Spinoza and Art - by Moira Gatens & Anthony Uhlmann (Hardcover)

About the Book

Presents Spinoza's contribution to understandings of the imagination, art and creativity.

Book Synopsis

Against the mainstream view, Gatens and Uhlmann argue that Spinoza's philosophy can significantly contribute to understandings of art, creativity and the central place of the imagination in human wellbeing. This perspective shows how concepts essential to Spinoza's philosophy, such as ingenium, the exemplar and the theory of the affects illuminate how works of art and literature make essential contributions to human thriving. They consider case studies of major English authors who were negatively or positively influenced by Spinoza, including Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Percy and Mary Shelley, George Eliot and Virginia Woolf.

Review Quotes

Gatens and Uhlmann offer a compelling, transformative reading of the value of Spinoza for a philosophy of art. This is the best kind of book, increasing our powers of knowing Spinoza as well as our sense of the importance of art, affect, and imagination to a life well lived.--Audrey Wasser, Miami University

This is a pathbreaking work that demonstrates, with exemplary clarity and expertise, how Spinoza's unique ars vivendi takes shape directly in relationship to art and fiction. Gatens and Uhlmann deliver a brilliant and original account of the role that imagination, fiction, and the passions play in Spinoza's philosophy--that is to say, they rethink Spinoza's rationalism tout court to show how his truly viable approach to art bears on our theory and experience of art and literature, directly or by way of cherished authors like Swift, Defoe, Eliot, and Woolf.--Russ Leo, Princeton University