James, Susan (2020) The affective cost of philosophical self-transformation. In: James, Susan (ed.) Spinoza on Learning to Live Together. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9780198713074.
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Abstract
Some early-modern philosophers portray a perfectly philosophical way of life as a condition approaching the divine. The philosopher becomes as like God as a human being can, and in doing so experiences unparalleled and unalloyed joy. Spinoza advocates a version of this view and defends it with impressive consistency. To suggest that the process of philosophical enlightenment involves any affective cost, he argues, is simply to display a lack of understanding, and thus to fall short of the insight and joy that understanding ultimately yields. Nevertheless, something seems to be missing. I turn to a pair of novels by J. M. Coetzee to elucidate a significant though suppressed form of emotional loss that is integral to Spinoza’s image of the philosophical life.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Book Section |
|---|---|
| Keyword(s) / Subject(s): | Spinoza, David Sedley, Plato, Coetzee, Jesus Christ, self-transformation, affective loss |
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Historical Studies |
| Depositing User: | Susan James |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Sep 2018 09:49 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 17:43 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/23695 |
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