Abstract:
Scholars recognize Spinoza’s conatus doctrine as one of the most important features of the Ethics. In this paper, I investigate two rather neglected aspects of this doctrine, namely, the notion of “transition of perfection” and its moral consequences. I argue that both aspects originate from significant changes in Spinoza’s thought from the positions held in his early writings. To support this claim, I focus on how Spinoza discusses these points in his correspondence with Willem van Blijenbergh (1664–1665). In his letters, Spinoza denies the reality of transitions of perfection, while such transitions will become a key feature of his later account of affects. Moreover, Spinoza subscribes to a kind of ethical intellectualism that he later rejects in his mature version of the Ethics. I conclude that the first draft of the Ethics mentioned in 1665 to van Blijenbergh must have been rather different from its definitive version.
Akkerman, F./Hubbeling, H. G. 1979. “The Preface to Spinoza’s Posthumous Works 1677 and its Author Jarig Jelles”. Lias 6(1), 103–173.Search in Google Scholar
Allison, H. E. 1987. Benedict de Spinoza: An Introduction. New Haven (revised edition).Search in Google Scholar
Beltran, M. A. 2008. “El Adán de Spinoza”. Convivium 21, 197–212.Search in Google Scholar
Bennett, J. 1984. A Study of Spinoza’s Ethics. Indianapolis.Search in Google Scholar
Busse, J. 2009. Le problème de l’essence de l’homme chez Spinoza. Paris.10.4000/books.psorbonne.277Search in Google Scholar
Carriero, J. 2005. “Spinoza on Final Causality”. Oxford Studies in Early Modern Philosophy 2. Ed. D. Garber/S. Nadler, 105–147.Search in Google Scholar
Della Rocca, M. 1996. Representation and the Mind–Body Problem in Spinoza. Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2003. “The Power of an Idea: Spinoza’s Critique of Pure Will”. Nous 37(2), 200–231.10.1111/1468-0068.00436Search in Google Scholar
Deleuze, G. 1967. Spinoza et le problème de l’expression. Paris.Search in Google Scholar
Cottingham, J./Stoothoff, R./Murdoch, D./Kenny, A. (trans.). 1984. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (vol. II). Meditations on First Philosophy. Cambridge.Search in Google Scholar
Fraenkel, C. 2012. Philosophical Religions from Plato to Spinoza. Reason, Religion and Autonomy. Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9781139043052Search in Google Scholar
Garrett, D. 1999. “Teleology in Spinoza and Early Modern Rationalism”. In R. J. Gennaro/C. Huenemann (eds.). New Essays on the Rationalists. New York, 310–335.10.1093/0195165411.003.0015Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2001. “Spinoza’s Conatus Argument”. In O. Koistinen/J. Biro (eds.). Spinoza: Metaphysical Themes. New York, 127–158.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2009. “Spinoza on the Essence of the Human Body and the Part of the Mind that is Eternal”. In O. Koistinen (ed.). Cambridge Companion to Spinoza’s Ethics. Cambridge, 285–302.Search in Google Scholar
Jaquet, Ch. 2005. Les expressions de la puissance d’agir chez Spinoza. Paris.10.4000/books.psorbonne.127Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2009, “L’erreur dans les Principes de Philosophie de Descartes de Spinoza, I, XV”. Analytica 13(2), 13–27.Search in Google Scholar
Kisner, M. 2008. “Spinoza’s Virtuous Passions”. The Review of Metaphysics 61(4), 759–583.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2011. Spinoza on Human Freedom. Reason, Autonomy and the Good Life. Cambridge.Search in Google Scholar
Laerke, M. 2009. “Immanence et extériorité absolue: sur la théorie de la causalité et l’ontologie de la puissance de Spinoza”. Revue philosophique de la France et de l’Étranger 199(2), 169–190.Search in Google Scholar
Lenz, M. 2012. Intentionality without Objectivity? – Spinoza’s Theory of Intentionality. In Intentionality: Historical and Systematic Perspectives. Ed. A. Salice. München, 29–58.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2013. Ideas as Thick Beliefs: Spinoza on the Normativity of Ideas. In Contemporary Perspectives on Early Modern Philosophy: Nature and Norms in Thought. Eds. M. Lenz/A. Waldow. London, 37–50.Search in Google Scholar
Lin, M. 2004. “Spinoza’s Metaphysics of Desire: The Demonstration of 3p6”. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 86(1), 21–55.Search in Google Scholar
Marshall, C. 2012. “Spinoza on Destroying Passions with Reason”. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 85(1), 139–160.Search in Google Scholar
Matheron, A. 1969. Individu et communauté chez Spinoza. Paris.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ1991. “Physique et ontologie chez Spinoza: l’énigmatique réponse a Tschirnhaus”.Cahiers Spinoza 6, 83–109.Search in Google Scholar
McDonough, J. 2011. “The Heyday of Teleology and Early Modern Philosophy”. Midwest Studies in Philosophy 35(1), 179–204.Search in Google Scholar
Mignini, F. 1987. “Données et problèmes de la chronologie spinozienne jusqu’en 1665”. Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 71(1), 9–21.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2009. “Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677)”. In Il peccato originale nel pensiero moderno. Eds. G. Riconda/M. Ravera/C. Ciancio/G. L. Cuozzo. Brescia, 353–375.Search in Google Scholar
Sangiacomo, A. 2012. “Emendazione dell’intelletto e malattia del corpo: alle origini della filosofia di Spinoza”. Teoria 32(2), 135–152.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2013. L’essenza del Corpo. Spinoza e la scienza delle composizioni. Hildesheim/Zürich/New York.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2013b. “Whatare Human Beings? Essences and Aptitudes in Spinoza’s Anthropology”. Journal of Early Modern Studies 2(2), 78–100.10.7761/JEMS.2.2.78Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ 2015. “The Ontology of Determination, from Descartes to Spinoza”. Science in Context 28(4), 515–543.10.1017/S0269889715000319Search in Google Scholar
Scribano, E. 2011. “Spinoza e la conoscenza del bene e del male”. In La centralità del dubbio. Un progetto di A. Rotondò. Eds. C. Hermanin/L. Simonutti. Florence, 571–598.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2012. “La connaissance du bien et du mal. Du Court Traité à l’Éthique”. In Spinoza Transalpin. Les interprétations actuelles en Italie. Ed. Ch. Jaquet/P.-F. Moreau. Paris, 59–78.Search in Google Scholar
Sévérac, P. 2005. Le devenir actif chez Spinoza. Paris.Search in Google Scholar
Spinoza, B. 1925. Spinoza Opera. Im Auftrag der Heidelberg Akademie des Wissenschaften hrsg. von C. Gebhardt. 4 vols. Heidelberg.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ1994. A Spinoza Reader. The Ethics and Other Works. Ed./trans. E. Curley. Princeton.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2002. Complete Works. With the Translation of S. Shirley. Ed. M. L. Morgan.Indianapolis.Search in Google Scholar
–.ߒ2009. Oeuvres I. Premiers écrits. Texte établi par F. Mignini. Trans. M. Beyssade/J. Ganault. Paris.Search in Google Scholar
Steinberg, D. 2005. “Belief, Affirmation and the Doctrine of Conatus in Spinoza”. The Southern Journal of Philosophy 43(1), 147–158.Search in Google Scholar
Steenbakkers, P. 2009. The Geometrical Order in the Ethics. In The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza’s Ethics. Ed. O. Koinstinen. Cambridge, 42–57.Search in Google Scholar
Viljanen, V. 2011. Spinoza’s Geometry of Power. Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9781139005210Search in Google Scholar
© 2016 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
