Deus sive Nature: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Benedict Spinoza.

Deus sive Nature: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Benedict Spinoza. A talk by Christopher Thomas.

Benedict Spinoza has been referred to as ‘The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity’, but his philosophy nevertheless remains eclipsed by his more famous contemporaries, including Rene Descartes and Gottfried Leibniz. Unlike Descartes’ cogito ergo sum and Leibniz’s principle of sufficient reason, Spinoza’s most significant ideas, including his now infamous phrase Deus sive Natura, remain largely unknown and misunderstood. In this talk I will introduce two of Spinoza’s core ideas: His substance monism and his philosophy of affect and show how the former leads into, and offers a ground to, the latter.

Dr Christopher Thomas is a Senior lecturer in Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University. My research interests include early modern philosophy–specifically the philosophy of Benedict Spinoza–, contemporary French philosophy–specifically the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Simone Weil–, aesthetics, and art theory.