Studies in Spinoza

Critical and Interpretive Essays

S. Paul Kashap

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780520319332
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520319349
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

Studies in Spinoza: Critical and Interpretive Essays, edited by S. Paul Kashap, gathers leading Anglophone scholarship to illuminate why Spinoza's "impenetrable abstractions" continue to shape debates in metaphysics, mind, action, and ethics. Framed by the conviction—echoing Santayana—that Spinoza's stature only grows with time, the volume offers clear, contemporary vocabulary and argumentation to guide readers through the Ethics and its afterlives. The contributors balance rigorous exposition with pointed critique, making the collection equally valuable for specialists and advanced students seeking lucid entry points into persistent controversies. With most essays written after 1937 (and Kashap's own previously unpublished contribution), the book updates a classic canon while respecting its historical texture. Spanning substance, attributes, universals, time, knowledge, language, and freedom, the essays range from T. M. Forsyth's reconsideration of self-causation and immanent causality to A. Wolf's foundational analysis of attributes, F. S. Haserot's twin studies on attribute and universals, and Samuel Alexander's seminal "Spinoza and Time." Ruth L. Saw challenges assumptions about individuality and cognition; Henry Barker, H. F. Hallett, and G. H. R. Parkinson probe idea/ideatum, mind–body parallelism, and truth; David Savan and Guttorm Floistad reopen questions of language, imagination, and intuition; while Raphael Demos, A. E. Taylor, and Stuart Hampshire test the bounds of moral judgment and freedom. The result is a self-contained suite of interpretive and critical engagements that model how to read Spinoza philosophically: historically grounded, analytically precise, and alert to the live stakes of his system—from the coherence of universals to the possibility of purposive action and the "intellectual love of God." This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.

Many titles in the Voices Revived program are also newly available as ebooks, offered at a discounted price to support wider access to scholarly work.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Notes on the Contributors
• Spinoza’s Doctrine of God in Relation to His Conception of Causality T.M. Forsyth
• Spinoza’s Conception of the Attributes of Substance115 A. Wolf
• Spinoza’s Definition of A ttribute Francis S. Haserot
• Spinoza and the Status of Universals132 Francis S. Haserot
• Spinoza and Time S. Alexander
• Personal Identity in Spinoza Ruth L. Saw
• Notes on the Second Part of Spinoza’s Ethics (I) H. Barker
• Notes on the Second Part of Spinoza’s Ethics (II) H. Barker
• Notes on the Second Part of Spinoza’s Ethics (III) H. Barker
• On a Reputed Equivoque in the Philosophy of Spinoza H. F. Hallett
• Some Incoherencies in Sp inoism (I) A. E. Taylor
• Truth and Falsity in Sp inoza********************************************************************* G. H. R. Parkinson
• Spinoza and Language355 David Savan
• Spinoza’s Theory of Knowledge Applied to the Ethics Guttorm Fløistad
• Spinoza’s Doctrine of Priv ation Raphael Demos
• Some Incoherencies in Spin ozism (II) A. E. Taylor
• Spinoza and the Idea of Freedom Stuart Hampshire
• Thought and Action in Sp inoza S. Paul Kashap
• Select Bibliography