Title: An activity whereby the mind regards itself': Spinoza on consciousness
Variant title:
- Činnost, při které mysl nahlíží sebe samu: Spinoza o vědomí
Source document: Pro-Fil. 2018, vol. 19, iss. 2, pp. 2-11
Extent
2-11
-
ISSN1212-9097 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/pf18-2-1849
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/138759
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Baruch Spinoza's philosophy of mind stirs up the disputes about the nature of body-mind relations with its rigorous and naturalistic monism. The unity of body and mind is consequential of his metaphysics of the substance, but the concept of the unity of the mind and its idea rightfully confuses Spinoza's commentators. Many have been tempted to interpret this as a possible account of consciousness, but it still has not yet been fully understood. This paper attempts to introduce an interpretation of the concept of ideas of ideas with regards to consciousness based on strict ontological monism, conceptual dualism, and self-similarity architecture, which concludes in distinguishing mental and psychic reality. While we might attribute mental reality, or mentality, to every extended thing, psychic reality is constituted by conscious ideas. And it seems to follow from Spinoza's theory that the more 'psychic' the mind is, the more it knows God.
Filozofie mysli Barucha Spinozy svým rigorózním naturalistickým monismem podněcuje mnohé diskuze o povaze vztahu mysli a těla. Jednota mysli a těla je konsekventní jeho substanční metafyzice, avšak koncepce jednoty mysli a její ideje oprávněně mate Spinozovy komentátory. Mnozí z nich jsou nakloněni interpretovat tento koncept jako Spinozovu variaci na koncept (sebe)vědomí, přesto se však zdá, že jako takový ještě nebyl zcela adekvátně a celostně uchopen. Příspěvek představuje interpretaci konceptu idejí idejí v kontextu vědomí, přičemž metodologicky vychází z ontologického monismu, konceptuálního dualismu a sebe-opakující se architektury mysli a zahrnuje logické vyvození možné diferenciace mentální a psychické reality. Zatímco mentální realitu neboli mentalitu je možné na základě Spinozova učení připisovat každé rozprostraněné věci, psychická realita neboli psychika je konstituována vědomými idejemi. Ze Spinozova učení přitom také vyplývá, že čím více psychiky jednotlivá věc "má", tím více poznává Boha.
References
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[4] Damasio, A. (2003): Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain. William Heinemann.
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[8] Garrett, D. (2008): Representation and consciousness in Spinoza's naturalistic theory of the imagination, in Huenemann, Ch. (ed.) Interpreting Spinoza: Critical Essays, Cambridge University Press, 4‒25.
[9] Hӧfer, B. (2007): Rethinking legacies: Descartes, Spinoza, and contemporary articulations of the conscious mind, Seventeenth-Century French Studies, 29(1), 51‒61. | DOI 10.1179/175226907X187537
[10] Jobani, Y. (2016): The Role of Contradictions in Spinoza's Philosophy: The God-intoxicated Heretic. Routledge.
[11] Jung, C. G. – Pauli, W. (1955): The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche. Pantheon Books.
[12] LeBuffe, M. (2010): Theories about consciousness in Spinoza's Ethics, Philosophical Review 119(4), 531‒563. | DOI 10.1215/00318108-2010-013
[13] Marrama, O. (2017): Consciousness, ideas of ideas and animation in Spinoza's Ethics, British Journal for the History of Philosophy 25(3), 506‒525. | DOI 10.1080/09608788.2017.1322038
[14] Martin, Ch. (2007): Consciousness in Spinoza's philosophy of mind, The Southern Journal of Philosophy 45(2), 269‒287. | DOI 10.1111/j.2041-6962.2007.tb00052.x
[15] Miller, J. (2007): The status of consciousness in Spinoza's concept of mind, in S. Heinämaa – V. Lähteenmäki – P. Remes (eds.) Consciousness: From Perception to Reflection in the History of Philosophy, Springer, 203‒220.
[16] Nadler, S. (2008): Spinoza and consciousness, Mind 117(467), 575‒601. | DOI 10.1093/mind/fzn048
[17] Ravven, H. M. (2003): Did Spinoza get Ethics right? Some insights from recent neuroscience, in Cook, T. J. – Rice, L. (eds.) Studia Spinozana, Vol. 14 (1998): Spinoza on Mind and Body, Kӧnigshausen & Neumann, 56‒91.
[18] Spinoza, B. (1914): Ethica ordine geometrico demonstrata. Martinus Nijhoff.
[19] Spinoza, B. (2002): Ethics, in Spinoza, B. Complete Works, Hackett Publishing, 213‒382.
[20] Tippelt, H. (2010): Vztah ideje a afektu u Spinozy: inkrementálně-holistická interpretace. Filozofická fakulta Univerzity J. E. Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem.
[21] Tippelt, H. (2015): Výklad afektů: k filosofickým otázkám psychologické práce s nevědomím. Filozofická fakulta Univerzity J. E. Purkyně v Ústí nad Labem.