Syllabus

In this course students will study the development and structure of Spinoza's philosophical system. We will begin with selections from Spinoza's early works, which include a treatise on philosophical method, a summary and analysis of the Cartesian system, and a critique of religion. We will spend most of our time on a careful reading of the Ethics, which presents Spinoza's mature views on metaphysics, epistemology, psychology, and the ethical life. We will analyze his arguments in detail, compare them to those of his contemporaries (e.g., Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz), and discuss the influence and relevance of Spinoza's work to contemporary philosophical projects.

Weekly E-discussion:

E-Submit. Each Thursday I will distribute a discussion topic, which will focus on a particular issue or argument in the text. Each student must write a short (100-250 words) response to the topic. A response will include both summary and evaluation of the issue. You will send your response to me via “e-submit” on the course website. Here is the web page URL for this link: E-Submit Link. You can also find it on the course web page and my homepage. Your response must be posted before the beginning of class on Tuesday (late responses will not count). The response will not be graded. However, if you do not satisfactorily complete at least six of the nine responses, then your final grade will be lowered by one-half (0.5 point) of a grade (e.g., from 3.7 to 3.2, or A- to B+).
Peer Review. Each week I will select one of the responses submitted to the discussion question and post it under Peer Review. The paper will then be open to your comments. Here is the site link: Peer Review Link. You can comment on the posted paper’s response to the topic question as a whole or take issue with some particular part of it. I expect to see critical, constructive, and respectful comments on the paper. This is not a mandatory assignment but your contributions will count under my broad definition of class participation (see below).
E-Post. There will also be an on-line discussion forum through the E-Post tool. Here is the site link: E-Post Link. This is your on-line forum. I will occasionally interject but I want to give you a chance to discuss the texts and issues in Spinoza’s philosophy outside of class. Debate and disagreement is encouraged, as in all philosophy, but it is important to keep your comments related to class subjects and respectful in tone and content.

2. Short Papers: Each student will be required to write three short papers (3-5 pages in length). For each essay, you will be able to choose your topic from several options. The first paper is due on Thursday, 10/23 at the beginning of class. The second paper is due on Tuesday, 11/18 at the beginning of class. And the third paper is due on Tuesday, 12/16 at 4:30pm in the Philosophy department office in Savery Hall. Late papers will be automatically penalized one-half of a grade (0.5 point) for every 24-hours it is late after the due date. Please note: I will not accept papers sent by fax or e-mail. Also, do not turn in these papers electronically through E-submit, as you would for the discussion topics. I need to receive a printed copy of the paper. Each paper will be graded and is worth 30% of your final grade. Please note that you must complete all three papers for this requirement to be met.

3. Participation. I expect all students to participate actively in class discussion (which might also include E-Posts and Peer Review comments). In determining your final grade, especially if it is on a borderline, I will consider the quality of your regular participation, and improvement over the semester. (Please note: I count regular attendance as part of class participation. If you are not present you cannot participate.) This will account for 10% of your final grade.

-Spinoza, Baruch.. A Spinoza Reader: The Ethics and Other Works. Edwin Curley, editor. Princeton: Princeton University Press. (Abbreviated below as SR.)

-Spinoza, Baruch. Theological-Political Treatise. Trans. Samuel Shirley. Indianapolis: Hackett Press, 1998. (Abbreviated as TTP.)

-Curley, Edwin. Behind the Geometrical Method: A Reading of Spinoza's Ethics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988.

-Garrett, Don, editor. The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (Abbreviated as Companion.)

Both required and recommended texts are available for purchase in the college bookstore .

Primary: SR, 3-6, 48-77

Secondary: Companion, chapter 1

Recommended: Nadler; Yovel, vol. 1, chapters 1-3.

Th 10/2 Critique of Scripture

Primary: SR, 6-48, TTP, Preface, ch. 3-7.

Secondary: Companion, chapters 8 and 9.

Recommended: Hobbes, Leviathan, ch. 12, and all of part III; Donagan, ch. 2; Gatens & Lloyd, ch. 1 (also 87-100); Strauss (1988), 142-202.

Tu 10/7 Ethics, Part I (Of God) -- Substance and Attributes

Primary: SR, 85-100 (E1 definitions, axioms, E1p1-p20).

Secondary: Companion, chapter 2. Curley (1988), ch. 1.

Recommended: SR, 77-84; Descartes, Principles, pt. I, articles 51-54 (CSM I, 210-11); Leibniz, 207-8, 213-14;; Donagan, chs. 4-5.

Th 10/9 Ethics, Part I (Of God) -- Modes: Infinite and Finite

Primary: SR, 100-109 (E1p20-p36), 269-276 (correspondence with Tschirnhaus).

Recommended: Descartes, Principles, I, 56-62 (CSM I, 211-14); Curley (1988), ch. 1; Donagan, ch. 6.

Tu 10/14 Ethics, Part I (Of God) -- Necessity and Contingency

Primary: SR, 100-114 (E1p20-p36, E1appendix), 266-269 (correspondence with Tschirnhaus).

Secondary: Companion, ch. 2 (pages 74-76); Curley (1988), 48-50.

Recommended: Leibniz, 272-84, 60-64, 111-117; Curley (1969), ch. 3; Bennett, ch. 5; Garrett (1991); Gatens & Lloyd, ch. 1 (especially 28-33).

Th 10/16 NO CLASS

Tu 10/21 Discussion

Th 10/23 [First Paper Due]

Ethics, Part II (Of the Mind) -- The Mind-Body Union

Primary: SR, 115-128 (E2 preface, definitions, axioms, E2p1-p15).

Secondary: Companion, chapters 3 and 4.

Recommended: Descartes, Meditations, VI (CSM II, 50-62); Curley (1988), ch. 2; Bennett, chs. 6-7.

Tu 10/28 Ethics, Part II (Of the Mind) -- Theory of Knowledge and Error

Primary: SR, 128-152 (E2p16-p49).

Secondary: Companion, ch. 3 .

Recommended: Descartes, Meditations IV (CSM II, 37-43); Hobbes, Leviathan, ch. 6; Donagan, ch. 7; Curley (1975); Gatens & Lloyd, ch. 1.

Th 10/30 Discussion

Tu 11/4 Ethics, Part III (Of the Affects) -- Conatus and the Definition of the Affects

Primary: SR, 152-162 (E3 preface, definitions, axioms, postulates, E3p1-p13).

Secondary: Companion, chapter 5.

Recommended: Descartes, Passions of the Soul, preface, Part I (CSM I, 326-48); Hobbes, Leviathan, ch. 6; Curley (1988), ch. 3; Donagan, ch. 8; Bennett, chs. 9-10; Gatens & Lloyd, 100-107.

Th 11/6 Ethics, Part III (Of the Affects) -- The Structure of the Affective Life

Primary: SR, 162-197(E3p14-p59, definitions of the affects, general definition of the affects).

Recommended: Descartes, Passions of the Soul, Part II (CSM I, 349-382); Hobbes, Leviathan, chs. 10-11; Bennett, ch. 11.

Tu 11/11 Discussion

Th 11/13 Ethics, Part IV (Of Human Bondage) -- Human Limitations and Sociability

Recommended: Hobbes, Leviathan, ch. 13; Bennett, ch. 12; Donagan, ch. 9; Gatens & Lloyd, ch. 4.

Recommended: Hobbes, Leviathan, chapters 10-17; Garrett (1990); Bennett, ch. 13; Gatens & Lloyd, chs. 2, 3, & 6.

Recommended: Descartes, Passions of the Soul, Part I, article 50, Part III (CSM I, 348, 383-404); Bennett, ch. 14.

Tu 12/2 Ethics, Part V (Of Human Freedom) -- Amor Dei Intellectualis and the Eternity of the Mind

Primary Sources

Aquinas, St. Thomas. Introduction to Saint Thomas Aquinas. Ed. Anton C. Pegis. New York: The Modern Library, Random House, 1948.

Bayle, Pierre. Historical and Critical Dictionary: Selections. Trans. Richard H. Popkin. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1965.

Descartes, René. The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Volumes I & II, Trans. Trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.

___. Philosophical Letters. Trans. and Ed. Anthony Kenny. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1981.

___. The Passions of the Soul. Trans. Stephan H. Voss. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1989.

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Ed. Edwin Curley. Indianapolis: Hackett Press, 1994.

___. Man and Citizen. Ed. Bernard Gert. New York: Anchor Books, 1972.

Leibniz, G.W. Philosophical Essays. Ed. and Trans. Roger Ariew, and Daniel Garber. Indianapolis: Hackett Press, 1989.

Machiavelli, Niccolo. Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livy. Trans. Leslie J. Walker, ed. with an introduction by Bernard Crick, with revisions by Brian Richardson. Harmonsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1983

___. The Prince. Ed. and trans. Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

Nietzsche, Friedrich W. The Portable Nietzsche. Ed. and trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Penguin Books, 1976.

*Spinoza, Baruch. The Collected Works. Volume 1, Ed. and trans. Edwin Curley. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985. (B3958 .S64 1985 v.1)

*___. The Letters. Trans. Samuel Shirley. Indianapolis: Hackett Press, 1995. (B3958 .S45 1995)

*___. Political Treatise. Trans. Samuel Shirley. Indianapolis: Hackett Press, 2000. (On order).

*___. Theological-Political Treatise. Trans. Samuel Shirley. Indianapolis: Hackett Press, 1998. (On order.)

Selected Secondary Sources

Allison, Henry. Benedict de Spinoza: An Introduction. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.

*Bennett, Jonathan. A Study of Spinoza's Ethics. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1984. (B3974 .B46 1984)

*Curley, Edwin. Behind the Geometrical Method: A Reading of Spinoza’s Ethics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. (B3974 .C87 1988 )

___. "Descartes, Spinoza and the Ethics of Belief." In Mandelbaum and Freeman (1975), 159-190.

___. Spinoza's Metaphysics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.

Curley, E. & Moreau, P.-F. eds. Spinoza: Issues and Directions. Leiden: Brill, 1990.

Deleuze, Gilles. Spinoza: Practical Philosophy. Trans. Robert Hurley. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1988.

___. Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza. New York: Zone Books, 1990.

*Donagan, Alan. Spinoza. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988. (B3998 .D66 1989 )

Garber, Daniel. Descartes’ Metaphysical Physics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

*Garrett, Don. The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. (B3998 .C32 1996 )

___. "'A Free Man Always Acts Honestly, Not Deceptively': Freedom and the Good in Spinoza's Ethics." In Curley and Moreau, Spinoza: Issues and Directions (1990), 221-238.

___. “Spinoza’s Necessitarianism.” In Y. Yovel, ed. God and Nature: Spinoza’s Metaphysics, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991.

*Gatens, Moira, and Lloyd, Genevieve. Collective Imaginings: Spinoza, Past and Present. London and New York: Routledge, 1999. (On Order)

Grene, Marjorie, ed. Spinoza: A Collection of Critical Essays. South Bend, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1979.

Grene, Marjorie, and Nails, Debra (eds.), Spinoza and the Sciences. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1986.

Hampshire, Stuart. Spinoza. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1951.

Kennington, Richard, ed. The Philosophy of Baruch Spinoza. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1980.

Lachterman, David R. "The Physics of Spinoza's Ethics." In Shahan and Biro, 71-112.

Mandelbaum M., and Freeman E. (eds.). Spinoza: Essays in Interpretation. LaSalle, Illinois: Open Court Publishing Co., 1975.

Montag, Warren. Bodies, Masses, Power: Spinoza and his Contemporaries. London: Verso, 1999.

*Montag, Warren, and Stolze, Ted, eds. The New Spinoza. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. (On Order)

*Nadler, Steven. Spinoza: A Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. (On Order)

Negri, Antonio. The Savage Anomaly. Trans. Michael Hardt. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991

Neu, Jerome. Emotion, Thought, and Therapy. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1977.

Popkin, Richard. The History of Scepticism From Erasmus to Spinoza. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1979.

Shahan, R. & Biro, J.I. Spinoza: New Perspectives. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.

Strauss, Leo. Persecution and the Art of Writing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Wolfson, H.A. The Philosophy of Spinoza. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1962.

Yovel, Y. Spinoza and Other Heretics. Vols. 1 & 2. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989.