Services on Demand
Journal
Article
text new page (beta)
English (pdf)
Article in xml format
Article references
Automatic translation
Send this article by e-mailIndicators
-
Cited by SciELO -
Access statistics
Related links
-
Similars in
SciELO
Share
Permalink
Tópicos (México)
Print version ISSN 0188-6649
Tópicos (México) n.32 México Jul. 2007
https://doi.org/10.21555/top.v32i1.174
Artículos
Under the Aspect of Eternity: Thinking Freedom in Spinoza’s Ethics
* University of Oregon, USA. E-mail: aarola@uoregon.edu.
This paper offers an interpretation of the role of freedom in Spinoza’s Ethics. Given that Spinoza is usually thought of as a thinker of determinism (or better: necessity), I explain how his thinking of freedom only makes sense insofar as one recognizes the importance of what he describes as the three kinds of knowing, in relation to the affects. The difference between freedom and slavery lies in how one receives and interprets the affects, i.e. the force of the external world. To affirm the necessity of your disposition and thrownness is to take part in the free necessity that Spinoza describes.
Key words: freedom; Spinoza; Schelling
El artículo ofrece una interpretación del papel de la libertad en la Ética de Spinoza. Considerando que Spinoza es conocido como un pensador del determinismo (o mejor, de la necesidad), el autor explica cómo su pensamiento sobre la libertad sólo cobra sentido si se reconoce la importancia de lo que describe como los tres tipos de conocimiento, en relación a los afectos. La diferencia entre la libertad y la esclavitud descansa en cómo se reciben e interpretan estos afectos, i.e. la fuerza del mundo exterior. Afirmar la necesidad de nuestra disposición y arrojamiento es tomar parte de la libre necesidad que Spinoza describe.
Palabras clave: libertad; Spinoza; Schelling
References
Allison, Henry, (1987). Benedict di Spinoza: An Introduction. New Haven: Yale University Press. [ Links ]
Deleuze, Gilles, (1988). Spinoza and Practical Philosophy. R. Hurley (trans.) San Francisco: City Lights Press. [ Links ]
______ (1990). Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza. M. Joughin (trans.) New York: Zone Books. [ Links ]
Di Spinoza, Benedict, (1994). A Spinoza Reader: The Ethics and Other Works. E. Curley (trans. & ed.) Princeton: Princeton University Press. [ Links ]
Heidegger, Martin, (1996). Hölderlin’s Hymn “Der Ister”. W. McNeill y J. Davis (trans.) Indianapolis and Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [ Links ]
______ (2000). Introduction to Metaphysics. R. Polt y G. Fried (trans.) New Haven: Yale University Press. [ Links ]
Klein, Julie, (2002). By “Eternity I Understand: Eternity According to Spinoza”. En The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly, 51. [ Links ]
Malpas, Jeff, (2006). Heidegger’s Topology: Being, Place, World. Cambridge: MIT Press. [ Links ]
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, (2003). Nature: Course Notes from the College of France. D. Séglard (ed.) R. Vallier (trans.) Evanston: Northwestern University Press. [ Links ]
Schelling, F. W. J. (1997). Über das Wesen der menschlichen Freiheit. T. Buchheim (ed.) Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag. [ Links ]
Schmidt, Dennis, (2005). Lyrical and Ethical Subjects: Essays on the Periphery of the Word, Freedom, and History. Albany: State University of New York Press. [ Links ]
Volpi, Franco, (1994). “Being and Time: A ‘Translation’ of the Nichomachean Ethics?” En Reading Heidegger from the Start: Essays on his Earliest Thought. T. Kisiel y J. Van Buren (eds.) Albany: State University of New York Press. [ Links ]
Žižek, Slavoj, (1999). The Ticklish Subject: The Absent Centre of Political Ontology. London and New York: Verso Press. [ Links ]
Received: March 15, 2007; Accepted: June 27, 2007
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
