Necessarily Eternal

... this something that pertains to the essence of the mind will necessarily be eternal ... *

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* Ethics Vp23dem (Curley translation)

PETITION TO KEEP UF's PHILOSOPHY PhD ROGRAM

More infos:

UF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT

THE LEITER REPORTS

# 1,429: 10:11 am PDT, May 12, Felix Sadeli, Florida
I graduated with a BA from UF's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (which the Philosophy Department is part of) back in 1999 and my sense is that up until the budget woes hit home a year or so ago, the College has [sic] been very ambitious in expanding, perhaps to the point of imprudence. I would say, unhappily, that the College does require some trimming, but it is certainly a mistake to do so by cutting off part of the roots. Please reconsider this highly unwise decision.

New Article: "Spinoza's Political Philosophy"

Another entry on Spinoza in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, written by Prof. Justin Steinberg (Colby College, but moving to Brooklyn College, CUNY). Also, an essay by the same author: Spinoza and the Problem of Freedom.

Early and Recent Spinozana

They are available at the Antiquariaat Spinoza Amsterdam.

Allen Wood on Our Domestic "Ultimi Barbarorum"

From the preface of Kantian Ethics by Prof. Allen Wood (Stanford, but moving to Indiana), found in the second to last paragraph:

This book was written mainly in the United States, between 2004 and 2006. The history of this period is a disgraceful one. It feels as if we have been living under a malignant alien occupation. An unelected political regime, representing everything that is worst about American culture, compiled a record of injustice, corruption, and gross incompetence at home, and of numerous and aggravated war crimes abroad. Then it was confirmed in office by another election of dubious legitimacy so that it might continue unrelentingly its monstrous wrongfulness and stupidity. Those with the power to oppose its crimes instead acquiesced in them, or else resisted too late, and too feebly. The very ideas of democracy, community, and human rights are in the process of dying in our civilization - or they are being willfully murdered by those in power and by that segment of the population which supports this regime. All they give us in place of these ideas is the empty words (and plenty of those). People have now perhaps begun to awaken to the situation, but the historical roots of what has happened are sunk deep in political trends of the previous century, and I fear these trends will not be reversed soon or easily. There are references here and there in the book to this dismal history, usually to illustrate arrogance, lying, and egregious violations of right. A few readers of my earlier work have told me they think this sort of thing is inappropriate in a scholarly book. But my worries about appearing "unscholarly" pale next to my shame, which all Americans should feel at having failed to prevent the disastrous course of events.

New Book: "Interpreting Spinoza"

This recently published book is a collection of "critical essays" and edited by Prof. Charlie Huenemann (Utah State).

Spinoza Materials in Germany

The link to Spinoza Gesellschaft on the left column has been updated. Also, check out this extensive Spinoza Bibliography site and this German National Library's catalogue on Spinoza related books.

A Review on "Spinoza's Radical Cartesian Mind"

Prof. Matthew Kisner (South Carolina) writes the review article on the book in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

A Rough Sketch of "Ethics" I

Prof. Ron Bombardi (Middle Tennessee State) - and his alter ego - maintains a wonderful website which has, among numerous other things, A Sketch of Spinoza's Argument for Substance Monism.

New Article: "Was Spinoza a Liberal?"

Thanks to the author Prof. Grant Havers (Philosophy and Political Studies, Trinity Western) who informed me about the article which can be found in The Political Science Reviewer vol. 36 (2007), 143-174.

Book: "Between Philosophy and Religion: Spinoza, the Bible, and Modernity"

Prof. Brayton Polka (Humanities and Social & Political Thought, York University) is the author of the 2-volume work (published September 2006): Vol. 1: Hermeneutics and Ontology and Vol 2: Politics and Ethics.

"Admiration of China and Classical Chinese Thought in the Radical Enlightenment (1685-1740)"

A paper by Prof. Jonathan Israel (Modern European History, IAS) in the Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies June last year.

A 2004 Translation of TTP

Done by Prof. Martin D. Yaffe (Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Texas), information about the book and the translator's remarks can be found here.

Spinoza Scholar Wins NEH Fellowship

The Leiter Reports has a list of winners of the NEH Fellowships who are philosophers, and a Spinoza scholar is among the eight on the list. Congratulations to Prof. Samuel Newlands (Notre Dame) with his winning project "Reconceiving Benedict Spinoza's Metaphysics and Ethics"!

New Book: Spinoza's 'Ethics': A Reader's Guide

Written by Prof. J. Thomas Cook (Rollins College), this new addition to Spinoza literature, according to its synopsis, is a "comprehensive and thorough guide to Spinoza's masterpiece of Rationalist thought".

Spinoza Podcast

Prof. Nigel Warburton (Open University) of Virtual Philosopher has a couple of Spinoza items on podcast: the first one contains a reading from his own work Philosophy: The Classics ,and the second one contains a discussion by Prof. Susan James (University of London - Birkbeck) on Spinoza's views on the passions.

Non-Spinoza Novella

My friend and former co-worker James Slater, who is now a graduate student at the UNC Chapel Hill's Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures has just published his first novella Like Phosphorescent Desert Buttons. I thought I would help him spread the word here.

Spinoza Articles on Multitudes

The Multitudes online has quite a handful articles related to Spinoza (in French), among those: an interview with Alexandre Matheron (by Laurent Bove and Pierre François Moreau), a very short interview with Jonathan Israel, Antonio Negri's preface to The Savage Anomaly, and forewords to The Savage Anomaly by Deleuze, Macherey, and Matheron.

A Play About Spinoza

The New York Times has the article about a new play by David Ives called New Jerusalem with this subtitle: The Interrogation of Baruch de Spinoza at Talmud Torah Congregation: Amsterdam, July 27, 1656. One of the cast members is Fyvush Finkel, who plays public defender Douglas Wambaugh in my all-time favorite tv show Picket Fences. Thanks to Prof. David Leverenz (English, Florida) who alerted me to this play.

New Book: "Spinoza's Radical Cartesian Mind"

Published in early November last year and written by Prof. Tammy Nyden-Bullock (Grinnell College), its description and table of contents can be found here. The Chronicle of Higher Education appears to have an article about the book, though its acess is restricted to subscribers.

A Review on the New TTP Translation

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews has the article by Prof. Francesca di Poppa (Texas Tech) on the new TTP Translation.

Theo Verbeek on "Spinoza and the Stoics"

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews has the article about the book.

Of Truth, Error, and the Brain

Damasio's Error and Descartes' Truth: An Inquiry into Consciousness, Metaphysics, and Epistemology is Prof. Andrew Gluck's (St. John's) response to Prof. Antonio Damasio's (Psychology, Neuroscience and Neurology, Southern California) Descartes' Error and Looking for Spinoza.

"Product of a Series of Coincidences"

So introduces Prof. Floris van der Burg (Utrecht) us to his Davidson and Spinoza: Mind, Matter and Morality, published in June.

New Article and TTP Translation

Prof. Samuel Newlands's Spinoza's Modal Metaphysics is now part of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Also, Prof. Jonathan Bennett's translation of Treatise on Theology and Politics is now up on his Early Modern Philosophy site.

Of the Good and the Romantic

Prof. Kieran Setiya (Pittsburgh) has a thing or two to say in defense of Hume as portrayed in Rousseau's Dog: Two Great Thinkers at War in the Age of Enlightenment, a book by the same authors who in 2002 gave us a rather entertaining Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers. Also, Prof. Brandon Watson has a reply.

New Spinoza Book for the Perplexed

Spinoza: A Guide for the Perplexed by Prof. Charles Jarrett (Rutgers), published about ten days ago as part of the Guides for the Perplexed series.

New Translations of TTP

The first one, by Prof. Jonathan Israel (Modern European History, IAS) and Prof. Michael Silverthorne (Classics, Exeter), came out few months ago in May as part of the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy while another one is being done by Prof. Jonathan Bennett according to his Early Modern Texts site.

New Section: "Secondary Sources Online"

I have added a section called "Secondary Sources Online" on the left column, and it consists of full text of books related to Spinoza from mid 19th to early 20th century that are available directly through Google Book Search. I am hoping that Google is not the only place to find them and that many more can be added in the future so that the list will include works from a much broader time period. If anyone knows about any full work related to Spinoza that are available online like this, please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

A Review on "The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy"

Written by Prof. Angela Coventry (Portland State), it can be found in the Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. The Cambridge Companion to Early Modern Philosophy is edited by Prof. Donald Rutherford (UCSD).

New Address of Rudolph Meijer Site

Thanks to Prof. Samuel Newlands (Notre Dame) who alerted me to the Rudolf Meijer Site broken link, it has now been fixed and the Latin works are accessible once again.

New Book: "Servet, Spinoza y Sender. Miradas de Eternidad"

Read more about Servetus, Spinoza, and Sender: Looking at Eternity here.

Conference: "Spinoza as Social and Political Thinker"

This sixth conference by the Jerusalem Spinoza Institute was held last week from May 30th to June 1st. Among the participants were Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, Aaron Garrett, Warren Zeev Harvey, Nancy Levene, Ze'ev Levy, Menachem Lorberbaum, Antonio Negri, Charles Ramond, Gideon Segal, Steven Smith, Piet Steenbakkers, Theo Verbeek, Manfred Walther, Elhanan Yakira, and Yirmiyahu Yovel.

Many thanks to Joseph Dana of Tel Aviv who last week alerted me about this conference.

"Understanding: Kant, Spinoza; Deleuze" - A Colloquium

Find out more about this June 7th event at Continental Philosophy.

Past Conference: "Wandering with Spinoza"

Held at the University of Melbourne back in mid-September last year, Prof. Genevieve Lloyd was one of the keynote speakers. A quick reading of the abstracts seems to reveal different angles of approach to Spinoza from what one would usually find in the English-written works on Spinoza.

The Paradoxes of Spinoza's "Ethics" and the Ethics of Reading

A review on Steven Smith's Spinoza's Book of Life: Freedom and Redemption in the Ethics by Prof. Robert Leventhal (German Studies, William and Mary).

Spinoza Conference

Many thanks to Prof. Huenemann (Utah State) who has kindly notifed me of this upcoming conference:

Interpreting Spinoza

A conference on Spinoza’s philosophy
In commemoration of Edwin Curley’s career
University of Michigan

May 4 - 6, 2007

All papers will be given in the Hussey Room in the Michigan League building on the campus of the University of Michigan.  All those interested are welcome to attend.  If you do plan to attend, please send a note to Charlie Huenemann (hueneman@cc.usu.edu) so that we will have an accurate estimate of attendance.

More details (maps, directions, etc.) can be found through this address.

Friday, May 4

12:45-1:00: Introduction

1:00-2:45: Should Spinoza Have Published his Philosophy?
Daniel Garber, Princeton University

3:00-4:45: Epistemic Autonomy in Spinoza
Charlie Huenemann, Utah State University

5:00-6:45: Spinoza and the Philosophy of History
Michael A. Rosenthal, University of Washington

Saturday, May 5

9:00-10:45: Representation and Consciousness in Spinoza’s Naturalistic Theory of Imagination
Don Garrett, New York University

11:00-12:45: Rationalism Run Amok: Representation and the Reality of Emotions in Spinoza
Michael Della Rocca, Yale University

12:45-1:30: Lunch

1:30-3:15:  “Whatever is, is in God”: Substance and Things in Spinoza’s Metaphysics
Steven Nadler, University of Wisconsin.

3:30-5:15:  Necessitarianism in Spinoza and Leibniz
Michael V. Griffin, Central European University

Sunday, May 6

9:00-10:45: Democracy and the Good Life in Spinoza’s Philosophy
Susan James, University of London, Birkbeck College

11:00-12:45: Concluding remarks
Edwin Curley, University of Michigan

A Brief Online Study

Prof. Christopher Hitchcock (CalTech) and Prof. Joshua Knobe (UNC - Chapel Hill) are having a brief online study on Intuitions about Causation; readers are invited to participate.

"A Concise History of Baseball's Infield Fly Rule"

An 8-part series found in PrawfsBlawg by Prof. Anthony D'Amato (Law, Northwestern).

Part 1: The Bible
Part 2: The Pre-Socratics
Part 3: The Classicists
Part 4: The Dark Ages
Part 5: The Age of Religion
Part 6: The Enlightenment
Part 7: The Age of Reason
Part 8: Born Again (But Dumber This Time)

New Book on the Role of God in the "Ethics"

The Role of God in Spinoza's Metaphysics by Prof. Sherry Deveaux, published a little over a month ago.

New Book: "Spinoza and the Stoics"

Spinoza and the Stoics: Power, Politics and the Passions by Prof. Firmin DeBrabander (Philosophy, Maryland Institute College of Art), published less than two weeks ago.

Interview with Don Garrett

Read it at Florida Student Philosophy Blog.

Southeast Graduate Philosophy Conference

So this past weekend there was a philosophy conference happening 10 minutes away from my apartment but I couldn't come because I had to work. What a bummer, especially since one of the papers presented was on Spinoza (abstract, body) by Jason Waller of Purdue.

"From Heretic to Hero"

Joseph of Tel Aviv has kindly sent me a link to this symposium. Many thanks to Joseph!

From Heretic to Hero: A Symposium on the Impact of Baruch Spinoza: Sunday, October 29, 2006

A one-day symposium presented by the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research dedicated to exploring the historical reasons, and current implications, of what many scholars consider the most notorious and repercussive excommunication in all of Jewish history: the banishment of Baruch (Benedictus) Spinoza from the Jewish Community of Amsterdam in 1656.

This program was made possible in part by the New York Council for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Speaker	Video	Audio
Dr. Carl Rheins: Symposium Opening Remarks	wmv	mp3
Professor Allan Nadler: First Panel Chair	wmv	mp3
Professor Steven Nadler: Why was Baruch Spinoza Excommunicated?	wmv	mp3
Professor Steven Smith: How bad a Jew was Spinoza?	wmv	mp3
Dr. Paul Glasser: Second Panel Chair	wmv	mp3
Professor Allan Nadler: The Jewish Reincarnation of Spinoza in the Yiddish Imagination	wmv	mp3
Professor Daniel Schwartz: Spinoza the 'First Modern Jew': Metamorphosis of an Image	wmv	mp3
Brad Hill: Keynote Introduction	wmv	mp3
Professor Jonathan Israel: Keynote Lecture: The Impact of Spinoza: A Retrospective View 350 Years Since the Cherem	wmv	mp3

Emotions and the Brain

Prof. Antonio Damasio (Neurology, Iowa) , the author of Descartes' Error and Looking for Spinoza, among others, is involved with an interesting new study. (Thanks to Prof. William Edmundson [Law and Philosophy, Georgia State] of the Leiter Reports.)

A short interview with Prof. Damasio about his Spinoza book.

Spinoza and Marx

An essay by Prof. Eugene Holland (Humanities, Ohio State).

"The Scholastic Resources for Descartes's Concept of God as 'Causa Sui'"

Found in the third volume of the Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy (page 91-118), this essay by Prof. Richard A. Lee, Jr. (Philosophy, DePaul) is a very informative piece that traces the scholastic arguments of causa sui that would eventually lead to its application to God by Descartes - and Spinoza. But whereas Spinoza does not seem to have the need to elaborate much on his application of causa sui to his conception of God, Descartes on the other hand appears to have taken no small effort in trying to present his case to an audience of scholastic tradition that holds largely the opposite view. Here is the Introduction section of the essay (footnotes omitted):

The debate between Carterus and Arnauld on one side and Descartes on the other about whether God is causa sui has been seen as marking the distinction between scholastic and modern thought. This debate, which arises initially out of an issue that is not even central to Descartes's proof for the existence of God, has Descartes insisting that we must understand God as causa sui in the positive sense that God's essence is something like an efficient cause of God's existence, and Arnauld and Caterus, scholastic as they are, insisting that no philosopher holds such an incomprehensible position.

Caterus and Arnauld stand in a long tradition, stemming all the way back to Aristotle, that denies the possibility that something can be be the cause of itself. This tradition, as will be shown, has two main features. First, it denies the possibility that something can move itself, in the sense of either local motion, alteration, or augmentation. Second, it denies the specific notion that something can move itself as an efficient cause of itself because that would require a thing to be in potency and in actuality at the same time with regard to the same thing. However, beginning at least with Duns Scotus, scholastic philosophers did argue that God's being must be a se or ex se, i.e. from itself. While many would maintain, as does Caterus, that this is to be understood negatively in that God's existence needs no other cause besides the divine essence, the question that Descartes raises is, How do we give an account of that very fact? Descartes's insistence is that a thorough proof for the existence of God demands that one supply a reason or cause for God's existence, or a reason or cause why God needs no such cause. God is from Godself because God has an infinite power that entails that nothing could be repugnant to that existence.

In what follows, I would like to look at the classic scholastic rejection of causa sui. I will use Scotus and Aquinas as emblematic of these arguments, and I will trace their influence on Suárez's understanding of how God is a se. I am not merely interested in the rejection of the notion. Rather, I want to show how medieval thinkers, primarily Aquinas and Scotus, seem to require a concept very much like causa sui in order to bring together God's existence with God's infinity especially when treating the power of God that grounds God's independence. While I am primarily interested in showing that Scotistic origins for Descartes's ability to posit that God is causa sui, I will first set the stage by addressing Aquinas' arguments against the notion of causa sui within his proof for the existence of God in Summa contra gentiles. I want to pay attention to two features of these discussions: first, while medieval thinkers (and here Aquinas and Scotus are particularly instructive examples) roundly denied the cogency of the notion causa sui, they developed the means that Descartes will use in his positing of God as causa sui. Second, I want to show how those concepts that Descartes mobilizes in making sense of causa sui were developed not in proofs for the existence of God based on causation, but with reference to God's infinity, power, and perfection. What I hope to show is that Descartes is able to argue that God is causa sui, precisely because his argument turns on the notions of infinity and infinite perfection, and that these are thought by him to be related to power. This same kind of argument is found in Scotus ( and, to a certain extent in Suárez), where we also have a proof for the existence of God that is both ontological (proving the existence of something from its mere concept) and cosmological (proving the existence of a first cause). It is this kind of argument that allows Descartes to make sense of the concept of causa sui in a way that medieval thinkers could not.

Do read the whole thing.

The "Excommunication" of Spinoza

This Australian philosophy blog has short fragments on the subject. For the most recent and comprehensive work dealing with this particular issue, read Steven Nadler's Spinoza's Heresy: Immortality and the Jewish Mind. A particularly useful review of the book can be found here.

Death Anniversary

On this date 330 years ago, Spinoza died. Although turning this site into some sort of a shrine is something that I am resolute in trying my best to avoid, surely on this day one will pardon my indulgence. So here is an excerpt on Spinoza from one of the most wonderfully pleasant introductory narratives to philosophy, Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy (footnote omitted):

On the second centenary of Spinoza's death subscriptions were collected for the erection of a statue to him at The Hague. Contributions came from every corner of the educated world; never did a monument rise upon so wide a pedestal of love. At the unveiling of 1882 Ernest Renan concluded his address with words which may fitly conclude also our chapter: "Woe to him who in passing should hurl an insult at this gentle and pensive head. He would be punished, as all vulgar souls are punished, by his very vulgarity, and by his incapacity to conceive what is divine. This man, from his granite pedestal, will point out to all men the way of blessedness which he found; and ages hence, the cultivated traveler, passing by this spot, will say in his heart, "The truest vision ever had of God came, perhaps, here.""

Renan's whole speech can be read here. The original French of the quoted passage above can be found here (with the second line apparently missing).

Spinoza on the Air

Via the Philosophers' Magazine Online I found this radio talk on Spinoza (a little over 50 minutes) with Rebecca Goldstein and Antonio Damasio. Quite fun stuff.

Hillary Putnam on Spinoza

Another review on Rebecca Goldstein's Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity, this time by Prof. Hillary Putnam, who turns out to have taken a course on Spinoza taught by none other than Harry Wolfson himself back in 1949!