Robinson, Thaddeus Steven (Author)
Purdue University (Lafayette, Indiana)
Cover, Jan
Edition Details: Advisor: Cover, Jan
Physical Details: 191 pp.
Language: English
Descartes, Gassendi, Galileo, Boyle, Spinoza, and Hobbes, among many others, were adherents of what Boyle called "the mechanical philosophy". According to the mechanical philosophy, the explanation for all natural phenomena is found in the various motions and collisions of insensible particles of matter. The first half of the 17 th Century saw a number of efforts to systematize the mechanical philosophy by providing it with a solid metaphysical foundation. In his Principles of Philosophy Descartes put forth perhaps the most successful and influential of these early efforts. Spinoza, like many of his contemporaries, was impressed with Descartes' system; nevertheless, he was convinced of the inadequacy of the underlying metaphysics. The basic tools of mechanistic explanation are matter and motion, and any attempt to systematize the mechanical philosophy must offer accounts of each of these tools. It was with Descartes' account of precisely these tools that Spinoza took issue. In my dissertation I argue that much of what is distinctive about Spinoza's metaphysics arose, at least partially, as the result of Spinoza's efforts to replace Descartes' suspect metaphysics of matter and the relation between matter and motion, with philosophically adequate accounts. I begin in chapter one by offering a characterization of 17 th Century mechanism in general. I then turn to Descartes' specific interpretation of mechanism and metaphysics which underlie it by taking a close look at the first two books of Descartes' Principles of Philosophy. Last, I show Spinoza's commitment to Descartes' account of mechanism. In chapter two I present and critically evaluate Spinoza's criticisms of Descartes' account of matter. I show that Spinoza offers two arguments for the conclusion that Descartes' account can't be right, and that the lesson he draws is that no corporeal substance is (i) composed of really distinct parts, (ii) a body, despite the fact that it is extended and (iii) as such, Descartes is wrong to think that the essence of body is extension. In chapter three I argue that these considerations lead Spinoza to maintain that regions of extension, as opposed to bodies, are the subjects of motion and that the essence of body is extension in motion. I make this case by offering a novel interpretation of what Spinoza refers to as "the immediate infinite mode of extension". Perhaps the chief obstacle to understanding Spinoza's substance monism is accounting for the relation between bodies and the one extended substance. I argue in chapter four that Spinoza avoids the problems with Descartes' account of matter by adopting the Scholastic-Aristotelian idea of a posterior part to account for the relation between bodies and extension. In the final chapter I turn to Spinoza's resolution of the tension between mechanical and theological explanation. The explanations the mechanical philosophy seeks to offer take the form of showing that any particular observable phenomenon is the effect of a series of causal relations obtaining between particles of matter. However, on its face, this view conflicts with the traditional theological commitment that God is the sole cause and author of all things, a view to which Spinoza adheres. In chapter five, I argue that Spinoza is a concurrentist, and as a result resolves this problem by maintaining that instances of secondary causation are instances in which God and finite modes concur in causing an effect. In making this case I outline Spinoza's unique account of force and show how, according to Spinoza, it grounds the laws of nature.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 68/12 (2008). Pub. no. AAT 3291072.
Similar Citations
Article
Janiak, Andrew;
(2010)
Substance and Action in Descartes and Newton
(/isis/citation/CBB001221446/)
Article
Galen Barry;
(2021)
Spinoza on the Resistance of Bodies
(/isis/citation/CBB170992423/)
Article
Palmerino, Carla Rita;
(2011)
The Isomorphism of Space, Time and Matter in Seventeenth-Century Natural Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB001220180/)
Article
Christophe Schmit;
(2015)
Les dynamiques de Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan
(/isis/citation/CBB695462531/)
Article
Carraud, Vincent;
(2005)
Approfondir trop et parler de tout: Les Principia philosophiae dans les Pensées (note complémentaire sur “Disproportion de l'homme”)
(/isis/citation/CBB000670887/)
Article
Rodolfo Garau;
(2016)
Springs, Nitre, and Conatus. The Role of the Heart in Hobbes's Physiology and Animal Locomotion
(/isis/citation/CBB028109372/)
Book
Woolhouse, R.S.;
(1993)
Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz: The concept of substance in 17th-century metaphysics
(/isis/citation/CBB000047297/)
Book
Ariew, Roger;
(2011)
Descartes among the Scholastics
(/isis/citation/CBB001500336/)
Chapter
Garber, Daniel;
(2007)
Mécanisme et morale: la mort du corps et l'éternité de l'esprit chez Spinoza
(/isis/citation/CBB001022505/)
Article
Messeri, Marco;
(1984)
Il corpo singolo nella teoria fisica della materia di Spinoza ed in quella di Descartes
(/isis/citation/CBB000061303/)
Article
Henry, John;
(2004)
Metaphysics and the Origins of Modern Science: Descartes and the Importance of Laws of Nature
(/isis/citation/CBB000502105/)
Article
Schuster, John A.;
Brody, Judit;
(2013)
Descartes and Sunspots: Matters of Fact and Systematizing Strategies in the Principia Philosophiae
(/isis/citation/CBB001252175/)
Thesis
di Poppa, Francesca;
(2006)
“God Acts from the Laws of His Nature Alone”: From the nihil ex nihilo Axiom to Causation as Expression in Spinoza's Metaphysics
(/isis/citation/CBB001561489/)
Thesis
Lin, Martin Thomas;
(2001)
Spinoza's Theory of Desire
(/isis/citation/CBB001560516/)
Thesis
Elliott, Michelle Adrienne;
(2003)
Spinoza's Metaphysics and its Place in Early Modern Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB001562303/)
Chapter
Morris, Kathryn;
(2007)
Descartes and Hobbes on the Physics and Metaphysics of Resistance
(/isis/citation/CBB001035321/)
Thesis
Melamed, Yitzhak Y.;
(2005)
The Metaphysics of Substance and the Metaphysics of Thought in Spinoza
(/isis/citation/CBB001561859/)
Book
Smith, Kurt;
(2010)
Matter Matters: Metaphysics and Methodology in the Early Modern Period
(/isis/citation/CBB001251421/)
Article
Paola Rumore;
(2016)
Mechanism and Materialism in Early Modern German Philosophy
(/isis/citation/CBB613435200/)
Book
Garber, Daniel;
(2009)
Leibniz: Body, Substance, Monad
(/isis/citation/CBB001032997/)
Be the first to comment!