“…(Ep.32/IV:170a) Now to make it clear why this is in tension with a reductionist reading, consider the example of a simple billiard ball rolling. According to the reductionist reading, it is strictly true for Spinoza that the billiard ball is composed of particles that are performing similar causal activities, namely that they are rotating in such a 35 Arguably the standard reading of Spinoza's account of composition is reductionist in this sense (see, e.g., Garrett 1994;Lin 2005;and Grey 2014). An anonymous reviewer wonders whether reductionism faces the challenge that a composite mode has no property to be reduced that the reductive base doesn't already have.…”
In this paper, I argue that Spinoza holds a perspectivalist view of mereological composition, a form of anti-realism. The paper has two parts: In the first half of the paper, I introduce interpretive puzzles for the standard realist reading of Spinoza's mereology. In the second half of the paper, I discuss Spinoza's positive view on mereological composition and present a perspectivalist reading that avoids the interpretive puzzles.
“…(Ep.32/IV:170a) Now to make it clear why this is in tension with a reductionist reading, consider the example of a simple billiard ball rolling. According to the reductionist reading, it is strictly true for Spinoza that the billiard ball is composed of particles that are performing similar causal activities, namely that they are rotating in such a 35 Arguably the standard reading of Spinoza's account of composition is reductionist in this sense (see, e.g., Garrett 1994;Lin 2005;and Grey 2014). An anonymous reviewer wonders whether reductionism faces the challenge that a composite mode has no property to be reduced that the reductive base doesn't already have.…”
In this paper, I argue that Spinoza holds a perspectivalist view of mereological composition, a form of anti-realism. The paper has two parts: In the first half of the paper, I introduce interpretive puzzles for the standard realist reading of Spinoza's mereology. In the second half of the paper, I discuss Spinoza's positive view on mereological composition and present a perspectivalist reading that avoids the interpretive puzzles.
“…Regarding the omnibus communia in Spinoza and their role in the acquisition of adequate knowledge, see Walther (1971); Marshall (2013); Hübner (2021). 9 Among the abundant literature on this issue, see Rousset (1968); Matheron (1972); Steinberg (1981); Matson (1990); Allison (1990); Moreau (1994); Parchment (2000); Nadler (2001); Garrett (2009); Koistinen (2009); Grey (2014).…”
The paper delves into Spinoza’s perspective on death and how the acquisition of genuine knowledge ensures the mind’s survival after the body’s demise. Spinoza is well known for characterizing the human mind as the idea of the body, which therefore reflects all of the body’s states and is fundamentally connected to its physical destiny, encompassing growth and development as well as eventual extinction. However, Spinoza also holds that the mind possesses the capacity to transcend its limited perspective and contemplate things from the vantage point of God, freeing itself from its mortal fate. The paper’s goal is to dissect the intricacies of this cognitive liberation and evaluate its logical soundness.
“… Nadler, in contrast, proposes that in cognition of the third kind, one apprehends one's own mind as a finite expression of God, conceived under the attribute of thought (2018, 306–7). For more on the eternity of the mind in Spinoza, see Matheron (1972), D. Steinberg (1981), Moreau (1994), Parchment (2000), Nadler (2001), Garber (2005), Garrett (2009), Koistinen (2009), Lebuffe (2010b), Grey (2014), Klein (2014), Carlisle (2015), and Schmaltz (2015). …”
In this article, I sketch a way of understanding three important doctrines from Spinoza's Ethics: intuitive knowledge (scientia intuitiva), contentment of mind (acquiescentia mentis), and intellectual love of God (amor Dei intellectualis). Along the way, I suggest how these doctrines could build on more familiar doctrines, including monism, necessitarianism, the parallelism of ideas and bodies, and the “ideas of ideas.”
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