Nature and Necessity in Spinoza's Philosophy

Spinoza's guiding commitment to the thesis that nothing exists or occurs outside of the scope of nature and its necessary laws makes him one of the great seventeenth-century exemplars of both philosophical naturalism and explanatory rationalism. Nature and Necessity in Spinoza's Philosophy brings together for the first time eighteen of Don Garrett's articles on Spinoza's philosophy ranging over the fields of metaphysics epistemology philosophy of mind ethics and political philosophy. <p/>Taken together these influential articles provide a comprehensive interpretation of that philosophy including Spinoza's theories of substance thought and extension causation truth knowledge individuation representation consciousness conatus teleology emotion freedom responsibility virtue contract the state and eternity-and the deep interrelations among them. Each article aims to resolve significant problems in the understanding of Spinoza's philosophy in such a way as to make evident both his reasons for his views and the enduring value of his ideas. At the same time Garrett's articles elucidate the relations between his philosophy and those of predecessors and contemporaries like Aristotle Hobbes Descartes Locke and Leibniz. Lastly the volume offers important and substantial replies to leading critics on four crucial topics: the necessary existence of God (Nature) substance monism necessitarianism and consciousness.<br>