Role of Contradictions in Spinoza's Philosophy

<p>Spinoza is commonly perceived as the great metaphysician of coherence. The Euclidean manner in which he presented his philosophy in the <i>Ethics </i>has led readers to assume they are facing a strict and consistent philosophical system that necessarily follows from itself.</p><p>As opposed to the prevailing understanding of Spinoza and his work, <i>The Role of Contradictions in Spinoza's Philosophy</i> explores an array of profound and pervasive contradictions in Spinoza’s system and argues they are deliberate and constitutive of his philosophical thinking and the notion of God at its heart. Relying on a meticulous and careful reading of the <i>Theological-Political Treatise</i> and the <i>Ethics</i>, this book reconstructs Spinoza's philosophy of contradictions as a key to the ascending three degrees of knowledge leading to the <i>Amor intellectualis Dei</i>.</p><p>Offering an exciting and clearly-argued interpretation of Spinoza’s philosophy, this book will interest students and scholars of modern philosophy and philosophy of religion, as well as Jewish studies.</p><p>Yuval Jobani is Assistant Professor at the Department of Hebrew Culture Studies and the School of Education at Tel-Aviv University.</p> <p>Introduction <strong>Part I. Revised Religion: On the Contradiction in the Concept of God in the First Kind of Knowledge </strong> 1 Moral or Political Religion? On the Contradiction Between the Two Models of revised Religion in the TTP <strong>Part II. The Contradiction in the Concept of God in the Second Kind of Knowledge</strong> 2 Spinoza’s Conception of Causality and the First Two Contradictions in the System: (1) Infiniteness <em>or </em>Finiteness (2) Immanence <em>or</em> Transcendence 3 The Contradictions Regarding the Essence and Perfection of the Things that Follow from God 4 The Contradiction between Static Unity and Dynamic Multiplicity in Existence 5 The Conatus of God and the Five Contradiction Embedded Within It (1) Static - Dynamic (2) Efficient Causality - Final Causality (3) Substance - Mode (4) Finiteness - Infiniteness (5) The Contradiction Between Good and Evil in God 6 Eternity and Time: The Contradiction and the Circularity <strong>Part III. The Contradiction in the Concept of God in the Third Kind of Knowledge</strong> 7 The Philosopher and the Grain Merchant: On Contradiction and its Concealment in the Spinoza-Blijenbergh Letters 8 The Intellectual Love of God and the Contradiction between the Internal and External Causes in God</p>