Spinoza's Acquiescentia

Journal of the History of Philosophy 55 (2):209-236 (2017)
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Abstract

Spinoza's account of acquiescentia has been obscured by inconsistent translations of acquiescentia, and forms of the verb acquiescere, in the standard English edition of the Ethics. For Spinoza, acquiescentia is an inherently cognitive affect, since it involves an idea of oneself (as the cause of one's joy). As such, the affect is closely correlated to the three kinds of cognition identified by Spinoza in Ethics II. Just as there are three kinds of cognition, so too are there three kinds of acquiescentia. Two qualities—stillness and obedience—provide the criteria for distinguishing between these. This illuminates Spinoza's positive account of acquiescentia, and also clarifies how it responds critically to the equivalent Cartesian passion, la satisfaction de soimême, which is translated as acquiescentia in se ipso in the relevant Latin edition of Les passions de l'âme.

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Author's Profile

Clare Carlisle
King's College London

References found in this work

Spinoza.Don Garrett - 1991 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 51 (4):952-955.
Spinoza On Eternal Life.Clare Carlisle - 2015 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 89 (1):69-96.
How Spinoza enumerated the Affects.Stephen H. Voss - 1981 - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 63 (2):167-179.
On the Authority of the Passiones Animae.Stephen Voss - 1993 - Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 75 (2):160-178.

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