This book reconstructs Spinoza's theory of the human mind against the backdrop of the twofold notion that subjective experience is explainable and that its successful explanation is of ethical relevance, because it makes us wiser, freer, and happier. Doing so, the book defends a realist rationalist interpretation of Spinoza's approach which does not entail commitment to an ontological reduction of subjective experience to mere intelligibility. In contrast to a long-standing tradition of Hegelian reading of Spinoza's Ethics, it thus defends the notion that the experience of finite subjects is fully real.

Ursula Renz is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria

Preface Contents Abbreviations Introduction: The Explainability of Experience Part I: The Basic Framework: The Ethics' Systematic Premises Chapter 1: Dissociating the Concept of Substance from the Concept of Subject Chapter 2: The Conception of Metaphysics in de Deo and its Implications Chapter 3: The Concept of the Individual and its Scope Part II: The Ontology of the Mental: On the Relationship between Being and Thought Chapter 4: The Primacy of the Metaphysics over the Theory of the Mind Chapter 5: The Concept of idea and Its Logic Chapter 6: The Justification of a Realist Rationalism Chapter 7: Body and Mind: What Spinoza's Theory of Identity Seeks to Achieve Part III: Theory of the Subject: The Concept of the Human Mind and Its Premises Chapter 8: The Problem of the Numerical Difference Between Subjects Chapter 9: Finitude, or the Limited Knowability of Finite Things Chapter 10: The Definition of the Human Mind in Its Derivation Chapter 11: Panpsychism, or the Question "What is the Subject of Experience? Part IV: Psychology and Epistemology: The Constitution, Experiential Quality, and Epistemic Value of Content Chapter 12: The Constitution of Mental Content in the imaginatio Chapter 13: Emotions, or How to Explain Qualities of Experience Chapter 14: Epistemology: The Possibility of Producing Successful Explanations Conclusion: Successful Explanation of Experience and Practical Philosophy Bibliography Index of Persons Index of Concepts Index of References to the Ethics