In Honour of Spinoza

Spinoza Today: The Current State of Spinoza Scholarship

Honour to Whom Honour Is Due

cal College who has received the title of Kui Bahadur from Government, and we are fully convinced that these gentlemen well deserve the distinctions conferred on them. Nevertheless, it strikes us as somewhat remarkable, that of all the professors attached to the College, only one (Dr. Fayrer) has received any mark of distinction from the Government. This remark applies not only to the medical o...

Stardrives and Spinoza

There are several senses in which one may speak of limits in relation to Physics. For the purposes of this essay, it is most useful to begin with the technological limitations of practical human activity. In this context, Physics both provides positive and negative information. Physical laws tell us how to achieve some goals, and informs us that others are forever out of reach. An excellent his...

In Spinoza ’ S Philosophy of Mind

Axiom 6 of Part I of Spinoza’s Ethics, in the most widely used English translation, reads: “a true idea must agree with its object.” Spinoza also claims in Part II of the Ethics that every idea has an object with which it is parallel in an “order and connection” of causes (E2p7, E2p11, E2p13)—and, indeed, with which it is identical or “one and same” (E2p7s, E2p21s). Jonathan Bennett has maintai...

Substance, Attribute, and Mode in Spinoza

Some of Spinoza’s most well-known doctrines concern what kinds of beings there are and how they are related to each other. For example, he claims that: (1) there is only one substance; (2) this substance has infinitely many attributes; (3) this substance is God or nature; (4) each of these attributes express the divine essence; and (5) all else is a mode of the one substance. These claims have ...