Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b6zl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-15T10:59:09.524Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

40. - Consciousness

from C

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

By
Michael LeBuffe
Edited by
Karolina Hübner  and
Justin Steinberg
Karolina Hübner
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Justin Steinberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

Spinoza devotes Parts 2–5 of the Ethics to the human mind and features of human mentality – the affects, human bondage to passion, and its mitigation – that hold special interest. While we may today take the characterization of consciousness to be one of the fundamental tasks of the philosophy of mind, consciousness is not a focal point of the Ethics. Critical debate continues over the questions of what Spinoza’s views on consciousness are, whether those views are coherent, and, indeed, whether Spinoza has views about consciousness at all.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon , pp. 99 - 102
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Recommended Reading

Curley, E. (1969). Spinoza’s Metaphysics: An Essay in Interpretation. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garber, D. (2021). Spinoza’s non-theory of non-consciousness. In Melamed, Y. (ed.), A Companion to Spinoza (pp. 304–27). Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Garrett, D. (2008). Representation and consciousness in Spinoza’s naturalistic theory of the imagination. In Huenemann, C. (ed.), Interpreting Spinoza: Critical Essays (pp. 4–25). Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeBuffe, M. (2010). Theories about consciousness in Spinoza’s Ethics. Philosophical Review, 119(4), 531–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, J. (2007). The status of consciousness in Spinoza’s concept of mind. In Heinämaa, L., Lähteenmäki, V., and Remes, P. (eds.), Consciousness: From Perception to Reflection in the History of Philosophy (pp. 203–20). Springer.Google Scholar
Nadler, S. (2008). Spinoza and consciousness. Mind, 117, 575–601.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marrama, O. (2017). Consciousness, ideas of ideas and animation in Spinoza’s Ethics. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 25(3), 506–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, M. D. (1980). Objects, ideas and “minds”: Comments on Spinoza’s theory of mind. In Kennington, R. (ed.), The Philosophy of Baruch Spinoza (pp. 103–20). Catholic University of America Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×