Spinoza and Art
Literature and the Art of Living
Moira Gatens author Anthony Uhlmann author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Edinburgh University Press
Publishing:31st Oct '26
£95.00
This title is due to be published on 31st October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
Against the mainstream view, Gatens and Uhlmann argue that Spinoza’s philosophy can significantly contribute to understandings of art, creativity and the central place of the imagination in human wellbeing. This perspective shows how concepts essential to Spinoza’s philosophy, such as ingenium, the exemplar and the theory of the affects illuminate how works of art and literature make essential contributions to human thriving. They consider case studies of major English authors who were negatively or positively influenced by Spinoza, including Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Percy and Mary Shelley, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf.
This is a pathbreaking work that demonstrates, with exemplary clarity and expertise, how Spinoza’s unique ars vivendi takes shape directly in relationship to art and fiction. Gatens and Uhlmann deliver a brilliant and original account of the role that imagination, fiction, and the passions play in Spinoza’s philosophy—that is to say, they rethink Spinoza’s rationalism tout court to show how his truly viable approach to art bears on our theory and experience of art and literature, directly or by way of cherished authors like Swift, Defoe, Eliot, and Woolf. -- Russ Leo, Princeton University
ISBN: 9781399570213
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
320 pages