Spinoza scholars disagree about the role and value of the imagination in his philosophy. The noti... more Spinoza scholars disagree about the role and value of the imagination in his philosophy. The notion of 'beings of reason' poses interesting questions about what fiction and poetry can contribute to philosophical thought. What are the pros and cons of imaginative and poetic thought and how do these relate to analogical versus deductive reasoning? These questions are treated in the context of Spinoza's practical as well as speculative philosophy. It is concluded that beings of reason are unsuitable for use in speculative philosophy.
The notions of concord and peace have very particular meanings in Benedict Spinoza’s philosophy a... more The notions of concord and peace have very particular meanings in Benedict Spinoza’s philosophy and these meanings determine his judgment about the character of the best kinds of state, or Commonwealth, and the best kinds of subject-citizen.
A conversation between George Eliot meets Elizabeth Costello is constructed in order to explore t... more A conversation between George Eliot meets Elizabeth Costello is constructed in order to explore the ethics of writing and reading. The concerns of the two authors converge on their direct appeal to the reader to think with them about the powers of imagination and sympathy and the role they play in shaping our responsibilities towards our fellow human beings and ourselves.
Common across all of Spinoza's works is the repeated insistence that free will is an illusion in... more Common across all of Spinoza's works is the repeated insistence that free will is an illusion intrinsic to human consciousness that arises because we confuse the order of causes and effects. Yet he offers a theory of freedom. How is this possible?
This focuses on GE's account of the role of sympathy in our cognitive and moral life. Contemporar... more This focuses on GE's account of the role of sympathy in our cognitive and moral life. Contemporary neuroscience and moral psychology count the capacity for sympathetic identification as crucial to the ability to engage in complex and reciprocal processes of intersubjective exchange essential to even the most basic forms of sociability, for example, 'mindreading'.
ABSTRACT Are there limits to the ability of Spinoza’s philosophy to speak to our present? Perhaps... more ABSTRACT Are there limits to the ability of Spinoza’s philosophy to speak to our present? Perhaps his notion of ‘the mind of God’ is too foreign for contemporary sensibilities to contemplate? After offering a brief refutation of Spinoza as atheist or pantheist, I venture the idea that contemporary understandings of nature may benefit from a consideration of Spinoza’s account of ‘God or Nature’. I suggest that the expression of the virtue of fortitudo (strength of character) can be (re)conceived as the love of God, or Nature.
Over the next decade, mutual obligation will undoubtedly come to be viewed as the Howard Governme... more Over the next decade, mutual obligation will undoubtedly come to be viewed as the Howard Government's major legacy to Australian social policy. In the early years of the Howard administration, mutual obligation was cast as the Australian version of Blair's `third way' ...
Angelaki Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 2008
... Re-Coupling Gender and Genre pp. 1-3(3) Author: Gatens, Moira. marie de gournay and montaigne... more ... Re-Coupling Gender and Genre pp. 1-3(3) Author: Gatens, Moira. marie de gournay and montaigne pp. ... 17-31(15) Author: Spongberg, Mary. marian evans, george henry lewes and “george eliot” pp. 33-44(12) Author: Gatens, Moira. Intensive Genre and the Demise of Gender pp. ...
Abstract Feminist interventions into philosophical discourse have been, Almost uniformly, At the ... more Abstract Feminist interventions into philosophical discourse have been, Almost uniformly, At the level of political or ethical theory. It is argued, In this paper, That the failure to address the metaphysical underpinning of traditional ethics and politics is a primary weakness of much ...
The terms sex and gender have had an interesting, and increasingly contentious, relation to each ... more The terms sex and gender have had an interesting, and increasingly contentious, relation to each other in the course of recent feminist theorising. The connections between being a female and exhibiting feminine qualities, or being a male and being, masculine, have ...
Spinoza scholars disagree about the role and value of the imagination in his philosophy. The noti... more Spinoza scholars disagree about the role and value of the imagination in his philosophy. The notion of 'beings of reason' poses interesting questions about what fiction and poetry can contribute to philosophical thought. What are the pros and cons of imaginative and poetic thought and how do these relate to analogical versus deductive reasoning? These questions are treated in the context of Spinoza's practical as well as speculative philosophy. It is concluded that beings of reason are unsuitable for use in speculative philosophy.
The notions of concord and peace have very particular meanings in Benedict Spinoza’s philosophy a... more The notions of concord and peace have very particular meanings in Benedict Spinoza’s philosophy and these meanings determine his judgment about the character of the best kinds of state, or Commonwealth, and the best kinds of subject-citizen.
A conversation between George Eliot meets Elizabeth Costello is constructed in order to explore t... more A conversation between George Eliot meets Elizabeth Costello is constructed in order to explore the ethics of writing and reading. The concerns of the two authors converge on their direct appeal to the reader to think with them about the powers of imagination and sympathy and the role they play in shaping our responsibilities towards our fellow human beings and ourselves.
Common across all of Spinoza's works is the repeated insistence that free will is an illusion in... more Common across all of Spinoza's works is the repeated insistence that free will is an illusion intrinsic to human consciousness that arises because we confuse the order of causes and effects. Yet he offers a theory of freedom. How is this possible?
This focuses on GE's account of the role of sympathy in our cognitive and moral life. Contemporar... more This focuses on GE's account of the role of sympathy in our cognitive and moral life. Contemporary neuroscience and moral psychology count the capacity for sympathetic identification as crucial to the ability to engage in complex and reciprocal processes of intersubjective exchange essential to even the most basic forms of sociability, for example, 'mindreading'.
ABSTRACT Are there limits to the ability of Spinoza’s philosophy to speak to our present? Perhaps... more ABSTRACT Are there limits to the ability of Spinoza’s philosophy to speak to our present? Perhaps his notion of ‘the mind of God’ is too foreign for contemporary sensibilities to contemplate? After offering a brief refutation of Spinoza as atheist or pantheist, I venture the idea that contemporary understandings of nature may benefit from a consideration of Spinoza’s account of ‘God or Nature’. I suggest that the expression of the virtue of fortitudo (strength of character) can be (re)conceived as the love of God, or Nature.
Over the next decade, mutual obligation will undoubtedly come to be viewed as the Howard Governme... more Over the next decade, mutual obligation will undoubtedly come to be viewed as the Howard Government's major legacy to Australian social policy. In the early years of the Howard administration, mutual obligation was cast as the Australian version of Blair's `third way' ...
Angelaki Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 2008
... Re-Coupling Gender and Genre pp. 1-3(3) Author: Gatens, Moira. marie de gournay and montaigne... more ... Re-Coupling Gender and Genre pp. 1-3(3) Author: Gatens, Moira. marie de gournay and montaigne pp. ... 17-31(15) Author: Spongberg, Mary. marian evans, george henry lewes and “george eliot” pp. 33-44(12) Author: Gatens, Moira. Intensive Genre and the Demise of Gender pp. ...
Abstract Feminist interventions into philosophical discourse have been, Almost uniformly, At the ... more Abstract Feminist interventions into philosophical discourse have been, Almost uniformly, At the level of political or ethical theory. It is argued, In this paper, That the failure to address the metaphysical underpinning of traditional ethics and politics is a primary weakness of much ...
The terms sex and gender have had an interesting, and increasingly contentious, relation to each ... more The terms sex and gender have had an interesting, and increasingly contentious, relation to each other in the course of recent feminist theorising. The connections between being a female and exhibiting feminine qualities, or being a male and being, masculine, have ...
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