Download or read book Think Least of Death written by Steven Nadler and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-10 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The seventeenth-century Dutch-Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza has long been known - and vilified - for his heretical view of God and for the radical determinism he sees governing the cosmos and human freedom. Only recently, however, has he begun to be considered seriously as a moral philosopher. In his philosophical masterpiece, the Ethics, after establishing some metaphysical and epistemological foundations, he turns to the "big questions" that so often move one to reflect on, and even change, the values that inform their life: What is truly good? What is happiness? What is the relationship between being a good or virtuous person and enjoying happiness and human flourishing? The guiding thread of the book, and the source of its title, is a claim that comes late in the Ethics: "The free person thinks least of all of death, and his wisdom is a meditation not on death but on life." The life of the free person, according to Spinoza, is one of joy, not sadness. He does what is "most important" in life and is not troubled by such harmful passions as hate, greed and envy. He treats others with benevolence, justice and charity. And, with his attention focused on the rewards of goodness, he enjoys the pleasures of this world, but in moderation. Nadler makes clear that these ethical precepts are not unrelated to Spinoza's metaphysical views. Rather, as Nadler shows, Spinoza's views on how to live are intimately connected to and require an understanding of his conception of human nature and its place in the cosmos, his account of values, and his conception of human happiness and flourishing. Written in an engaging style this book makes Spinoza's often forbiddingly technical philosophy accessible to contemporary readers interested in knowing more about Spinoza's views on morality, and who may even be looking to this famous "atheist", who so scandalized his early modern contemporaries, as a guide to the right way of living today"--

Download or read book Salvation Through Spinoza written by David Wertheim and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-09-23 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study chronicles Spinoza’s German-Jewish popularity during the years of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), explaining it from the political moral and intellectual paradoxes with which Weimar Germany confronted its Jews.

Download or read book Salvation from Despair written by E.E. Harris and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My purpose in this book is to re-interpret the philosophy of Spinoza to a new generation. I make no attempt to compete with the historical scholar ship of A. H. Wolfson in tracing back Spinoza's ideas to his Ancient, Hebrew and Mediaeval forerunners, or the meticulous philosophical scrutiny of Harold Joachim, which I could wish to emulate but cannot hope to rival. I have simply relied upon the text of Spinoza's own writings in an effort to grasp and to make intelligible to others the precise meaning of his doctrine, and to decide whether, in spite of numerous apparent and serious internal conflicts, it can be understood as a consistent whole. In so doing I have found it necessary to correct what seem to me t0' be mis conceptions frequently entertained by commentators. Whether or not I am right in my re-interpretation, it will, I hope, contribute something fresh, if not to the knowledge of Spinoza, at least to the discussion of what he really meant to say. The limits within which I am constrained to write prevent me from drawing fully upon the great mass of scholarly writings on Spinoza, his life and times, his works and his philosophical ideas. I can only try to make amends for omissions by listing the most important works in the Spinoza bibliography, for reference by those who would seek to know more about his philosophy. This list I have added as an appendix.

Download or read book Salvation through Spinoza written by David Wertheim and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-09-20 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite his reputation as a heretic, Baruch Spinoza was one of the major heroes of the Jewish cultural Renaissance in Weimar Germany. This study traces Weimar Jewry's infatuation with Spinoza as it was manifested in scholarship, the popular press, and novels. It tells of how Jews, who found themselves oscillating between the social pressures to both assimilate and remain authentic, sought refuge in a thinker who epitomized both the rationality and liberalism of the Weimar Republic’s enlightened defenders as well as the mysticism of its neo-romanticist challengers. In recapturing this forgotten chapter in the history of Spinozism this book sheds an original light on Weimar Germany’s reknown Jewish culture.

Download or read book Spinoza written by Herman de Dijn and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza (1632-77) is an unusual,highly original, and influential reaction to the transition of Western cultureto the modern age. According to Spinoza, modern scientific thinking, if thoughtthrough, leads to a denial of humanity as the center of creation, willed by apersonal God. It is Spinoza who first formulated a philosophy which shows thatmodern scientific thinking, and the modern metaphysical view of humanity andthe world that it gives rise to, does not have to lead to despair. He understoodthat engaging seriously in detached philosophical thinking could lead to anunexpected form of intellectual salvation. De Dijn's comprehensive introduction to Spinoza's philosophyis based on two key texts. He first provides an in-depth analysis of Spinoza's Treatise on the Improvement of theUnderstanding, which De Dijn characterizes as his introduction tophilosophy. This notoriously difficult text is here made accessible, even inits details. This analysis is followed by a comprehensive survey of Spinoza'smetaphysics as presented in his famous Ethics. De Dijn demonstrates howSpinoza's central philosophical project as introduced in the Treatise - thelinkage of knowledge and salvation - is perfectly realized in the Ethics. In thisway the unity of Spinoza's thought is shown to consist in his preoccupationwith the ethical question of salvation. The book also containsintroductory chapters on Spinoza's life and work, the original Latin text ofthe Treatise and its new English translation by Edwin Curley, and an annotatedbibliography on the secondary literature.

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.

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.

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.

Download or read book A Book Forged in Hell written by Steven Nadler and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-09 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it appeared in 1670, Baruch Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was denounced as the most dangerous book ever published. Religious and secular authorities saw it as a threat to faith, social and political harmony, and everyday morality, and its author was almost universally regarded as a religious subversive and political radical who sought to spread atheism throughout Europe. Steven Nadler tells the story of this book: its radical claims and their background in the philosophical, religious, and political tensions of the Dutch Golden Age, as well as the vitriolic reaction these ideas inspired. A vivid story of incendiary ideas and vicious backlash, A Book Forged in Hell will interest anyone who is curious about the origin of some of our most cherished modern beliefs--Jacket p. [2].

Download or read book Spinoza written by Ivan Segré and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spinoza is among the most controversial and asymmetrical thinkers in the tradition and history of modern European philosophy. Since the 17th century, his work has aroused some of the fiercest and most intense polemics in the discipline. From his expulsion from the synagogue and onwards, Spinoza has never ceased to embody the secular, heretical and self-loathing Jew. Ivan Segré, a philosopher and celebrated scholar of the Talmud, discloses the conservative underpinnings that have animated Spinoza's numerable critics and antagonists. Through a close reading of Leo Strauss and several contemporary Jewish thinkers, such as Jean-Claude Milner and Benny Levy (Sartre's last secretary), Spinoza: the Ethics of an Outlaw aptly delineates the common cause of Spinoza's contemporary censors: an explicit hatred of reason and its emancipatory potential. Spinoza's radical heresy lies in his rejection of any and all blind adherence to Biblical Law, and in his plea for the freedom and autonomy of thought. Segré reclaims Spinoza as a faithful interpreter of the revolutionary potential contained within the Old Testament.

Download or read book Spinoza Metaphysics and the Possibility of Salvation written by Olli Koistinen and published by . This book was released on 2025 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book offers a novel interpretation of Spinoza's basic metaphysics of God, body, and mind. It considers the fundamental question of how finite things, especially human minds, are in God. Moreover, because for Spinoza God is identical with the universe, the question becomes how finite things are in the universe. The book shows that for Spinoza finite things are closer to God than what is thought in most contemporary Spinoza studies. It claims that the essences of finite things are degrees or, in a very specific sense of the term "part," parts of the infinite essence of God. The book also shows how Spinoza's basic metaphysics attempts to give us the possibility to unite with God so that we can share some of God's perspective with [TO?] the world. This new knowledge, Spinoza claims, provides the mind with eternity and a kind of individual salvation that is deeply meaningful. The book is not only a study of Spinoza's basic concepts, but it also takes seriously what kind of epistemic attitude is required for experiencing the world truly. It is difficult to see and experience oneself in Spinoza's monistic system where God is the only existing substance. This book offers a novel and engaging interpretation of the Ethics that takes seriously the ontological experience of Spinoza's philosophy. Spinoza, Metaphysics, and the Possibility of Salvation is an essential resource for scholars and graduate students working on Spinoza, early modern philosophy, and metaphysics"--

Download or read book Spinoza and the Case for Philosophy written by Elhanan Yakira and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Spinoza s Christian Project written by Aldo Di Giovanni and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-08-27 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If any thinker can be described as theo-philosophical, it is Spinoza. Spinoza will not be understood theologically without his philosophy, nor will he be understood philosophically without his theology. Properly understood, Spinoza was the 17th Century's philosopher of the Word of God: the philosopher of Christian Salvation and Holiness. Within the corpus of Spinoza's work there are many references to a significant and important place for Christ in the work of Spinoza, which in turn points to a significant and important place for Christ in Spinoza's life. Many of those references are utilized in this book to make a case that from a spiritual point view, Spinoza's life and works lose their mystery and make clear sense. To date, his work in regards to Christian thought remains exceptionally relevant. Yet he has not been acknowledged as a preeminent Christian thinker. Why? Over many years, the responses to Spinoza's work have been varied, but two counterproductive and disconcerting trends are noteworthy. Some people, with little sense of the reality of God have tried in one way or another, to explain away Spinoza's spirituality and work, in particular his Christian spirituality and work. Others, mostly from established 'theo-political' churches, have largely viewed Spinoza from a materialist view and with materialistic proclivities. From their established church frameworks, the latter have found Spinoza an anathema. Their vitriol is born of their materialism and both a meagre and superficial grasp of what Spinoza calls “Christ after the spirit”. For their part, a number of the former, seem to find Spinoza's confessions of spiritual things, especially Christian spiritual existence, an embarrassment to their 'learned pride'. Spinoza knew God and the idea of God to be real. For Spinoza God is not part of a discussion or thesis. For Spinoza, God and Christ are real and to not 'get that' is to entirely miss the mark in regards to Spinoza and his work. God and the spirit of Christ are the keystones or catalysts of Spinoza's work. Denying their reality for Spinoza, or trying to explain them away from Spinoza's thought, keeps Spinoza's work from coming together or from sitting right. Spinoza understood the relation of people to God both as animal creatures set in duration or time and place, and as spiritual creatures set “under the form of eternity”. The application of Spinoza's scientific method allows for the demonstration by reason and experiment of personal formation of the particular spiritual person (and civic transformation of society along spiritual lines), which is different from the formation of the animal (carnal or after the flesh) person. Spinoza is a major influence in western philosophy and theology. Spinoza had a significant and lasting influence on the Enlightenment. But, it may be his larger contribution is yet to come and it will be in the area of Christian Theology and Christology. This booklet, 'Spinoza's Christian Project: Chemistry, Christ & Salvation' is a modest and admittedly limited study of Spinoza's theo-philosophical work, with some consideration of Spinoza's scientific experimental and scientific reasoning approach to religion and piety or spiritual life.

Download or read book Spinoza written by Aldo Di Giovanni and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-05-15 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If any thinker can be described as theo-philosophical, it is Spinoza. Spinoza will not be understood theologically without his philosophy, nor will he be understood philosophically without his theology. Properly understood, Spinoza was the 17th Century's philosopher of the Word of God: the philosopher of Christian Salvation and Holiness. Within the corpus of Spinoza's work there are many references to a significant and important place for Christ in the work of Spinoza, which in turn points to a significant and important place for Christ in Spinoza's life. Many of those references are utilized in this book to make a case that from a spiritual point view, Spinoza's life and works lose their mystery and make clear sense. To date, his work in regards to Christian thought remains exceptionally relevant. Yet he has not been acknowledged as a preeminent Christian thinker. Why? Over many years, the responses to Spinoza's work have been varied, but two counterproductive and disconcerting trends are noteworthy. Some people, with little sense of the reality of God have tried in one way or another, to explain away Spinoza's spirituality and work, in particular his Christian spirituality and work. Others, mostly from established 'theo-political' churches, have largely viewed Spinoza from a materialist view and with materialistic proclivities. From their established church frameworks, the latter have found Spinoza an anathema. Their vitriol is born of their materialism and both a meagre and superficial grasp of what Spinoza calls "Christ after the spirit". For their part, a number of the former, seem to find Spinoza's confessions of spiritual things, especially Christian spiritual existence, an embarrassment to their 'learned pride'. Spinoza knew God and the idea of God to be real. For Spinoza God is not part of a discussion or thesis. For Spinoza, God and Christ are real and to not 'get that' is to entirely miss the mark in regards to Spinoza and his work. God and the spirit of Christ are the keystones or catalysts of Spinoza's work. Denying their reality for Spinoza, or trying to explain them away from Spinoza's thought, keeps Spinoza's work from coming together or from sitting right.Spinoza understood the relation of people to God both as animal creatures set in duration or time and place, and as spiritual creatures set "under the form of eternity". The application of Spinoza's scientific method allows for the demonstration by reason and experiment of personal formation of the particular spiritual person and civic transformation of society along spiritual lines, which is different from the formation of the animal (carnal or after the flesh) person. Spinoza is a major influence in western philosophy and theology. Spinoza had a significant and lasting influence on the Enlightenment. But, it may be his larger contribution is yet to come and it will be in the area of Christian Theology and Christology. This booklet, 'SPINOZA Chemistry, Christ & Salvation' is a modest and admittedly limited study of Spinoza's theo-philosophical work, with some consideration of Spinoza's scientific experimental and scientific reasoning approach to religion and piety or spiritual life.

Download or read book Spinoza and Other Heretics written by Yirmiyahu Yovel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1992-01-28 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Book 1 (p. 1-229), "Ha-anus shel ha-tevunah" ("The Marrano of Reason") appeared in English as "Spinoza and Other Heretics; Vol. 1: The Marrano of Reason" (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989).

Download or read book Spinoza on God written by Joseph Ratner and published by . This book was released on 1930 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Kafka written by Gilles Deleuze and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1986 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Kafka Deleuze and Guattari free their subject from his (mis)intrepreters. In contrast to traditional readings that see in Kafka's work a case of Oedipalized neurosis or a flight into transcendence, guilt, and subjectivity, Deleuze and Guattari make a case for Kafka as a man of joy, a promoter of radical politics who resisted at every turn submission to frozen hierarchies.