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Philosophising, as Spinoza conceives it, is the project of learning to live joyfully. This in turn is a matter of learning to live together, and the most obvious test of philosophical insight is our capacity to sustain a harmonious way of life. Susan James defends this interpretation and explores Spinoza's influence on contemporary debates.
List of contents
- Introduction: Philosophy as the Art of Living Together
- Part I. Learning to Live Together
- Creating Rational Understanding: Spinoza as a Social Epistemologist
- When Does Truth Matter? The Relation Between Theology and Philosophy
- Spinoza on Superstition: Coming to Terms with Fear
- Narrative as a Means to Freedom: Spinoza on the Uses of Imagination
- Responding Emotionally to Fiction: A Spinozist Approach
- Part II. The Politics of Living Together
- Law and Sovereignty in Spinoza's Politics
- Natural Rights as Powers to Act
- Democracy and the Good Life in Spinoza's Philosophy
- Freedom, Slavery and the Passions
- Freedom of Conscience and Civic Peace: Spinoza on Piety
- Part III. Philosophical Communities
- Freedom and Nature: A Spinozist Invitation
- The Affective Cost of Philosophical Self-Transformation
- Fortitude: Living in the Light of our Knowledge
About the author
Susan James is a professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College London. Her main areas of interest are early-modern philosophy, feminist philosophy, political philosophy, and the philosophy of art. She is the author of Passion and Action: The Emotions in Early-Modern Philosophy (Oxford, 1997) and Spinoza on Philosophy, Religion, and Politics: The Theologico-Political Treatise (Oxford, 2012).
Summary
Philosophising, as Spinoza conceives it, is the project of learning to live joyfully. This in turn is a matter of learning to live together, and the most obvious test of philosophical insight is our capacity to sustain a harmonious way of life. Susan James defends this interpretation and explores Spinoza's influence on contemporary debates.
Additional text
This is a wonderful collection of essays. They offer sophisticated and unexpected insights into aspects of Spinoza's philosophical system—and especially the unity of that system in its metaphysical, epistemological, moral, and political dimensions—that have largely been unexplored by scholars. . . . James is an astute political thinker in her own right, and her commentaries on Spinoza's political, religious, and ethical views are of general philosophical interest. Moreover, James is an elegant writer, and these essays are a pleasure to read. It is a great benefit to have them published together in one place.
