Table Of ContentEssays on Spinoza’s Ethical Theory
Essays on Spinoza’s
Ethical Theory
EDITED BY
Matthew J. Kisner
and Andrew Youpa
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, Ox2 6Dp,
United Kingdom
Oxford University press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University press in the UK and in certain other countries
© The several contributors 2014
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2014
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
published in the United States of America by Oxford University press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013958187
ISBN 978–0–19–965753–7
printed and bound in Great Britain by
CpI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, cr0 4yy
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
Acknowledgements
We wish to thank peter Momtchiloff at Oxford University press and Steven Nadler
for their assistance in guiding us through the editing process. We also wish to thank
Michael LeBuffe for organizing and hosting a workshop on the ethics of Spinoza’s
Ethics in the fall of 2011, which gave us the wonderful opportunity to meet and speak
with the contributors in person and gave the contributors the opportunity to present
early drafts of the essays collected here. Thanks also to Stephen H. Daniel, Fasken
Chair in Distinguished Teaching at Texas A&M, for his many contributions to the
workshop’s success. For their generosity in funding the meeting we are grateful to the
Texas A&M Department of philosophy, College of Liberal Arts, and The Melbern
G. Glasscock Center for the Humanities. We are also grateful to our home institutions,
Southern Illinois University and the University of South Carolina, for their support
of our research, as well as anonymous referees from Oxford University press for their
helpful comments. Finally, we dedicate this volume to the memory of paul Hoffman.
We are honored that paul originally accepted our invitation to contribute an essay to
this volume, and although this volume is inestimably less valuable without it, we are
grateful for his contribution to our lives as a philosopher, scholar, teacher, and friend.
Contents
Abbreviations ix
Contributors xi
Introduction 1
Matthew J. Kisner and Andrew Youpa
The Ethics in Spinoza’s Ethics 20
John Carriero
The Lives of Others: Spinoza on Benevolence as a Rational Virtue 41
Steven Nadler
Spinozistic Constructivism 57
Charles Jarrett
politics and Ethics in Spinoza: The problem of Normativity 85
Michael A. Rosenthal
Spinoza on the Life According to Nature 102
Jon Miller
Spinoza on Being Human and Human perfection 124
Karolina Hübner
Spinoza, the Body, and the Good Life 143
Susan James
Man is a God to Man: How Human Beings Can Be Adequate Causes 160
Eugene Marshall
Following a Recta Ratio Vivendi: The practical Utility of Spinoza’s
Dictates of Reason 178
Justin Steinberg
Necessity and the Commands of Reason in the Ethics 197
Michael LeBuffe
Desire and Good in Spinoza 221
Olli Koistinen
From Ordinary Life to Blessedness: The power of Intuitive Knowledge
in Spinoza’s Ethics 236
Sanem Soyarslan
VIII CONTENTS
Spinoza on Virtue and Eternity 258
Valtteri Viljanen
Bibliography 273
Index 283
Abbreviations
This volume uses the following abbreviations for referring to primary literature.
AT Oeuvres de Descartes, 11 vols., eds. Charles Adam and paul Tannery
(paris: J. Vrin, 1964–74).
C The Collected Works of Spinoza, vol. i, trans. Edwin Curley
(princeton: princeton University press, 1985).
CM Metaphysical Thoughts (Cogitata Metaphysica), Spinoza’s appendix to
his Principles of Cartesian Philosophy (Renati Des Cartes Principiorum
Philosophiae, Pars I et II, More Geometrico demonstratae).
CSM/K The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, ed. and trans. John Cottingham,
Robert Stoothoff and Dugald Murdoch (Cambridge University press, 1984,
1985), vol. iii, trans. Anthony Kenny (1991).
G Spinoza Opera, 4 vols. (vol. v, 1987), ed. Carl Gebhardt (Heidelberg: Carl
Winter, 1925).
KV Spinoza’s Short Treatise on God, Man and His Well-Being (Korte Verhandeling
van God, de Mensch en des zelfs Welstand).
S Spinoza: Complete Works, trans. Samuel Shirley (Indianapolis: Hackett
publishing Company, 2002).
TIE Spinoza’s Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (Tractatus de Intellectus
Emendatione).
TP Spinoza’s Political Treatise (Tractatus Politicus).
TTP Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus).
The CM is cited by part and chapter number. The KV, TP, and TTP are cited by chapter
number and sometimes also by the section numbers introduced in the Bruder edition
of Spinoza’s works and reproduced in many subsequent editions. The TIE is cited by
section number from the Bruder edition. G is cited by volume number, page num-
ber, and sometimes by line number. Some of the essays employ further abbreviations,
which are explained within the notes of those essays.
Spinoza’s Correspondence is cited by letter number from J. Van Vloten and J. p.
N. Land’s 1882 edition of Spinoza’s collected works. References to Spinoza’s Ethics first
cite the part, and then use the following abbreviations:
a axiom
app appendix
c corollary
d demonstration
l lemma
D definition
DOE Definition of the Emotions (end of part 3)
