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.
