Inherence of False Beliefs in Spinoza’s Ethics Olivér István TÓTH* Abstract: In this paper I argue, based on a comparison of Spinoza‟s and Descartes‟s discussion of error, that beliefs are affirmations of the content of imagination that is not false in itself, only in relation to the object. This interpretation is an improvement both on […]
Author: dti
The Conatus of the Body in Spinoza’s Physics
The Conatus of the Body in Spinoza’s Physics Sean WINKLER* Abstract: In Part 3 of his Ethics, Baruch Spinoza identifies the conatus of the mind as „will‟ and of the mind and body together as „appetite‟/„desire,‟ but he does not identify the conatus of the body. This omission is curious, given that he describes „motion-and-rest‟ […]
Spinoza on Conatus, Inertia, and the Impossibility of Self-Destruction
Spinoza on Conatus, Inertia, and the Impossibility of Self-Destruction Filip BUYSE* Abstract: Spinoza (1632-1677) writes in the fourth proposition of the third part of his masterpiece, the Ethics (1677), the bold statement that self-destruction is impossible. This view seems to be very hard to understand given the fact that in our western world we have […]
Revitalizing Kuhn’s Philosophies of Science
Revitalizing Kuhn’s Philosophies of Science Laura GEORGESCU* In 2005, James Marcum published Thomas Kuhn’s Revolution: An Historical Philosophy of Science. That earlier book aimed to show that Kuhn was a ―a major contributor to the historiographic revolution in the mid-twentieth century,‖ a revolution that influenced ―the very understanding of science itself.‖1 In Thomas Kuhn’s Revolutions: […]
Spinoza and Stoicism
Spinoza and Stoicism Daniel COLLETTE* It is only recently that modern day scholarship has begun to appreciate and investigate Spinoza‘s affinities with the Stoics. Jon Miller‘s Spinoza and the Stoics is a welcomed contribution to philosophical literature as the first book-length study to undertake a full comparison between the two schools of thought. Although his […]
Does Sensibility Have an Historical Context?
Does Sensibility Have an Historical Context? Michael DECKARD* When a special issue of an intellectual history journal is dedicated to sensibility, one of the first questions asked is whether sensibility is particularly connected to a certain historical context. Isn‟t the nature of sensibility something beyond time and not entirely situated within early modernity? There are […]
Why the Context of Evaluation Matters
Why the Context of Evaluation Matters “Context: A Framework for its Influence on Evaluation Practice”, eds. Debra J. Rog, Jody L. Fitzpatrick, and Ross F. Conner, New Directions for Evaluation 135 (2012), ISBN: 978-1-118-46328-4, 120 pp. Andreea PARAPUF The journal New Directions for Evaluation dedicated in the Fall 2012 a special issue to the role […]
Hall’s New Interpretation of the Opus Postumum
Hall’s New Interpretation of the Opus Postumum JBryan Wesley Hall, The Post-Critical Kant: Understanding the Critical Philosophy through the Opus postumum(New York: Routledge, 2015), ISBN 9781138802148, 220 pp. Erdmann GÖRG Over the last two centuries, the work of Immanuel Kant has been discussed intensively. One of the few blind spots in his writings has been […]
Race in Early Modern Philosophy
Race in Early Modern Philosophy Justin Smith, Nature, Human Nature, & Human Difference: Race in Early Modern Philosophy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015), Hardcover ISBN 9780691153643, eBook ISBN 9781400866311, 312 pp. Dwight K. LEWIS Jr. The ethos of Justin Smith’s Nature, Human Nature, & Human Difference is expressed in the narrative of Anton Wilhelm Amo […]
Justice as an Aritificial Virtue: Selfishness and Human Nature in the Moral and Political Thought of David Hume
Justice as an Aritificial Virtue: Selfishness and Human Nature in the Moral and Political Thought of David Hume Éva KISS-KOCZKA Abstract: David Hume’s moral theory states that our moral decisions are based on sentiments, and that the possibility of such sentiments that can effectively motivate our decisions is based on our benevolent nature. Stating that […]