Spinoza on method and freedom

dc.check.chapterOfThesis
dc.check.date10000-01-01
dc.check.embargoformatE-thesis on CORA onlyen
dc.check.entireThesisEntire Thesis Restricted
dc.check.infoIndefiniteen
dc.check.opt-outNot applicableen
dc.check.reasonThis thesis is due for publication or the author is actively seeking to publish this materialen
dc.contributor.advisorDockstader, Jasonen
dc.contributor.authorBegley, Bartholomew
dc.contributor.funderIrish Research Councilen
dc.date.accessioned2015-11-27T10:02:37Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.date.submitted2015
dc.description.abstractThe thesis as a whole argues that Spinoza’s Ethics in both method and content is aimed at the normal, partly rational person. Chapter 1 is on Spinoza’s writing style, finding that rather than being arid and technical, it aims to convince the reader by means of various rhetorical techniques, so does not assume an already rational reader. The following chapters of Part 1 examine whether the Ethics’ use of the synthetic geometric method exposes it to Descartes’ critique of that method in the “Second Replies” to his Meditations, that it is not suitable for pedagogy. This involves a consideration of the role of the TIE, finding in that early text not the analytic wing of a two-part analytic-synthetic method, but rather a defence and necessitation of a stand-alone synthetic method. Part 2 of the thesis develops this study of Spinoza’s writing for the common man to consider whether he is writing about the common man. This is done by examining one of the seemingly most abstract propositions in the Ethics, 4P72, which claims that a free man will not deceive even to save his own life. The study examines who exactly is this “free man” and what is his role in the Ethics. The study looks at the examples of free men in the TTP and at the concept of the model in the Ethics, and finds that rather than the free man being an impossible ideal which we can aim at but never achieve, everyone is free to some extent, and that even normal people are at times “the free man”.en
dc.description.sponsorshipIrish Research Council (Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship)en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Version
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationBegley, B. 2015. Spinoza on method and freedom. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.en
dc.identifier.endpage201
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/2109
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2015, Bartholomew Begley.en
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/en
dc.subjectSpinozaen
dc.subjectSynthetic and analytic methodsen
dc.subjectFreedom and the free manen
dc.thesis.opt-outfalse
dc.titleSpinoza on method and freedomen
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD (Arts)en
ucc.workflow.supervisorj.dockstader@ucc.ie
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