There have been many Spinozas over the centuries: atheist, romantic pantheist, great thinker of the multitude, advocate of the liberated individual, and rigorous rationalist. The common thread connecting all of these clashing perspectives is Spinoza’s naturalism, the idea that humanity is part of nature, not above it.
In this sophisticated new interpretation of Spinoza’s iconoclastic philosophy, Hasana Sharp draws on his uncompromising naturalism to rethink human agency, ethics, and political practice. Sharp uses Spinoza to outline a practical wisdom of “renaturalization,” showing how ideas, actions, and institutions are never merely products of human intention or design, but outcomes of the complex relationships among natural forces beyond our control. This lack of a metaphysical or moral division between humanity and the rest of nature, Sharp contends, can provide the basis for an ethical and political practice free from the tendency to view ourselves as either gods or beasts.
Sharp’s groundbreaking argument critically engages with important contemporary thinkers—including deep ecologists, feminists, and race and critical theorists—making Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization vital for a wide range of scholars.
Author: Sharp Hasana
Publisher: CHICAGO UNIVERSITY PRESS
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9780226792484
Cover: Paperback
Edition Number: 1
Release Year: 2021
Ingredients
PART I RECONFIGURING THE HUMAN
1 Lines, Planes, and Bodies: Redefining Human Action Action as Affect The Transindividuality of Affect The Tongue
2 Renaturalizing Ideology: Spinoza’s Ecosystem of Ideas The Matrix Ideology Critique Today? The Fly in the Coach “I am in Ideology,” or The Attribute of Thought What Is to Be Done?
3 Man’s Utility to Man: Reason and Its Place in Nature The Politics of Human Nature Reason and the Human Essence Man’s Utility to Man Nonhuman Utility
PART II BEYOND THE IMAGE OF MAN
4 Desire for Recognition? Butler, Hegel, and Spinoza Spinoza in Hegel Desire in Hegel Conatus and Cupiditas in Spinoza From Interpersonal Recognition to Impersonal Glory Judith Butler’s Post-Hegelian Politics of Recognition
5 The Impersonal Is Political: Spinoza and a Feminist Politics of Imperceptibility The Politics of Recognition Elizabeth Grosz’s Critique of the Politics of Recognition Thinking beyond the (Hu)Man A Politics of Imperceptibility
6 Nature, Norms, and Beasts The Beast Within Animal Affects (and) the First Man Ethics as Ethology?
Works Cited Index
Hasana Sharp is assistant professor of philosophy at McGill University.
Description
There have been many Spinozas over the centuries: atheist, romantic pantheist, great thinker of the multitude, advocate of the liberated individual, and rigorous rationalist. The common thread connecting all of these clashing perspectives is Spinoza’s naturalism, the idea that humanity is part of nature, not above it.
In this sophisticated new interpretation of Spinoza’s iconoclastic philosophy, Hasana Sharp draws on his uncompromising naturalism to rethink human agency, ethics, and political practice. Sharp uses Spinoza to outline a practical wisdom of “renaturalization,” showing how ideas, actions, and institutions are never merely products of human intention or design, but outcomes of the complex relationships among natural forces beyond our control. This lack of a metaphysical or moral division between humanity and the rest of nature, Sharp contends, can provide the basis for an ethical and political practice free from the tendency to view ourselves as either gods or beasts.
Sharp’s groundbreaking argument critically engages with important contemporary thinkers—including deep ecologists, feminists, and race and critical theorists—making Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization vital for a wide range of scholars.
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