Spinoza and Medieval Jewish Philosophy, AS.150.

492
Instructor: John Brandau Office Hours: TBA and by appointment Email: jbranda1@jhu.edu Time: TTH 12:00pm-1:15pm Place: Gilman 288

Course Description:
The course is an in-depth study of Spinozas Ethics. We will go through the main metaphysical and moral doctrines of the Ethics and discuss recent interpretative controversies. Special attention will be given to the influence of medieval Jewish philosophy, and the way it illuminates our understanding of Spinozas philosophy.

Course Requirements:
1. Weekly response papers and active participation in the seminar (30%). 2. One 5-6 page essay due at mid-term (30%). 3. One 10-12 page essay due at the end of reading period (40%).

Reading Materials:
1. A Spinoza Reader, edited by Edwin Curley, Princeton University Press

(=SR). 2. Electronic readings made available through Blackboard.

Weekly Response Papers:

The primary purpose of these papers is to encourage regular critical engagement with the texts. By reading actively and responding to the texts, you will derive a much greater benefit from the material, and these papers can often serve as a springboard for topics of the longer assignments. They also provide me with the opportunity to gauge how your understanding of the material is coming along, and they provide a natural starting point for class discussions. These papers should be approximately 2 pages each (double-spaced, 12-point font, Times New Roman, one inch margins), and they must be submitted by email (as a .doc or .docx file) no later than 7pm each Monday (beginning in the second week of classes). They should respond to some particular issue, argument, or question (etc.) raised in the readings (primary or secondary), and show your own critical engagement with the text. When submitting your weekly response papers, please make sure to title the file according to the following format: [Last Name], WRP, MM/DD/YYYY (e.g. Brandau, WRP, 09/10/2012). You may skip two of these papers without penalty. I expect you to demonstrate some degree of understanding of the material, but by no means do I expect you to have it all figured out. I encourage you to take an exploratory approach in these papers. You might raise a question and consider possible answers, or attempt to reconstruct and criticize or make suggestions to improve an argument, for example. In these papers, you need not have a thesis or reach definite conclusions, but I do expect them to be clearly and thoughtfully written.

Essay Assignments:
Like the weekly response papers, your essays should be double-spaced, in 12-point font, Times New Roman, with one inch margins, and submitted by email as a .doc or .docx file. When submitting your essays, please make sure to title the file according to the following format: [Last Name], Essay # (e.g. Brandau, Essay 1). When assessing your essays I look for (1) understanding of the relevant arguments and concepts based on reading and class attendance, (2) a brief but clear thesis statement indicating what is at issue and how you intend to tackle it, (3) clear, logical development of your argumentincluding consistency of your conclusion with the body of the paper, and when relevant, (4) good style, absence of grammatical and typographical errors, and proper documentation. An excellent source for more detailed advice on writing a philosophical essay can be found at the following website: http://www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/writing.html#PhilPaper. One thing to note is that, because this is a course in the history of philosophy, greater emphasis will be placed on developing and defending your interpretation of philosophers views through appropriate reference to the text than is perhaps typical in other philosophy courses (the section, Presenting and Assessing the Views of Others from the above website can be helpful in this regard). At the same time, developing and defending your own response to the views under discussion remains very important. Of course, if you encounter any questions during the writing process that you would like to discuss, I encourage you to come in during my office hours or email me to schedule an appointment. Tentative Order of Topics and Readings (I will announce the readings for each week in class. Readings outside of the Spinoza Reader [SR] will be posted on Blackboard):
1.

Introduction: Spinozas Life and his Excommunication from the Jewish Community Klever, Spinozas Life and Works [Blackboard] Popkin, "Spinoza's Excommunication" [Blackboard]

2. Substance and Mode 2.1 Spinoza's Views on the Nature of Definitions TIE 91-104 [SR 51-55] Letter 4 [SR 69-71] Letters 8-10 [SR 77-82] Letter 60 [Blackboard] Short Treatise, Book 1, Chapter 7, "Of Attributes Which Do Not Pertain To God" [Blackboard] E2d2 Parkinson, "Definition, Essence, and Understanding in Spinoza" [Blackboard] 2.2 The Relationship between Substance and Mode E1d1-E1p1 Hebrew Grammar, chapters 5 and 33 [Blackboard]

Melamed, "Spinoza's Metaphysics of Substance" [Blackboard] Wolfson, 1:61-78 [Blackboard] Harvey, "Spinoza's Metaphysical Hebraism" [Blackboard] 3. Attributes and the Nature of God E1d1-E1p10 3.1 Subjective and Objective Interpretations Wolfson, 1:142-53 [Blackboard] Haserot, "Spinoza's Definition of 'Attribute'" [Blackboard] Shein, "On the False Dichotomy between Subjective and Objective Interpretations of Spinoza's Theory of Attributes" [Blackboard] 3.2 The "No Shared Attribute Thesis" E1p5, E1p8 Garrett, "Ethics 1P5: Shared Attributes and the Basis of Spinoza's Monism" [Blackboard] Della Rocca, "Spinoza's Substance Monism" [Blackboard] 3.3 The Independence and Parallelism of the Attributes E1p10, E2pref-E2p13 Della Rocca, Representation and the Mind-Body Problem in Spinoza, 9-43 [Blackboard] Wolfson, 2:8-33 [Blackboard] Maimonides, Guide, 1:68 [Blackboard] 3.4 The Unity of God E1d6, E1p10, E1p12-13, E2p7 Wolfson, 1:153-157 [Blackboard] Maimonides, Guide, 1:50-60 [Blackboard] Rudavsky, 36-48 [Blackboard] 4. Arguments for the Existence of God 4.1 Spinoza's Arguments E1p7, E1p11, E1p14 Garrett, "Spinoza's 'Ontological' Argument" [Blackboard] 4.2 Maimonides' Arguments Maimonides, Guide, 2: Introduction and chapter 1 [Blackboard] Stern, Maimonides Demonstrations: Principles and Practice [Blackboard] 5. Necessitarianism and Freedom 5.1 Spinoza Ethics, Part 1 Letters 57-8 [SR 266-269] Garrett, Spinozas Necessitarianism [Blackboard] Curley and Walski, Spinozas Necessitarianism Reconsidered [Blackboard] Wolfson, 1:308-18, 400-22 [Blackboard] 5.2 Maimonides Maimonides, Guide, 2.48 [Blackboard]

Sokol, "Maimonides on Freedom of the Will and Moral Responsibility" [Blackboard] 6. Individuals Ethics, Part II (till the end) and E4p18s Letter 32 [SR 82-4] Barbone, What counts as an Individual for Spinoza? [Blackboard] Garrett, "Spinoza's Theory of Metaphysical Individuation" [Blackboard] Rudavsky, 85-92 [Blackboard]
7.

The Doctrine of the Conatus Ethics, Part III (till Proposition 13) Garrett, Spinozas conatus Argument [Blackboard]

8. Spinozas Psychological Theory Ethics, Part III (till the end). Della Rocca, Spinozas Metaphysical Psychology [Blackboard] 9. Spinozas Ethical Theory Ethics, Part IV and Part V (till Proposition 13) Garrett, Spinozas Ethical Theory [Blackboard] Jarrett, Spinoza on the Relativity of Good and Evil [Blackboard] Harvey, A Portrait of Spinoza as a Maimonidean [Blackboard] 10. Blessedness and the Eternity of the Mind Ethics, Part V (till the end) Short Treatise, II, xxvi [SR 62-64] Nadler, Eternity and Immortality in Spinoza's Ethics [Blackboard] Nadler, Spinozas Heresy, 67-93 [Blackboard]