Spiritual Automaton

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 <em>The Spiritual Automaton</em> illuminates Spinoza's systematic philosophical and ethical project as a whole as well as in its details in a striking new way.<br>