Readers of Spinoza's philosophy have often been daunted, and sometimes been enchanted, by the geometrical method which he employs in his philosophical masterpiece the Ethics. In Meaning in Spinoza's Method Aaron Garrett examines this method and suggests that its purpose, in Spinoza's view, was not just to present claims and propositions but also in some sense to change the readers and allow them to look at themselves and the world in a different way. His discussion draws not only on Spinoza's (...) works but also on those of the philosophers who influenced Spinoza most strongly, including Hobbes, Descartes, Maimonides and Gersonides. This controversial book will be of interest to historians of philosophy and to anyone interested in the relation between form and content in philosophical works. (shrink)

This dissertation sets out to discuss some features of Spinoza's concepts of conatus and causation, through a discussion of the overall structure of the Ethics. ;The major portion of the dissertation is devoted to Spinoza's method, as employed in the Ethics, the notorious geometric method. I argue against the traditional reading of the method as a simple geometric device, and for a position which emphasizes how the method itself leads the reader to come to the highest kinds of knowledge. This (...) is accomplished both with reference to Spinoza's early modern contemporaries, and older Jewish antecedent. ;The reconsideration of method leads, respectively, to a discussion of the conatus in Spinoza's philosophy, and the centrality of adequate cause. The conatus is viewed as a way of making Spinoza's philosophy jibe with our phenomenal world, and to show how we express ourselves through the metaphysical, physical and rational structures detailed in the first two books of the Ethics. Hence it allows us to view the work itself as a way of coming to terms with, and moving towards, knowledge sub specie aeternitatis. ;The centrality of adequate cause similarly helps us to see that Spinoza's interest is not so much in detailing the metaphysical structure of the world, but teaching us to express ourselves in and through it. That is the ultimate goal of the method itself. (shrink)

In the opening paragraph of his “Corollary on Time,” Simplicius makes an assertion that those with only a second-hand familiarity with the Ancient Commentators on Aristotle might find surprising.

Edwin Curley opens the “Introduction” of his new edition of Leviathan with the following assertion: “Hobbes has suffered a fate shared by many classic authors. His greatest work is more often quoted then carefully and thoroughly read.” Hobbes, it seems, has suffered additional indignities that many classic authors have not. A critical edition is underway which will be published by Clarendon Press at Oxford. So far, the Latin and English versions of De Cive have appeared. Before this undertaking, the last (...) critical edition of Hobbes' complete works was the excellent, but highly flawed English & Latin Works edited by W. Molesworthy in 1839-45. With the exception of the ever-present Leviathan, his works have gone in and out of availability in various editions of varied merit. The Molesworthy edition itself is most commonly found in a German reprint. The standards for textual criticism are being set by French scholars, and a complete, critical and up-to-date Hobbes will probably appear in French translation before it does in English and Latin. German political philosophers such as Ferdinand Tönnies, Leo Strauss, Carl Schmitt, Reinhart Koselleck, and Ernst Bloch have been actively engaged with Hobbes' claims, for obvious reasons, in a way that the Anglo-American literature is not. Hence it is a cause for rejoicing that this excellent “student edition” of Hobbes' “greatest” work has appeared. (shrink)

Edwin Curley opens the “Introduction” of his new edition of Leviathan with the following assertion: “Hobbes has suffered a fate shared by many classic authors. His greatest work is more often quoted then carefully and thoroughly read.” Hobbes, it seems, has suffered additional indignities that many classic authors have not. A critical edition is underway which will be published by Clarendon Press at Oxford. So far, the Latin and English versions of De Cive have appeared. Before this undertaking, the last (...) critical edition of Hobbes' complete works was the excellent, but highly flawed English & Latin Works edited by W. Molesworthy in 1839-45. With the exception of the ever-present Leviathan, his works have gone in and out of availability in various editions of varied merit. The Molesworthy edition itself is most commonly found in a German reprint. The standards for textual criticism are being set by French scholars, and a complete, critical and up-to-date Hobbes will probably appear in French translation before it does in English and Latin. German political philosophers such as Ferdinand Tönnies, Leo Strauss, Carl Schmitt, Reinhart Koselleck, and Ernst Bloch have been actively engaged with Hobbes' claims, for obvious reasons, in a way that the Anglo-American literature is not. Hence it is a cause for rejoicing that this excellent “student edition” of Hobbes' “greatest” work has appeared. (shrink)