History of Modern Philosophy Group Talk (Ursula Renz, Karl-Franzens-University, Graz, Austria)

The History of Philosophy Group is pleased to welcome guest speaker Ursula Renz, a professor of Philosophy at Karl-Franzens-University in Graz, Austria. Dr. Renz teaches classes in the history of philosophy (with an emphasis on early modern philosophy to Kant) and on themes in epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, moral psychology. Her major research focuses on early modern philosophy (Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Shaftesbury), Kant, the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism (Cohen, Natorp, Cassirer), and the history of analytic philosophy, as well as on the emotions, self-knowledge, and the nature of metaphysics and its relation to epistemology. She chairs the section of the History of Philosophy at the Institute of Philosophy, and also serves as chair of the Alexius-Meinong-Institute and leader of the FWF-project “Spinoza and the Concept of the Human Life Form.”

Join the meeting: email Robbie Matyasi for a link.

Talk Title

Belief, Sensation, Belief! Spinoza on an Essentially Human Mental State

Talk Abstract

In my book The Explainability of Experience I have already argued at length and by detailed close reading that, pace this understanding, the Ethics has room for finite subjects as well as for the many facets of people’s subjective experiences. However, I think more can be said about certain mental phenomena that are not just present in Spinoza’s system, but also play a certain role in the argument by which this system is established, and finally matter for any understanding of human live.

In my paper, I take a closer at one of these phenomena: belief. I shall begin by way of discussing a critique Fichte allegedly articulated against Spinoza system (1). Next, I elaborate on the metaphysics of belief and the way we have to comprehend it according to the Ethics (2). I then say a few words on the way belief is related with sensation in Spinoza (3), before I conclude with a short outlook on the role it plays in human life (4)

About the History of Philosophy Group

One of six departmental Research Interest Groups, the History of Philosophy Group is home to the History of Modern Philosophy Research Group, which focuses on the period, roughly, from Descartes to Kant.