Overview

From his geometrical method to his geometrical examples; from his doctrine of reason to his explanation of bodies in motion; and from his account of the affects to his understanding of social relations, ratio is of prime importance in Spinoza's philosophy. These 11 essays explore the surprisingly varied dimensions of this unacknowledged keystone of Spinoza's thought. They take you from Spinoza's geometrical diagrams to his concepts of mind, body, the emotions, and the cosmos. It shows how Spinoza's thinking about ratio influences the concept of proportion in Gulliver's Travels, the differential ontology of Deleuze, egalitarian design for wellbeing, and the notion of an affective architecture.

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9781474455879

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"Readers will learn from this book that a philosophy of ratio is not to be conflated with a rationalist philosophy. The authors draw on the three senses of ratio - reason, relation and proportion - to explore their interdependence and, crucially, the emergent and constructed conatus towards equality and wellbeing. This valuable book demonstrates that empiricism and rationalism need not be opposed.-- ""Andrej Radman, Delft University of Technology"" This volume represents an important collective re-thinking of Spinoza's key concept of ratio. Along with new interpretations of his treatment of the relations between reason and emotion, it offers fascinating insights into the relevance of his philosophy for understanding contemporary issues in relation to artistic practice, architecture and the built environment.-- ""Genevieve Lloyd, Emeritus Professor in Philosophy, University of New South Wales"""

Author Information

Beth Lord is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen. She is the author of Kant and Spinozism: Transcendental Idealism and Immanence from Jacobi to Deleuze (2011) and Spinoza's Ethics: an Edinburgh Philosophical Guide (2010), and editor of Spinoza Beyond Philosophy (2012) and the Bloomsbury Companion to Continental Philosophy (2009).

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