Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte Jo Van Cauter Spinoza on History, Christ, and Lights Untamable Proefschrift voorgelegd tot het behalen van de graad van Doctor in de wijsbegeerte 2016 Promotor: Prof. Dr. Eric Schliesser Copromotor: Prof. Dr. Maarten Van Dyck 1 2 A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to Ghent University, Faculty of Letters and Philosophy, in May 2016. Dean: Prof. Dr. Marc Boone. Rector: Prof. Dr. Anne de Paepe. Examination committee: Prof. Dr. Wiep Van Bunge (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Prof. Dr. Michael A. Rosenthal (University of Washington), Prof. Dr. Steven Vanden Broecke (Ghent University), Dr. Charles T. Wolfe (Ghent University). 3 “In my writing I do not always agree with what occurs, nor do I linger in the mud for the sheer sake of it. Also, it is curious that the people who rail against my work seem to overlook the sections of it which entail joy and love and hope, and there are such sections. My days, my years, my life has seen up and downs, lights and darknesses. If I wrote only and continually of the ‘light’ and never mentioned the other, then as an artist I would be a liar.” Charles Bukowski, letter to Hans van den Broek, July 22, 1985 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations Introduction Chapter 1. Wisdom as a Meditation on Life: Spinoza on Bacon and Civil History Chapter 2. Spinoza on Bacon and Ecclesiastical History Chapter 3. Another Dialogue in the TTP: Spinoza on Christ’s disciples and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) Chapter 4. Spinoza on ‘Christ according to the spirit’ Chapter 5. Spinoza on ‘Christ according to the flesh’: Jesus as philosopher-prophet. Part 1: the politics of Jesus Chapter 6. Spinoza on ‘Christ according to the flesh’: Jesus as philosopher-prophet. Part 2: Jesus as faithful messenger of God Chapter 7. Spinoza on ‘Christ according to the flesh’: Jesus as philosopher-prophet. Part 3: Jesus as consequentialist Chapter 8. Spinoza on ‘Christ according to the flesh’: Jesus as philosopher-prophet. Part 4: the problem of Christ Conclusion Summary Samenvatting Acknowledgements Bibliography 5 EXTENDED TABLE OF CONTENTS ABRREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 8 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1: WISDOM AS A MEDITATION ON LIFE: SPINOZA ON BACON AND CIVIL HISTORY ......... 20 1.1 SPINOZA'S LETTER TO BOUWMEESTER ....................................................................................... 22 1.2 BACON ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF ‘THE DIFFERENT CHARACTERS OF NATURES AND DISPOSITIONS’ ................................................................................................................................... 27 1.3 SPINOZA ON THE USE OF BACONIAN CIVIL HISTORY .................................................................. 33 1.4 OBJECTIONS AND CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 39 CHAPTER 2: SPINOZA ON BACON AND ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY ................................................. 45 2.1 SPINOZA ON BIBLICAL EXEGESIS.................................................................................................. 49 2.2 THE BACONIAN FRAMEWORK IN SPINOZA’S EXEGESIS............................................................... 56 2.3 SPINOZA ON SUPERNATURAL INSPIRATION................................................................................ 59 2.4 BACON ON BIBLICAL EXEGESIS AND RELIGION (PART ONE) ....................................................... 62 2.5 BACON ON BIBLICAL EXEGESIS AND RELIGION (PART TWO)....................................................... 73 2.6 THE TTP ON MIRACLES: A BACONIAN READING.......................................................................... 86 CHAPTER 3: ANOTHER DIALOGUE IN THE TTP: SPINOZA ON CHRIST’S DISCIPLES AND THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS (QUAKERS) ................................................................................................. 96 3.1 QUAKERS AND COLLEGIANTS ON THE PRINCIPLE OF LIGHT ....................................................... 98 3.2 QUAKER PIETY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE TTP................................................................ 108 3.3 SPINOZA ON ‘CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE SPIRT’ ..................................................................... 109 3.4 QUAKERISM AND TTP 19.31 ...................................................................................................... 114 CHAPTER 4: SPINOZA ON ‘CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT’ .................................................... 117 4.1 SPINOZA ON 1 JOHN 4:13 .......................................................................................................... 120 4.1.2 SPINOZA ON PIETY AND OBEDIENCE ...................................................................................... 124 4.1.3 SPINOZA ON 1 JOHN 4:13 (CONTINUED) ................................................................................ 130 4.2 SPINOZA ON SPIRITUAL CHRIST: PATHS TO SALVATION ........................................................... 132 4.3 SPINOZA ON KNOWLEDGES OF GOOD AND EVIL ...................................................................... 138 4.3.1 SPINOZA ON MORAL PSYCHOLOGY AND EXEMPLARS ........................................................... 140 4.3.2 THE USES OF PURPORTED KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL ............................................... 144 4.3.3 THE TENETS OF FAITH AS EMBODIMENTS OF PURPORTED KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL ......................................................................................................................................................... 144 4.4 SPINOZA ON ‘WISDOM OF DOCTRINE’ ...................................................................................... 147 4.5 BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL: SPINOZA ON AMOR DEI INTELLECTUALIS ....................................... 151 6 CHAPTER 5: SPINOZA ON ‘CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH’: JESUS AS PHILOSOPHER-PROPHET. PART ONE: THE POLITICS OF JESUS ............................................................................................. 158 5.1 SPINOZA ON JESUS’ DUAL METHOD OF TEACHING .................................................................. 160 5.2 THE PATH TO (STATE) OBEDIENCE ............................................................................................ 173 5.3 JESUS’ PROPAGATION OF RELIGION ......................................................................................... 177 5.3.1 JESUS AND THE PEOPLE ......................................................................................................... 177 5.3.2 JESUS AND THE STATE ........................................................................................................... 180 CHAPTER 6: SPINOZA ON ‘CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH’: JESUS AS PHILOSOPHER-PROPHET. PART TWO: JESUS AS FAITHFUL MESSENGER OF GOD ................................................................. 185 CHAPTER 7: SPINOZA ON ‘CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH’: JESUS AS PHILOSOPHER-PROPHET. PART THREE: JESUS AS CONSEQUENTIALIST ............................................................................... 194 CHAPTER 8: SPINOZA ON ‘CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH’: JESUS AS PHILOSOPHER-PROPHET. PART FOUR: THE PROBLEM OF CHRIST ....................................................................................... 209 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 216 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................ 226 SAMENVATTING ........................................................................................................................ 230 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................. 234 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................................... 236 7 ABRREVIATIONS WORKS BY SPINOZA TIE Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione; Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, in Spinoza: Complete works, ed. Michael L. Morgan, Tr. Samuel Shirley (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2002). ST Korte Verhandeling van God, de Mensch en deszelvs Welstand; Short Treatise on God, Man, and his Well-being, in Spinoza: Complete works, ed. Michael L. Morgan, Tr. Samuel Shirley (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2002). TTP Tractatus Theologico-Politicus; Theological-Political Treatise, Tr. Edwin Curley (unpublished manuscript). E Ethica; Ethics, in The Collected Works of Spinoza, Vol. I, ed. Edwin Curley (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985). TP Tractatus Politicus; Political Treatise, in Spinoza: Complete works, ed. Michael L. Morgan, Tr. Samuel Shirley (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2002). Ep. Epistolae; The Letters, in Spinoza: Complete works, ed. Michael L. Morgan, Tr. Samuel Shirley (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2002). G Spinoza Opera, ed. Carl Gebhardt, 4 vols. (Hildesheim: Carl Winter Verlag, 1925). I use Gebhardt’s edition of Spinoza’s works (G), and I quote from Samuel Shirley’s translations, except for the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (TTP) and the Ethics (E). I use Edwin Curley’s still unpublished