Why speaking of an union body/mind in Spinoza?

Authors

  • Chantal Jaquet

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14232/kulonbseg.2021.21.1.301

Keywords:

Spinoza Union Body Mind

Abstract

The paper examines the reasons why Spinoza speaks of an union body/mind instead of an unity. Indeed, according to Ethics II, XXI, scholium, « the mind and the body are one and the same individual, which is conceived now under the attribute of thought, now under the attribute of extension ». The term union implies the conjunction of two things and seems paradoxical because we deal with one and the same individual. Therefore it involves analysing the new meaning of the psychophysical union first, then showing the persistence of a classical meaning of the union concerning not so much the intermodal relation between body and mind as the intramodal relation between their parts.

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Author Biography

Chantal Jaquet

Professor at the Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, specialist in the history of early modern philosophy (mainly Spinoza and Bacon), the philosophy of the body (particularly the sense of smell) and social philosophy (class-passing). For the past twenty years he has been the Director of an international research seminar on Spinoza at the Sorbonne. He is the editor of the series “Les Anciens et les Modernes”, published by Éditions Classiques Garnier. His main publications include Spinoza ou la Prudence (Paris: Editions Quintette, 1997, Éditions du retour, 2019); Sub specie aeternitatis. Étude des concepts de temps, durée et éternité chez Spinoza. (Éditions Kimé, 1997; 2nd ed., Classiques Garnier, 2015); L’unité du corps et de l’esprit. Affects, actions passions chez Spinoza. (Paris: PUF, 2004, 2015); Les expressions de la puissance d’agir chez Spinoza. (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2005); Philosophie de l’odorat (Paris: PUF, 2010); Bacon et la promotion des savoirs (Paris: PUF, 2010; Les transclasses ou la non reproduction (Paris: PUF, 2014); Spinoza à l’œuvre (Publications de la Sorbonne, 2017); Philosophie du kôdô, l’esthétique japonaise des fragrances (Paris: Vrin, 2018).

The Union of Body and Mind in Early Modern Philosophy

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Published

2022-03-11

How to Cite

Jaquet, C. (2022). Why speaking of an union body/mind in Spinoza?. Különbség (Difference), 21(1), 35–47. https://doi.org/10.14232/kulonbseg.2021.21.1.301

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 1 (2021): The Union of Body and Mind in Early Modern Philosophy

Section

Union of Body and Mind in Early Modern Philosophy