Projects

Tell us about your Spinoza related project by leaving a comment below.

Spinoza’s Ethics 2.0

Torin Doppelt is a PhD student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, working on issues surrounding the geometrical method. He has constructed a series of tables – Spinoza’s Ethics 2.0 – which presents a visual representation of the geometrical structure of Spinoza’s Ethics. Torin says: “I hope to use the tables to both generate new puzzles about Spinoza’s use of the geometrical method (they have already done so, in fact), and perhaps even resolve old puzzles. At the very least I hope they can be used to help scholars (especially myself) avoid missing important details of Spinoza’s notoriously opaque text.”

There are colour-coded tables for each part of the Ethics, in which each column represents a proposition or other demonstrated element, and each row represents the elements that can be used in the proofs. There are three main ways the tables can be used: the explicit uses of an element can be determined by tracing across to cells which contain letters representing the type of use (e.g., in a main demonstration, or in a corollary, scholium, etc.), and then tracing upwards (or downwards) to determine the location. Alternatively, the explicit elements used in a given demonstration can be determined simply by noting all the filled-in cells in a column. The tables can also illuminate the way in which elements of the Ethics depend on other elements, in a way that is not apparent from the text: by tracing backwards from the elements used in a given demonstration to their columns, it is easy to determine on which further elements the first demonstration depends. There are also other ways to derive information, including tabulating usage statistics, and producing graphs of data from different sections. In this way, much information contained in the Ethics that had not been easy to see before is now accessible at a glance.

The tables are available here: ethics.spinozism.org

Ethica Help-Web

In a related project, Bert Hamminga has created a hyperlinked version of the Ethics with cross-references and explanations of philosophical terms: http://asb4.com/EthicaWeb/

Ethica – a multimedia project

Patrick Fontana, a multimedia artist based in Paris, is working on a digital installation around Spinoza’s Ethics and seeks participants. He describes the project as follows:

“As part of this installation, I would make a video of Ethics, read and commented on by a united international community of philosophers who work on Spinoza, sharing their knowledge of Spinoza, for the first time, on a video. The recordings will be in the language of each participant. This manual video will be available, both in the installation itself and the internet, available to researchers, students, public interest in Spinoza’s Ethics.”

The project has the support of ENS and CERPHI, and has received funding from the National Centre for French Cinema. 75 international Spinozists have already agreed to participate. Each participant chooses up to five passages (propositions, axioms, etc.) from the Ethics to read and comment on.

Further information about the project (in French) can be found here.

To see other examples of Patrick Fontana’s philosophical multimedia work, visit www.grenze.org.

Anyone interested in participating should contact: Patrick Fontana fofana@free.fr

Previously unknown copy of Spinoza’s Ethics recently found in the Vatican library

Article and commentary available here: http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2011/05/previously-unknown-copy-of-spinozas-ethics-found.html

Bulletin de Bibliographie Spinoziste

From Mogens Laerke: Every year, the French Spinoza scholars publish the Bulletin de Bibliographie Spinoziste (BBS) in the international journal Archives de Philosophie. The BBS is intended as a complete bibliography of books and articles on Spinoza in all languages published in the preceding year. It is available in an issue of the printed journal but also online on the websites of the Archives de Philosophie, the Association des Amis de Spinoza (years 2001-2008), and CERPHI (years 1979-2001, completely indexed).

Monographs and edited volumes are not only listed in the BBS but also reviewed to the extent that this is possible. The BBS is an important tool for Spinoza scholars in continental Europe and is widely used for bibliographical purposes. It is crucial for Spinoza scholars writing in English wishing to have an audience outside the English-speaking world that their work is listed and reviewed in the BBS.

Authors or editors of a volume on Spinoza published in 2010 who would like to have their work reviewed are therefore invited to send (or ask their editor to send) a copy of their work for listing and reviewing in the BBS to the address indicated below:

Bulletin Spinoza / Archives de Philosophie, 14 rue d’Assas, 75006 PARIS, France

Any questions can be addressed to Henri Laux, the editor of the BBS: henri.laux@jesuites.com