Login for students

Login for employees

Publication detail

Editors’ Introduction
Authors: Campbell Michael Walter
Year: 2020
Type of publication: kapitola v odborné knize
Name of source: Spinoza on Ethics and Understanding
Publisher name: Anthem Press
Place: Londýn
Page from-to: XI - XXV
Titles:
Language Name Abstract Keywords
cze Editors’ Introduction In this introduction we provide an overview of the main themes of Peter Winch's lectures on Spinoza. We concentrate on how Winch connects Spinoza's conception of judgement to both his critique of Cartesian metaphysics, and also his distinctive account of ethics. For Winch's Spinoza, assertion is an activity undertaken by a particular human being working within a certain context, and this in turn entails that within each assertion there is some degree of truth. By developing a theory of falsehood and negation based on this insight, Spinoza shows how, starting from any particular assertion, we can in principle attain a clear view of all things sub specie aeternitatis, By combining this with his doctrine of strict determinism, Winch's Spinoza advocates a conception of the world on which blessedness is to be attained through a progressive refinement of the understanding and on which our ordinary categories of ethical assessment are themselves the product of confused ideas. We argue that Winch therefore presents an interpretation of Spinoza which is both original and important; original in its foregrounding philosophical elements of language, such as assertion and negation, and important in presenting an internally coherent and unifying interpretation of Spinoza's Ethics, one which reveals the connection between its metaphysical and its ethical aspects. Spinoza; metafyzika; epistemologie; etika; porozumění
eng Editors’ Introduction In this introduction we provide an overview of the main themes of Peter Winch's lectures on Spinoza. We concentrate on how Winch connects Spinoza's conception of judgement to both his critique of Cartesian metaphysics, and also his distinctive account of ethics. For Winch's Spinoza, assertion is an activity undertaken by a particular human being working within a certain context, and this in turn entails that within each assertion there is some degree of truth. By developing a theory of falsehood and negation based on this insight, Spinoza shows how, starting from any particular assertion, we can in principle attain a clear view of all things sub specie aeternitatis, By combining this with his doctrine of strict determinism, Winch's Spinoza advocates a conception of the world on which blessedness is to be attained through a progressive refinement of the understanding and on which our ordinary categories of ethical assessment are themselves the product of confused ideas. We argue that Winch therefore presents an interpretation of Spinoza which is both original and important; original in its foregrounding philosophical elements of language, such as assertion and negation, and important in presenting an internally coherent and unifying interpretation of Spinoza's Ethics, one which reveals the connection between its metaphysical and its ethical aspects. Spinoza; Metaphysics; Epistemology; Ethics; Understanding

University of Pardubice

Other Parts

Map

en.mapy.cz

Services

Popular Links

© 2023 University of Pardubice, Studentská 95, 532 10 Pardubice 2
Phone: +420 466 036 111, 466 036 112, 466 036 113
Webmaster, RSS
Data box ID: f5vj9hu
Accessibility Statement
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0