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A Neo-Confucian Approach to a Puzzle Concerning Spinoza's Doctrine of the Intellectual Love of God

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A NEO-CONFUCIAN APPROACH TO A PUZZLE CONCERNING SPINOZA'S DOCTRINE OF THE INTELLECTUAL LOVE OF GOD by XIAOSHENG CHEN A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Philosophy School of Philosophy, Theology, and Religion College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham February 2018 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract In the last part of Ethics Spinoza introduces the doctrine of the intellectual love of God, along with the doctrine of the eternity of the mind and the doctrine of intuitive knowledge. According to the doctrine of the intellectual love of God, God loves himself with an infinite intellectual love. This doctrine has raised one of the most discussed puzzles in Spinoza scholarship: How can God have intellectual love if, as Spinoza says, God is Nature itself? After examining existing approaches to the puzzle and revealing their failures, I will propose an alternative approach to the puzzle. I will compare Spinoza’s philosophy with Neo-Confucian (especially Wan Yang-Ming’s) philosophy and argue that we can develop a new approach to the puzzle by appealing to the comparison. I will argue that Spinoza’s three doctrines stress three distinct aspects of the same thought which form an organic unity: (i) the metaphysical aspect, which is concerned with the eternity of the mind, (ii) the epistemological aspect, which is concerned with intuitive knowledge and (iii) the ethical aspect, which is concerned with the intellectual love of God. I conclude that the intellectual love of God can be properly understood from different perspectives. From God’s perspective it is understood as the creative power of God. From an individual’s perspective it is understood as the essence of this very individual. Moreover, once we combine these two perspectives we can reach what I consider to be the correct interpretation of Spinoza’s view: Given that intuitive knowledge and action are one and the same the I intellectual love of God should be comprehended not only as man’s final fulfillment of freedom through intuitive knowledge, but also as man’s self-cultivation in practice. I maintain that a free man who the intellectual love of God leads us to become is equivalent to a Neo-Confucian sage. II To Professor Yujin Nagasawa III Acknowledgements I am very grateful to Professor Yujin Nagasawa, who gave me the privilege of being his student, and supported me with his masterful supervision. Yujin has always been patient with me, reading and discussing every draft chapter with me again and again, and I have always received his professional feedback for any question at the first opportunity. His single-minded pursuit of the truth, his strict dedication to academic research, and his passion for inspiring students to fulfil their potential are the ceaseless power through which it became possible for me to continue my research and finish my thesis finally. I would like to thank Dr. Christopher Bartley for serving as my external examiner. It is clear that Dr. Bartley examined my thesis throughout with both attention to detail and the spirit of critique. For example, he even pointed out an error referring to the page number of a reference! Dr. Bartley, as a specialist in oriental philosophy, gave me many comments in his examination, and many questions and suggestions in the viva, and these comments, questions and suggestions are a huge treasure towards both my thesis and my research in the future. For example, Dr. Bartley raised the possibility of understanding the concept of Li in Neo-Confucianism through the concept of Aristotelian Form, a topic which is deserved for further research. I would like to thank Dr. Rhiannon Grant for serving as my internal examiner. Dr. Grant’s report highlights the advantages and disadvantages of my thesis in detail. In the viva Dr. Grant raised the question of the relationship between Spinoza’s religious background and his philosophy in general, and his doctrine of the intellectual love of IV God in particular, another topic which is also deserved for further research. Demonstrating great patience throughout her examination, Dr. Grant also helped me by pointing out several typos in my thesis. My whole academic career will benefit from the patience and expertise that Dr. Bartley and Dr. Grant have revealed to me as my examiners. I would like to thank Dr. Tom Winfield and Mr. Andrew Pearson not only for their professional proofreading, but also for their utmost patience. I learnt a lot from their proofreading. However, any grammatical errors or spelling mistakes which remain should be ascribed to myself, not to them. My career in philosophy began in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Liverpool in the summer of 2011. I would like to thank all of the teachers there, who without exception treated me with the utmost kindness. In particular, I would like to thank Professor Simon Hailwood, who was my mentor, and Professor Barry Dainton, who was the supervisor of my Master’s degree. Professor Dainton wrote both the reference letter for my further study to the University of Birmingham and the reference letter for my visa application to the Home Office. The Department of Philosophy of the University of Birmingham, along with the Department of Theology and Religion, is a vigorous community from which I have benefited for more than five years. I would like to thank all the teachers who gave me the chance to listen to their lectures and to attend their seminars, workshops, and conferences. I would especially like to thank Professor Lisa Bortolotti, Dr. Nikk Effingham, Dr. Darragh Byrne, Dr. Iain Law, Dr. Jussi Suikkanen, and Dr. David Cheetham who read my first draft and gave me many good V suggestions in the first year’s panel. I am lucky to have many talented schoolmates both in the University of Liverpool and in the University of Birmingham, who gave me lots of encouragement and help. I would like to thank all of them for learning together, discussing together and chatting together. My particular thanks go to Ms. Fei Li who was the only other Chinese student in our department in Liverpool. In a totally different culture, we experienced many challenges together, but we always encouraged each other. I would also like to thank Dr. Eric Eck who enrolled to be a doctoral researcher under of the supervision of Professor Nagasawa at the same time with me. Since I began pursuing a career in philosophy, I have benefitted from many friends’ help, and I am deeply appreciative of their support. Among these I would particularly like to thank Ms. Lingjing Liu who helped me apply to the University of Liverpool and also for the visa in China, Ms. Di Jin, Mr. Gongzhang Li, Dr. Haoling Su, and Dr. Shunde Qin and his family, who provided me and my family with great help in our life in Birmingham. Finally, I am very grateful to my parents and my own family. My parents are ordinary peasants in China, but they both have a heart of gold and undying love towards their children and grandchildren. From them, I also learnt the virtue of perseverance. My wife took on the main duties of looking after the whole family, and made it possible for me to carry on with my studies. My son often discusses, and even argues, with me on some philosophical topics, which I always enjoy. My lovely daughter has brought me the happiest time during the past eight years. Together, we never walk alone, and thank VI all of you with love. Xiaosheng Chen New Library, University of Birmingham 04 June 2018 VII Contents List of Tables ..................................................................................................................................... X Abbreviations for Spinoza’s Works ................................................................................................. XI Chapter 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 A Puzzle .............................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 My Approach to the Puzzle ................................................................................................. 7 1.3 Spinoza and Traditional Chinese Thought .......................................................................... 9 1.4 Spinoza and Neo-Confucianism ........................................................................................ 16 1.5 The Structure of the Thesis ............................................................................................... 23 Chapter 2 The Puzzle and its Existing Approaches ......................................................................... 29 2.1 The Puzzle of the Doctrine of the Amor ............................................................................ 29 2.1.1 The Problem of Cause ............................................................................................ 29 2.1.2
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