BdSpinoza

Sangiacomo over wat bij Spinoza mensen zijn

Gezien  vele vroegere blogs over Spinoza’s (weinig uitgewerkte) idee van de mens - én zijn gebruik van ‘essentie’-  signaleer ik hier een artikel dat enige jaren geleden verscheen van

Andrea Sangiacomo, “What are human beings? Essences and aptitudes in Spinoza’s anthropology.” In: Journal of Early Modern Studies, Volume 2, Issue 2 (Fall 2013), p. 78-100 [cf. academia.edu cf. ook books.google]

Abstract: Spinoza deals with humans and “human essence” but it is not clear how consistent his use of these notions is. The problem evoked by Spinoza’s anthropology concerns in turn the status of singular versus general essences and the relationship between those essences and their concrete condition of existence. In this paper, I propose to distinguish between these levels in order to argue that humanity exists insofar as different individuals can agree among themselves and become adapted to each other to live and operate together. Firstly, I examine Spinoza’s use of the term “aptus” in order to show that eternal singular essences can exist in different ways according to the extent they can be “adapted” to their environment, that is, to external causes. Secondly, I claim that “human essence” has to be understood as a general essence which therefore results from the “agreements” produced among certain singular essences. Thirdly, I argue that, contrary to the remarkable interpretation provided by Valtteri Viljanen, this ontological picture cannot be explained only by reference to formal causation but needs a genuine kind of efficient causation.

Sangiacomo doet een nieuwe poging om Spinoza’s idee over wat menselijk is te formuleren. Hij doet dat via het analyseren van hoe Spinoza de term ‘geschiktheid’/’aangepastheid’ (aptus) hanteert, waaruit hij afleidt dat, daar de externe oorzakelijke omstandigheden verschillen, een actueel bestaand individu zal veranderen.” Changing the influences the body receives from the outside also changes its greater or smaller aptitude to produce its effects. In other words, at each moment the essence and the effects it can produce remain the same. However, changing the environmental conditions, these effects are more or less checked by external causes; thus, the aptitude of the thing to produce these effects increases or decreases as well.” [p. 84] 
Maar die verandering werkt naar wee kanten: “the concept of aptitude conveys the extent to which a certain thing fits well in its environment, that is, the degree of agreement between its effects and those of the external causes.” [p.85}

Nergens geeft Spinoza een specificatie van wat menselijk is. Hem interesseert niet wat mensen onderscheidt van de rest van de natuur: ”humanity might be better understood not as a property that specific individuals independently instantiate, but rather as the way in which different individuals can be considered as parts of a certain whole.” [p. 87]

Menselijkheid is iets wat gradueel ontstaat. En daarom kan ‘t best op het hoogst haalbare niveau worden gefocused (model van de menselijke natuur; beschrijving van de vrije mens in 4/67-73);  although individuals are internally determined to strive to improve their power and rationality, the success of their striving always depends on fortune. [p. 91];  d.w.z. is afhankelijk van uitwendige oorzaken, die  affecten en passies veroorzaken. .

Zijn discussie met Valtteri Viljanen, maakt het stuk wat ingewikkelderdan het zonder die discussie zou zijn.

spinoza | 18-06-2017 | 17:41 | Link | Reacties (4)