Eugene Marshall presents an original, systematic account of
Spinoza's philosophy of mind, in which the mind is presented as an
affective mechanism, one that, when rational, behaves as a
spiritual automaton. The central feature of the account is a novel
concept of consciousness, one that identifies consciousness with
affectivity, a property of an idea paradigmatically but not
exhaustively instantiated by those modes of thought Spinoza calls
affects. Inadequate and adequate ideas come to consciousness, and
thus impact our well-being and establish or disturb our happiness,
only insofar as they become affects and, thus, conscious. And ideas
become affects by entering into appropriate causal relations with
the other ideas that constitute a mind. Furthermore, the topic of
consciousness in Spinoza provides an eminently well-placed point of
entry into his system, because it flows directly out of his central
metaphysical, epistemological, and psychological commitments-and it
does so in a way that allows us to see Spinoza's philosophy as a
systematic whole. Further, doing so provides a thoroughly
consistent yet novel way of thinking about central themes in his
thought. Marshall's reading provides a novel understanding of
adequacy, innateness, power, activity and passivity, the affects,
the conatus, bondage, freedom, the illusion of free will, akrasia,
blessedness, salvation, and the eternity of the soul. In short, by
explaining the affective mechanisms of consciousness in Spinoza,
The Spiritual Automaton illuminates Spinoza's systematic
philosophical and ethical project as a whole, as well as in its
details, in a striking new way.
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