Spinoza A Philosopher Of Love

Author : Michael Strawser
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1793628602
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Spinoza and the Philosophy of Love written by Michael Strawser and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-08-27 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Spinoza and the Philosophy of Love, Michael Strawser provides a new reading of Spinoza as a philosopher of love, and one who centers his thought on an ethically qualified conception of noble love. Strawser examines the threefold conception of love found in Spinoza’s Ethics and argues that what is most important for Spinoza’s philosophy is a unified conception of love centered on nobility (amor sive generositas). This active conception of love can conquer hatred and bring people together. Situating Spinoza’s philosophy of love within both Jewish and Western philosophical traditions, Strawser investigates questions in the philosophy of love together with Spinoza and thinkers such as Saadia Gaon, Maimonides, Leone Ebreo, Tullia d’Aragona, and René Descartes. He shows how Spinoza deepens our understanding of amorous perfectionism and how this reading of Spinoza’s philosophy of love serves as both a corrective to problematic readings, such as those found in Isaac Bashevis Singer and Emmanuel Levinas, and a counter to speciesism. With careful examination of Spinoza’s writings, Strawser demonstrates that the goal of his philosophy is best understood as the love of other people who are to be helped and united with in friendship. Ultimately, Spinoza’s philosophy of love calls for collective nobility.

Author : Clare Carlisle
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 069122420X
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Spinoza's Religion written by Clare Carlisle and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bold reevaluation of Spinoza that reveals his powerful, inclusive vision of religion for the modern age Spinoza is widely regarded as either a God-forsaking atheist or a God-intoxicated pantheist, but Clare Carlisle says that he was neither. In Spinoza’s Religion, she sets out a bold interpretation of Spinoza through a lucid new reading of his masterpiece, the Ethics. Putting the question of religion centre-stage but refusing to convert Spinozism to Christianity, Carlisle reveals that “being in God” unites Spinoza’s metaphysics and ethics. Spinoza’s Religion unfolds a powerful, inclusive philosophical vision for the modern age—one that is grounded in a profound questioning of how to live a joyful, fully human life. Like Spinoza himself, the Ethics doesn’t fit into any ready-made religious category. But Carlisle shows how it wrestles with the question of religion in strikingly original ways, responding both critically and constructively to the diverse, broadly Christian context in which Spinoza lived and worked. Philosophy itself, as Spinoza practiced it, became a spiritual endeavor that expressed his devotion to a truthful, virtuous way of life. Offering startling new insights into Spinoza’s famously enigmatic ideas about eternal life and the intellectual love of God, Carlisle uncovers a Spinozist religion that integrates self-knowledge, desire, practice, and embodied ethical life to reach toward our “highest happiness”—to rest in God. Seen through Carlisle’s eyes, the Ethics prompts us to rethink not only Spinoza but also religion itself.

Author : Erik Dreff
Publisher : de Gruyter
ISBN 13 : 9783110625578
Total Pages : 200 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Spinoza - A Philosopher of Love written by Erik Dreff and published by de Gruyter. This book was released on 2020-05 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite widespread agreement as to its importance, the concept of the Love of God in Spinoza continues to frustrate readers and scholars alike. Offering a radical re-reading of Spinoza's works and thought as first and foremost a philosophy of love, Spinoza: A Philosopher of Love expands and recasts my dissertation to present a comprehensive study of Spinoza's entire oeuvre with the love of God as a central if not cardinal concept and value for Spinoza. In turn, the book then re-examines his metaphysical, political, and religious projects, arguing for a reorientation of the present prioritization of propositions and concepts in his works, especially in light of the fundamental axiological role the concept plays. In the end, rather than being the stumbling block upon which certain concepts or interpretations of Spinoza fall, the love of God, it is argued, both undergirds and orients much if not all of his thought, and becomes the key to a more coherent understanding of crucial concepts, his thought, works, and philosophy as a whole.

Author : Michael Strawser
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739184946
Total Pages : 227 pages
Book Rating : 4.43/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Kierkegaard and the Philosophy of Love written by Michael Strawser and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2015-10-08 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ironically, the philosophy of love has long been neglected by philosophers, so-called “lovers of wisdom,” who would seemingly need to understand how one best becomes a lover. In Kierkegaard and the Philosophy of Love, Michael Strawser shows that the philosophy of love lies at the heart of Kierkegaard’s writings, as he argues that the central issue of Kierkegaard’s authorship can and should be understood more broadly as the task of becoming a lover. Strawser starts by identifying the questions (How should I love the other? Is self-love possible? How can I love God?) and themes (love’s immediacy, intentionality, unity, and eternity) that are central to the philosophy of love, and he develops a rich context that includes analyses of the conceptions of love found in Plato, Spinoza, and Hegel, as well as prominent contemporary thinkers. Strawser provides an original and wide-ranging analysis of Kierkegaard’s writings—from the early The Concept of Irony and Edifying Discourses to the late The Moment, while maintaining the prominence of Works of Love— to demonstrate how Kierkegaard’s writings on love are relevant to the emerging study of the philosophy of love today. The most unique perspective of this work, however, is Strawser’s argument that Kierkegaard’s writings on love are most fruitfully understood within the context of a phenomenology of love. In interpreting Kierkegaard as a phenomenologist of love, Strawser claims that it is not Husserl and Heidegger that we should look to for a connection in the first instance, but rather Max Scheler, Dietrich von Hildebrand, Emmanuel Levinas, and most importantly, Jean-Luc Marion, who for the most part center their thinking on the phenomenological nature of love. Based on an analysis of the works of these thinkers together with Kierkegaard’s writings, Strawser argues that Kierkegaard presents readers with a first phenomenology of love, a point of view that serves as a unifying perspective throughout this work while also pointing to areas for future scholarship. Overall, this work brings seemingly divergent perspectives into a unity brought about through a focus on love—which is, after all, a unifying force.

Author : Andrea Sangiacomo
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0198847904
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.08/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Spinoza on Reason, Passions, and the Supreme Good written by Andrea Sangiacomo and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-01-19 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spinoza's thought is at the centre of an ever growing interest. Spinoza's moral philosophy, in particular, points to a radical way of understanding how human beings can become free and enjoy supreme happiness. And yet, there is still much disagreement about how exactly Spinoza's recipe is supposed to work. For long time, Spinoza has been presented as an arch rationalist who would identify in the purely intellectual cultivation of reason the key for ethical progress. Andrea Sangiacomo offers a new understanding of Spinoza's project, by showing how he himself struggled during his career to develop a moral philosophy that could speak to human beings as they actually are (imperfect, passionate, often not very rational). Spinoza's views significantly evolved over time. In his early writings, Spinoza's account of ethical progress towards the Supreme Good relies mostly on the idea that the mind can build on its innate knowledge to resist the power of the passions. Although appropriate social conditions may support the individual's pursuit of the Supreme Good, achieving it does not depend essentially on social factors. In Spinoza's later writings, however, the emphasis shifts towards the mind's need to rely on appropriate forms of social cooperation. Reason becomes the mental expression of the way the human body interacts with external causes on the basis of some degree of agreement in nature with them. The greater the agreement, the greater the power of reason to adequately understand universal features as well as more specific traits of the external causes. In the case of human beings, certain kinds of social cooperation are crucial for the development of reason. This view has crucial ramifications for Spinoza's account of how individuals can progress towards the Supreme Good and how a political science based on Spinoza's principles can contribute to this goal.

Author : Milad Doueihi
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674050630
Total Pages : 131 pages
Book Rating : 4.31/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Augustine and Spinoza written by Milad Doueihi and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Election and grace are two key concepts that not only have shaped the relations between Judaism and Christianity, but also have formed a cornerstone of the Western philosophical discourse on the evolution and progress of humanity. Though Augustine and Spinoza can be shown to share a methodological approach to these concepts, their conclusions remain radically different. For the Church Father Augustine, grace defines human nature by the potential availability of divine intervention, thus setting the stage for the institutional and political legitimacy of the Church, the Christian state, and its justice. For Spinoza, on the other hand, election represents a unique but local form of divine intervention, marked by geography and historical context. Milad Doueihi maps out the consequences of such an encounter between these two thinkers in terms of their philosophical heritage and its continued relevance for contemporary discussions of religious diversity and autonomy. Augustine asserts a theological foundation for the political, whereas Spinoza radically separates philosophy, and thus authority, from theology in order to solicit a political democracy. In this sharply argued and deeply learned book, Milad Doueihi shows us how interconnections between the two thinkers have come to shape Western philosophy.

Author : Rebecca Goldstein
Publisher : Schocken
ISBN 13 : 030751417X
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Betraying Spinoza written by Rebecca Goldstein and published by Schocken. This book was released on 2009-01-16 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part of the Jewish Encounter series In 1656, Amsterdam’s Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza, and, at the age of twenty–three, he became the most famous heretic in Judaism. He was already germinating a secularist challenge to religion that would be as radical as it was original. He went on to produce one of the most ambitious systems in the history of Western philosophy, so ahead of its time that scientists today, from string theorists to neurobiologists, count themselves among Spinoza’s progeny. In Betraying Spinoza, Rebecca Goldstein sets out to rediscover the flesh-and-blood man often hidden beneath the veneer of rigorous rationality, and to crack the mystery of the breach between the philosopher and his Jewish past. Goldstein argues that the trauma of the Inquisition’ s persecution of its forced Jewish converts plays itself out in Spinoza’s philosophy. The excommunicated Spinoza, no less than his excommunicators, was responding to Europe’ s first experiment with racial anti-Semitism. Here is a Spinoza both hauntingly emblematic and deeply human, both heretic and hero—a surprisingly contemporary figure ripe for our own uncertain age. From the Hardcover edition.

Author : Gilles Deleuze
Publisher : City Lights Books
ISBN 13 : 9780872862180
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Spinoza written by Gilles Deleuze and published by City Lights Books. This book was released on 1988-04 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spinoza's theoretical philosophy is one of the most radical attempts to construct a pure ontology with a single infinite substance. This book, which presents Spinoza's main ideas in dictionary form, has as its subject the opposition between ethics and morality, and the link between ethical and ontological propositions. His ethics is an ethology, rather than a moral science. Attention has been drawn to Spinoza by deep ecologists such as Arne Naess, the Norwegian philosopher; and this reading of Spinoza by Deleuze lends itself to a radical ecological ethic. As Robert Hurley says in his introduction, "Deleuze opens us to the idea that the elements of the different individuals we compose may be nonhuman within us. One wonders, finally, whether Man might be defined as a territory, a set of boundaries, a limit on existence." Gilles Deleuze, known for his inquiries into desire, language, politics, and power, finds a kinship between Spinoza and Nietzsche. He writes, ""Spinoza did not believe in hope or even in courage; he believed only in joy and in vision . . . he more than any other gave me the feeling of a gust of air from behind each time I read him, of a witch's broom that he makes one mount. Gilles Deleuze was a professor of philosophy at the University of Paris at Vincennes. Robert Hurley is the translator of Michel Foucault's History of Sexuality.

Author : Jon Miller
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1316298132
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Spinoza and the Stoics written by Jon Miller and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-04-30 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Author : Jonathan Israel
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1139463616
Total Pages : 451 pages
Book Rating : 4.14/5 ( download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Spinoza: Theological-Political Treatise written by Jonathan Israel and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-03 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise (1670) is one of the most important philosophical works of the early modern period. In it Spinoza discusses at length the historical circumstances of the composition and transmission of the Bible, demonstrating the fallibility of both its authors and its interpreters. He argues that free enquiry is not only consistent with the security and prosperity of a state but actually essential to them, and that such freedom flourishes best in a democratic and republican state in which individuals are left free while religious organizations are subordinated to the secular power. His Treatise has profoundly influenced the subsequent history of political thought, Enlightenment 'clandestine' or radical philosophy, Bible hermeneutics, and textual criticism more generally. It is presented here in a translation of great clarity and accuracy by Michael Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel, with a substantial historical and philosophical introduction by Jonathan Israel.