Description
Baruch Spinoza began his studies in the Jewish community of seventeenth century Amsterdam by learning Hebrew and the Talmud, only to be excommunicated at the age of twenty-four for supposed heresy. Because of his radical transformation of the concept of God, he has been characterized, on the one hand, as an atheist, and on the other as the "God-intoxicated man." This book is an exploration of what Spinoza understood God to be; how, for him, the infinite and eternal power of God is expressed; and how finite human beings can have a true idea of this greatest of all entities.
Sherry Deveaux begins with an analytic discussion of these three questions and an explication of three different views held by contemporary commentators on Spinoza. She then shows that the commonly held views about Spinoza are inconsistent with his texts--especially his magnum opus, the Ethics. Next, she provides analyses of central topics in Spinoza's metaphysics--such as 'power', 'true idea', and 'essence'--that must be understood in order to correctly answer the three questions. Deveaux concludes by arguing (i) that Spinoza defines God's essence as 'absolutely infinite and eternal power' and (ii) that, far from identifying God's essence with the divine attributes (such as thought and extension) as commentators commonly suppose, Spinoza regards God's essence or "power" as something that is expressed through the divine attributes.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1. Three Problems: the relation of God to the attributes; the essence of God; the true conception of God Chapter 2. The "God is the Thing that has Attributes and Modes as Properties" Interpretation
Chapter 3. The "God is the Collection of Attributes" Interpretation
Chapter 4. The "God is the Totality of Attributes" Interpretation
Chapter 5. Benefits and Disadvantages of the Three Interpretations
Chapter 6. Essences and True Ideas in Spinoza
Chapter 7. The Essence of Spinoza's God
Selected Bibliography
Index
Author(s)
Sherry Deveaux,
Sherry Deveaux earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis. The author of articles on the history of early modern
philosophy and contemporary metaphysics, she is currently a Lecturing Professor at Stanford University, USA.
Reviews
“As such, it is an important contribution and one worth remembering in subsequent interpretations of Spinoza’s account of God.” - Steve Parchment, Journal of the History of Philosophy, July 2008
Steve Parchment,
“Deveaux offers scholars a significant new interpretation of Spinoza’s God that challenges and ultimately rejects the interpretations of Jonathan Bennett, Edwin Curley, Alan Donagan, H. F. Hallett, and Steven Parchment. She shows how these interpretations involve insoluble problems, while her interpretation, which is indebted to Michael Della Rocca, can avoid these problems. This is a stimulating work, particularly for those attracted by the profundity of the metaphysics and vision of God found in Spinoza’s Ethics.” –Michael Strawser, Philosophy in Review
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