Spinoza

Michael Della Rocca

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9781134456369
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

Renowned for his metaphysics, Spinoza made significant contributions to understanding the human mind, the emotions, moral philosophy, and political philosophy.
Beginning with an overview of Spinoza's life, Michael 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; his account of the human mind and its relation to the body; his theory that human beings tend towards self-preservation and his most famous work, the Ethics, including 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, 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.

Index

absolute truth 300–1, 312–13

acosmism 289, 314

Adams, Robert 325n4

affects 153–73;

power over 190–1;

as representational 119–20, 157–9, 160, 173

ambition 167–8, 229

anger 161

Anselm, Saint 51

anticipation 156, 168–72

appetite 153–4

Aquinas, Saint Thomas 4, 38

Archimedes 306

aristocracy 221

Aristotle 34, 38, 275

association of mental states 163–7

atheism 284–6, 289

attribute: as conceptually independent 39–40, 42–4, 49, 54–5;

Descartes’ conception of 3, 6–41;

as essence of substance 43, 56, 314;

infinitely many 43, 45–6, 51;

and intellect 43, 56;

not shared 46–9;

Spinoza’s conception of 42–5 8

Bayle, Pierre 20, 32, 279–81, 288–9, 311

Beiser, Frederick 313

Bennett, Jonathan 32, 88, 274, 320n24, 320n13

Bergson, Henri 9–10

Bible: divine authorship of 21;

interpretation of 25, 27, 237–44, 244;

truth of 241–2, 243, 248–9, 252

bifurcation 6–8, 23, 131, 135, 232–3, 237, 265, 273, 281, 287, 297–300, 302–3

Borges, Jorge Luis 325n1

Carraud, Vincent 32

Carriero, John 6...

Table of contents

• Routledge Philosophers
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Editions Used and Abbreviations
• Chronology
• One Spinoza’s Understanding and Understanding Spinoza
• Two The Metaphysics of Substance
• Three The Human Mind
• Four Psychology Striving and self-preservation
• Five The Ethics of the Ethics
• Six The State, Religion, and Scripture
• Seven From PSR to Eternity
• Eight The Aftermath of Spinoza
• Glossary
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index of Passages from the Ethics
• Index