Affects, Actions and Passions in Spinoza: The Unity of Body and Mind

It is widely recognised that Spinoza ended the Cartesian dualism of body and mind by thinking through the possibility of their unity. Revisiting this generally accepted notion of psycho-physical parallelism in Spinoza, Chantal Jaquet offers a new analysis of the relation between body and mind. Looking at a range of Spinoza's texts, and using an original methodology, she analyses their unity in action through the affects that bring together a body's affection and the idea of this affection. Jaquet reveals that understanding affects, actions and passions provides the key to how the mind and body are the same individual expressed in two different ways. She presents the Spinozist model in all its complexity, illuminating its potentialities for contemporary debates on the nature of the mind-body problem.

Author: Chantal Jaquet
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 08/07/2019
Pages: 176
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.30w x 0.40d
ISBN: 9781474433198

About the Author
Chantal Jaquet is Professor of Philosophy at the Université Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is the author of numerous books on Spinoza.

Tatiana Reznichenko is a freelance translator and conference interpreter based in Paris.