Spinoza
| Title | Spinoza |
|---|---|
| Author | Stuart Hampshire |
| Publication | Penguin |
| Size | 237p |
| Language |  ENG |
| ISBN | |
| Topics |
Philosophers Spinoza, Benedict (Baruch, Philos. 1632-1677) Philosophy--Dutch Philosophy--Rationalism |
| Notes | a classic work about Spinoza. Hampshire praises Spinoza as "the most ambitious and uncompromising of all modern philosophers" and discusses Spinoza's thought in its 17th century context, contrasting him with other rationalist philosophers such as René Descartes and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. Hampshire believes that, while internally consistent, Spinoza's philosophy and especially his epistemology is "liable not to be appreciated" because it is simultaneously linked to two normally opposed traditions, nominalism and the coherence theory of truth. In Hampshire's view, while Spinoza "deliberately effaced his own personality and wished his philosophy to stand alone", there is enough evidence to show that Spinoza was an "exceptional" man. He provides lengthy discussions of Spinoza's conception of mind and will. Hampshire compares Spinoza to Sigmund Freud. He sees a parallel between Spinoza's conatus and Freud's conception of libido: "both philosophers conceive emotional life as based on a universal unconscious drive or tendency to self-preservation; both maintain that any frustration of this drive must manifest itself in our conscious life as some painful disturbance." [wikipedia] |
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