PHIL 307
Spinoza: Ethics, Politics and Actuality Fall 2013
Division II Writing Skills
This is not the current course catalog

The course will consist in a reading of Spinoza’s Ethics together with his two political works A Theologico-Political Treatise and A Political Treatise, thus establishing an intersection between ethics, metaphysics and political philosophy and taking its point of departure in the relation between knowledge and passion. Spinoza defines the human essence as “conatus” — a certain degree of power (potentia), characterized by its perseverance in existence. Mankind’s path to freedom and self-understanding is grounded in the analysis of the conditions characterizing the different types of knowledge: the immediate, the rational and reflecting, and the intuitive. However, in all three kinds of knowledge, affectivity is central — hence, also the body. The Spinozian ethics, against the backdrop of a complete metaphysical system, makes possible an understanding of identity as something constituted in continuous relation to the rest of the world — human, natural and material. It is through its capacity of being affected that the individual human power is expressed, and is able to exist as a form of freedom. The ethics, understood in this way, also makes possible an understanding of the political as the necessary organization of human coexistence, and as the dealing with individual and collective passions. Finally, we will also address contemporary Spinozism as found namely in the philosophical works of Gilles Deleuze, Étienne Balibar and Antonio Negri. The main texts will be combined with shorter articles or book chapters from contemporary Spinoza commentaries.