Spinoza And Dutch Cartesianism Hardcover

Alexander X. Douglas

Alexander X. Douglas offers a new understanding of Spinoza's philosophy by situating it in its immediate historical context. He defends a thesis about Spinoza's philosophical motivations and then bases an interpretation of his major works upon it. The thesis is that much of Spinoza's philosophy was conceived with the express purpose of rebutting a claim about the limitations of philosophy made by some of his contemporaries. They held that philosophy is intrinsically incapable of revealing anything of any relevance to theology, or in fact to any study of direct practical relevance to human life. Spinoza did not. He believed that philosophy reveals the true nature of God, and that God is nothing like what the majority of theologians, or indeed of religious believers in general, think he is. The practical implications of this change in the concept of God were profound and radical. As Douglas shows, many of Spinoza's theories were directed towards showing how the separation his opponents endeavoured to maintain between philosophical and non-philosophical (particularly theological) thought was logically untenable.

9780198732501

English

Oxford University Press

5/Apr/15

192

Alexander X. Douglas is currently a Lecturer in Philosophy at Heythrop College, London. His primary research focuses on early modern philosophy and the philosophy of social science.

With his book on Spinoza and Dutch Cartesianism, Alexander Douglas has written an elegant and at times refreshingly daring book on the development of Spinoza's philosophical views and their historical background ... Not only does Douglas present an original way of questioning Spinoza and his contemporaries, he also offers an interesting combination of analytical philosophy and contextual research in the history of ideas. * Han van Ruler, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online * I have learned much from Douglas excellent book, and I feel very indebted to him for drawing my attention to important aspects of Spinoza's intellectual background which were under my radar. It was a pleasure to study this book, and it is a pleasure to engage with it in critical dialogue. * Alexander X. Douglas, Mind *