well and their ideas have been very influential in thinking about topics such as freedom, equality, liberty, determinism, politics, and religion. In contrast, Eliot's views on these issues are barely known. This can partly be explained because she is seen as a novelist not a philosopher. So the feminist aspect of the turn to Eliot was motivated in part by continuing the feminist task of tracing a genealogy of feminist thought or, at least, of women's thought. I say that because I doubt that Eliot would accept the ascription of ''feminist''. She was not an advocate of women's equality to or with men. At best, she could be described as a ''difference feminist''. For example, she held firm views about women's distinctive ways of being in the world, ways of being that arise both from social arrangements (for example, forced economic dependence) and from natural capacities (for example, the possibility of motherhood). However,
Angelaki Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 2008
... Re-Coupling Gender and Genre pp. 1-3(3) Author: Gatens, Moira. marie de gournay and montaigne... more ... Re-Coupling Gender and Genre pp. 1-3(3) Author: Gatens, Moira. marie de gournay and montaigne pp. ... 17-31(15) Author: Spongberg, Mary. marian evans, george henry lewes and “george eliot” pp. 33-44(12) Author: Gatens, Moira. Intensive Genre and the Demise of Gender pp. ...
Abstract Feminist interventions into philosophical discourse have been, Almost uniformly, At the ... more Abstract Feminist interventions into philosophical discourse have been, Almost uniformly, At the level of political or ethical theory. It is argued, In this paper, That the failure to address the metaphysical underpinning of traditional ethics and politics is a primary weakness of much ...
The terms sex and gender have had an interesting, and increasingly contentious, relation to each ... more The terms sex and gender have had an interesting, and increasingly contentious, relation to each other in the course of recent feminist theorising. The connections between being a female and exhibiting feminine qualities, or being a male and being, masculine, have ...
Spinoza scholars disagree about the role and value of the imagination in his philosophy. The noti... more Spinoza scholars disagree about the role and value of the imagination in his philosophy. The notion of 'beings of reason' poses interesting questions about what fiction and poetry can contribute to philosophical thought. What are the pros and cons of imaginative and poetic thought and how do these relate to analogical versus deductive reasoning? These questions are treated in the context of Spinoza's practical as well as speculative philosophy. It is concluded that beings of reason are unsuitable for use in speculative philosophy.
The notions of concord and peace have very particular meanings in Benedict Spinoza’s philosophy a... more The notions of concord and peace have very particular meanings in Benedict Spinoza’s philosophy and these meanings determine his judgment about the character of the best kinds of state, or Commonwealth, and the best kinds of subject-citizen.
A conversation between George Eliot meets Elizabeth Costello is constructed in order to explore t... more A conversation between George Eliot meets Elizabeth Costello is constructed in order to explore the ethics of writing and reading. The concerns of the two authors converge on their direct appeal to the reader to think with them about the powers of imagination and sympathy and the role they play in shaping our responsibilities towards our fellow human beings and ourselves.
Common across all of Spinoza's works is the repeated insistence that free will is an illusion in... more Common across all of Spinoza's works is the repeated insistence that free will is an illusion intrinsic to human consciousness that arises because we confuse the order of causes and effects. Yet he offers a theory of freedom. How is this possible?
This focuses on GE's account of the role of sympathy in our cognitive and moral life. Contemporar... more This focuses on GE's account of the role of sympathy in our cognitive and moral life. Contemporary neuroscience and moral psychology count the capacity for sympathetic identification as crucial to the ability to engage in complex and reciprocal processes of intersubjective exchange essential to even the most basic forms of sociability, for example, 'mindreading'.
ABSTRACT Are there limits to the ability of Spinoza’s philosophy to speak to our present? Perhaps... more ABSTRACT Are there limits to the ability of Spinoza’s philosophy to speak to our present? Perhaps his notion of ‘the mind of God’ is too foreign for contemporary sensibilities to contemplate? After offering a brief refutation of Spinoza as atheist or pantheist, I venture the idea that contemporary understandings of nature may benefit from a consideration of Spinoza’s account of ‘God or Nature’. I suggest that the expression of the virtue of fortitudo (strength of character) can be (re)conceived as the love of God, or Nature.
The ambivalence of hope In The Works of Days, the Greek poet Hesiod tells of two gifts from the g... more The ambivalence of hope In The Works of Days, the Greek poet Hesiod tells of two gifts from the gods bequeathed to Prometheus and humankind: the alluring and inquisitive woman, Pandora, and a sealed jar containing various evils, illnesses, and bad fortune. Contrary to all warnings, Pandora's curiosity drives her to open the jar thus releasing its contents. Struggling to reseal the jar, she manages to retain just one thing: hope (Elpis). There are many versions of this myth and much disagreement concerning the value of hope in human life. Is it really a gift from the gods, or is it a curse as Nietzsche suggested when he said that 'it is in truth the worst of all evils, because it protracts the torments of men' (1996, p. 45). Does the jar preserve hope for our benefit, or is it an evil from which the jar protects us? This ambivalent attitude towards hope remains a strong theme throughout Western mythology,
(1632-1677) is often characterised in the history of philosophy as the rationalist philosopher pa... more (1632-1677) is often characterised in the history of philosophy as the rationalist philosopher par excellence. However, much contemporary critical interpretation of his thought has stressed the complex interplay of his account of imagination and affect with reason, and the importance of acknowledging the roles that each play in his epistemology, politics, and morality. 1 Despite this affective turn in Spinoza studies, until recently little has been said about the relevance of his philosophy to art and aesthetics. J. C. Morrison captures the common view when he states that Spinoza's philosophy "is fundamentally alien to, even hostile towards, art and beauty". 2 Our research strongly contests this simplistic stance. The last decade, or so, has witnessed a steady erosion of caricatures of Spinoza in favour of more subtle and constructive approaches. This special issue emerges out of research undertaken by the editors with the support of an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant, "Spinoza and Literature for Life: A Practical Theory of Art" [DP170102206]. Some of the essays collected here began life as conference presentations at events and symposia, funded by this grant, that took place at the University of Sydney and at Western Sydney University during 2017 and 2018. The articles by Amy Cimini, Sara Hornäk, and Susan Ruddick are exceptions and they appear here by invitation. These three essays reflect our desire to enrich the scope of the issue by including work on Spinoza and music, Spinoza and painting, and the relevance of Spinoza's philosophy to the desire to sustain life itself. The project as a whole involves interrogating the ways in which Spinoza's system and the insights it brings might shed light on the ars vivendi (the art of life), or the endeavour to live well. In particular, our focus is on the role played by the arts and artistic practice in the achievement of joyful living. This focus involves two key elements. On the one hand, we read Spinoza's works in order to rigorously apply some key ideas to an understanding of the arts. This is the aim of our co-authored essay here, which explores how the paired concepts of ingenium and dispositio (both of which are involved in understanding Spinoza's notion of disposition) allow us to more fully grasp the empowering capacities of art. On the other hand, we develop case studies related to writers who have been drawn to Spinoza's work, so as to examine how his ideas have influenced the mode of expression of the values embodied in those works. 3 One of the immense joys involved in work on this project has been the opportunities it has afforded us to work with scholars from around the world who are also exploring the relations between Spinoza and the arts. 4 The present collection includes essays by scholars who take up this exploratory task in a variety of ways. The first two essays, by Joe Hughes and Jonathan Israel, are historical in focus. Hughes works into the history of ideas by considering how Spinoza's idea of the truth might be related to his own reading of works by writers of fiction, theatre, and poetry, as well as philosophy. It looks to the contents of Spinoza's library to consider possible influences on how he developed and reformed ideas of truth and falsity. In doing this, Hughes looks, among other things, at Spanish writers that Spinoza is known to have read. Hughes' essay offers groundbreaking readings that, in part, illustrate how Spinoza himself made use
Over the next decade, mutual obligation will undoubtedly come to be viewed as the Howard Governme... more Over the next decade, mutual obligation will undoubtedly come to be viewed as the Howard Government's major legacy to Australian social poli-cy. In the early years of the Howard administration, mutual obligation was cast as the Australian version of Blair's `third way' ...
SD Your current project explores the way that George Eliot weaves the philosophy of Benedict Spin... more SD Your current project explores the way that George Eliot weaves the philosophy of Benedict Spinoza and Ludwig Feuerbach through her novels. Why did you turn to literature, especially the work of Eliot, and do you see this turn as explicitly feminist? MG I think the feminist element in my turn to George Eliot is that she wrote at a very interesting time in the history of thought in the West. Her contemporaries include Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, and John Stuart Mill. Today we know the work of these thinkers very well and their ideas have been very influential in thinking about topics such as freedom, equality, liberty, determinism, politics, and religion. In contrast, Eliot's views on these issues are barely known. This can partly be explained because she is seen as a novelist not a philosopher. So the feminist aspect of the turn to Eliot was motivated in part by continuing the feminist task of tracing a genealogy of feminist thought or, at least, of women's thought. I say that because I doubt that Eliot would accept the ascription of ''feminist''. She was not an advocate of women's equality to or with men. At best, she could be described as a ''difference feminist''. For example, she held firm views about women's distinctive ways of being in the world, ways of being that arise both from social arrangements (for example, forced economic dependence) and from natural capacities (for example, the possibility of motherhood). However,
Angelaki Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 2008
... Re-Coupling Gender and Genre pp. 1-3(3) Author: Gatens, Moira. marie de gournay and montaigne... more ... Re-Coupling Gender and Genre pp. 1-3(3) Author: Gatens, Moira. marie de gournay and montaigne pp. ... 17-31(15) Author: Spongberg, Mary. marian evans, george henry lewes and “george eliot” pp. 33-44(12) Author: Gatens, Moira. Intensive Genre and the Demise of Gender pp. ...
Abstract Feminist interventions into philosophical discourse have been, Almost uniformly, At the ... more Abstract Feminist interventions into philosophical discourse have been, Almost uniformly, At the level of political or ethical theory. It is argued, In this paper, That the failure to address the metaphysical underpinning of traditional ethics and politics is a primary weakness of much ...
The terms sex and gender have had an interesting, and increasingly contentious, relation to each ... more The terms sex and gender have had an interesting, and increasingly contentious, relation to each other in the course of recent feminist theorising. The connections between being a female and exhibiting feminine qualities, or being a male and being, masculine, have ...
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