Necessarily Eternal

Two New Works by Wim Klever

From an email sent by Prof. Emeritus Wim Klever (Rotterdam):

This time I also wish to inform you and to ask you to forward this information about a new publication of mine about Spinoza's master Franciscus van den Enden, a book that I published privately and may be acquired via my e-mail. See attachment*. Concerning the last item mentioned at the bottom of the page [in a different email], I can now say, that a Dutch version of this manuscript has now appeared under the title John Locke (1632-1704). Vermomde en miskende Spinozist. Rapport van historisch onderzoek (2008). The English version under the title Locke's Disguised Spinozism will before long appear as a journal article. I hope that you will find a way to communicate this 'news' to the audience of your site, the friends of Spinoza. Many of my former articles are contained in books or journals you mention.

More information can be found here (in Dutch), and Prof. Klever can be reached at klever at casema dot nl.

* Download Attachment

"Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy"

Prof. Simo Knuuttila (Theological Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion, Helsinki) is the author of the 2006 book. The Medieval Review has an article on it.

New Book: Michael Della Rocca's "Spinoza"

About this latest of Prof. Michael Della Rocca's (Yale) works on Spinoza:

Beginning with an overview of Spinoza's life, 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; Spinoza's account of the human mind and its relation to the body; his theory that human beings tend towards self-preservation and the role of the emotions; 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.

The Early Modern Philosophy Calendar

About the site:

This website is maintained by Stephen H. Daniel at Texas A&M University as a service to scholars working in the history of early modern philosophy. It brings together information about calls for papers, event schedules, and contacts about presentations, conferences, and seminars dealing with research in late 16th, 17th, and 18th century philosophy.

Do check the site to find out about upcoming Spinoza conferences. A link to the site has also been added under Other Online Sources section on the left column.

Intellectual Context of Early Modern Philosophy As Found in Primary Sources

Published ten years ago, I have found Descartes' Meditations: Background Source Materials very useful when attempting to make more sense of the intellectual context in works of not just Descartes but Spinoza and other major early modern philosophers as well. Translators of this collection of primary sources are Roger Ariew (South Florida), John Cottingham (Reading), and Tom Sorell (Birmingham). Marjorie Grene (Virginia Tech) co-translated one of the selections as well.

Spinoza's Foci

A description taken from this wonderful Spinoza-related site:

This portion of the site is a collection of research sources, theories and analyses surrounding the question of the likely optical instruments and optical knowledge that Spinoza had, with a view to understanding how his practices and experiences informed his metaphysics, an understanding which may in turn provide valuable insight into the heritage of mechanization and instrumentation we have received since the first bold attempts to marry instrument, geometry and vision by Descartes.

Do check it out!

A Portrait of Spinoza

Previously catalogued as anonymous, this copy of a familiar pose of Spinoza is now believed to have been the work of Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida.

Borges and Spinoza

Unrequited Sublimations: Borges Reads Spinoza by Prof. Efraín Kristal (Comparative Literature, UCLA).

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.