Dr
Peter Critchley is Alumnus van de Manchester Metropolitan University, Politics
and Philosophy,
Hij
schrijft over zichzelf op academia.edu waarnaar hij een behoorlijk groot aantal documenten
heeft geüpload:
Defining
politics in the ancient sense of creative self-realisation, Peter seeks to
realise the emancipatory themes contained in the 'Greco-Germanic’ tradition of
'rational freedom'. Originating in the critical appropriation of Plato and
Aristotle on the modern terrain by Rousseau, Kant, Fichte and Hegel, the
concept of ‘rational freedom’ is developed to affirm a socio-relational and
ethical conception of freedom in which individual liberty depends upon and is
constituted by the quality of relations with other individuals. Peter therefore
stresses the intertwining of ethics and politics within a conception of the
good life. Reason is developed in terms of its ethical component alongside its
technical component.
Peter
is now applying these themes to current environmental problems, developing the
idea of the Ecopolis in terms of a moral ecology.
Supervisors:
Professor Jules Townshend 1995-2001, Gary Banham en Lawrence Wilde
Eén
van die documenten is:
Dr
Peter Critchley, SPINOZA AND THE RULE OF REASON [academia.edu]
Enige
citaten als mogelijke smaakmakers:
Spinoza
affirmed no mindbody dualism; and claims that Spinoza makes for reason embrace
both mind and body. From this perspective, Spinoza shows that theory is a
pointless and delusive endeavour when detached from the body. In a condition of
mind-body dualism, concepts necessarily falsify the nature of lived experience.
Spinoza’s rationalism is not an abstracted theoreticism prioritising the mind
but affirms that the only reality is that of the body as a complex ensemble of
drives, impulses and ‘desiring machines’. Thus ‘whatsoever increases or
diminishes, helps or hinders the power of activity in our body, the idea
thereof increases or diminishes, helps or hinders, the power of thought in our
mind’ (E II, P 2 note). [p. 6]
Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ
In particular, the Aristotelian roots of Spinoza’s philosophy will be
highlighted through the influence of Averroes and Avicenna. [p. 9]
Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ
Spinoza
can be seen as the realisation of the grand claims of classical philosophy,
unravelling the controversies and antinomies of medieval thought to reconcile
an Aristotelian theology with modern science. In this sense, Spinoza gave the
modern scientific world a conception of human nature and of human happiness
that served to vindicate the life of contemplation which for Aristotle was the
highest good for man within a modern scientific understanding of the world as
subject to human instrumental change and transformation. [10]
Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ
Ironically,
Spinoza’s boldness in demonstrating philosophically the extent to which the
rational method contradicted religious orthodoxy can make it appear that his
work possesses a more religious, theological and, indeed, medieval character
than that of the more modern and scientific work of Descartes and Leibniz. The
truth is that the more worldly, ambitious and hence cautious Descartes and
Leibniz pulled their punches with respect to religion maintain an orthodoxy in
public which enabled them to retain their positions with a minimum of
controversy. In contrast, it is Spinoza’s determination to address the weightiest
of theological and political issues in his ethics that gives his work a much
greater depth, surviving the vicissitudes of scientific advance. [p. 14]
Φ Φ Φ Φ Φ
To
previous philosophers, the ontological argument demonstrated that at least one thing [God] exists.
Spinoza’s originality lies in demonstrating that the argument shows that at most one thing, and hence that
everything which exists is, in some sense, ‘in’ God. [p.17]
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten