Spinoza and the Problem of Universals

713 Pages·2015·3.28 MB·English

by  Michael Istvan

SPINOZA AND THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSALS: A STUDY AND
RESEARCH GUIDE

A Dissertation
by
MICHAEL ANTHONY ISTVAN

Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of
Texas A&M University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Chair of Committee, Michael LeBuffe
Co-Chair of Committee, Stephen H. Daniel
Committee Members, José L. Bermúdez
Britt Mize
Michael Della Rocca
Head of Department, Theodore George

August 2015

Major Subject: Philosophy

Copyright 2015 Michael Anthony Istvan
ABSTRACT

This investigatory bibliographic project on Spinoza and the problem of
universals draws four principal conclusions. (1) Spinoza is a realist concerning
universals. Indeed, Spinoza endorses a radical form of realism known as universalism,
the doctrine according to which every ontologically authentic entity is a universal. (2)
Spinoza is a realist concerning universal species natures. He holds that a given species
nature (such as human nature) is wholly instantiated in each species member. (3)
Spinoza combines Aristotelian and Platonic realism. On the one hand, he holds that no
universal is ontologically anterior to the one substance God. On the other hand, he holds
that all universals with instantiations in the realm of modes are eternal forms
ontologically anterior to those instantiations. (4) Spinoza’s pejorative remarks against
universals are compatible with his realism. Such remarks are aimed merely at universals
apprehendable by sense perception rather than pure intellect.

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DEDICATION

To my life companion, Alesha Istvan

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful for the various sources of funding that enabled this project: the
Philosophy Department at Texas A&M University (Graduate Enhancement Grants and
Graduate Student Stipends), the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies at Texas
A&M University (U. S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship), the College of
Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University (Vision 2020 Dissertation Enhancement Award),
Melbern G. Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University (Co-
Sponsorship Grant), and the American Philosophical Association (Travel Grants).
I also appreciate the various libraries that have granted me access to their
Spinoza materials: Evans Library (Texas A&M University), Perry-Castañeda Library
(University of Texas at Austin), Koerner Library (University of British Columbia),
Bennett Library (Simon Fraser University), Langsam Library (University of Cincinnati),
and Klau Library (Hebrew Union College).
My project has benefitted especially from interactions with the following people:
Pierre-François Moreau, Justin Lake, Bradley Ishmael, Taizo Kijima, Simona G.
Tabacaru, Aaron Kagan, Paul Bagley, Steve Barbone, Thomas Cook, Herman De Dijn,
Aaron Garrett, Christopher Cimmino, Chantal Jaquet, Martin Lin, Joshua Kirk, André
Santos Campos, Stephen Bales, Amos Kruse, Christian Leduc, Michael Istvan Sr., DJ Ra
Vee, Stefano Di Bella, Andrea Sangiacomo, Andrey Maidansky, Vital Grace, Eugene
Marshall, Warren Montag, Nick Piccone, Steven Nadler, Don Garrett, Tammy Nyden,
Michael Shaw, Hasana Sharp, Jason Giannoni, Valtteri Viljanen, DJ Cyrus, Wiep Van
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Bunge, Theo Verbeek, Amber Carlson, David Coss, Albert Aliano, Ernest Loesser, Peter
DeAngelis, Randy Velilla III, David Wright, Michael “Hootman” Gianonni, Max
Cresswell, Michael Della Rocca, David Istvan, Charlie Huenemann, Michael Anthony
Istvan III, José Bermúdez, Stephen Daniel, Paul Jones, Dorothy Jones, Charlie Jarrett,
Michael LeBuffe, Alesha Istvan, Britt Mize, Samuel Newlands, Ryan Manley, Hugh
McCann, Andrew Youpa, John Curry O’Day, Carmine Istvan, and the participants of
various conferences (2011 Philosophical Collaborations conference at the University of
Southern Illinois at Carbondale, 2012 Indiana Philosophical Association conference at
DePauw University, 2013 APA Central conference, 2014 APA Pacific conference, 2015
APA Pacific conference).
Special thanks to Michael Della Rocca, especially for the encouragement to resist
taming the boldness of a thinker like Spinoza in the name of charity. Special thanks to
Britt Mize, especially for serving as a model of teaching excellence in the way that he
balances delivering key information to students and cultivating their critical and
analytical sensibilities. Special thanks to José Bermúdez, especially for the advice on
how to make less-risky decisions when it comes to expressing myself through writing.
Special thanks to Stephen Daniel, especially for teaching me to regard apparent
inconsistencies in a thinker not as easy excuses to reject that thinker, but rather as
fortunate opportunities for seeing how that thinker would respond. Special thanks to
Michael LeBuffe, especially for helping me weed out the lesser parts of this project with
such care that the weeding did not seem painful. Special thanks to David Wright,
especially for his relentless encouragement and deep belief in me. Special thanks to
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Michael Anthony Istvan III and Alesha Istvan, especially for pushing me out of my
comfort zones so that I have at least a fighting chance against the decadence of my
epoch. Special thanks to my closest friends throughout the years (Alesha Istvan, Mike
Shaw, Albert Aliano, Randy Velilla, Chris Cimmino, Bradley Ishmael, Aaron Kagan),
especially for those occasions when they stopped me from following through on plans—
outbursts—that would have derailed my life. Special thanks to my mom, especially for
her efforts to keep me from the special-education path (default for my stock in my city)
and all the other traps of my home pocket: crack, alcohol, gangs, homelessness, diseases
of malnutrition. Finally, special thanks to the entire Istvan clan, especially those
flannelled men who have long-collected bottles and cans in rogue-wheeled shopping
carts under the crumbling factories of Newburgh-Beacon—those so-dirty-they-are-shiny
men who are now, given the relative immunity to gentrification that persons with no
property enjoy, the permanent detractors to downtown hipster revitalizations.

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NOMENCLATURE
All Spinoza citations are from Spinoza Opera, Gebhardt’s Latin critical edition.
The citations use the following format: abbreviated work title followed by part, chapter,
and section (when applicable), and then Opera volume number, page number, and line
number (when applicable). The title abbreviations are standard: Letters and Replies
(Ep); Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (TdIE); Short Treatise (KV); Appendix
Containing Metaphysical Thoughts (CM); Theological-Political Treatise (TTP);
Political Treatise (TP); Hebrew Grammar (HG); Descartes’s Principles of Philosophy
(DPP). So, for example, “CM 2.7 I/263/5” is part 2, chapter 7 of the Appendix
Containing Metaphysical Thoughts, which is volume 1, page 263, line 5 of the Opera.
Following standard practice, citations from the Ethics refer to the formal apparatus of
the Ethics itself followed by the volume number, page number, and line number of
Opera (when needed). The first Arabic numeral indicates the part of the book and the
following letter abbreviations indicate the type of passage: “a” for axiom; “app” for
appendix; “c” for corollary, “d” for definition (when it comes right after the part
numeral) or demonstration (for most, but not all, of the other positions); “p” for
proposition; “pref” for preface; “s” for scholium; “exp” for explication. Hence
“3p59sd4exp” is the explication of the fourth definition of the scholium to the fifty-ninth
proposition of Ethics part three. With exception to the occasional modification of my
own, translations are from Curley’s The Complete Works of Spinoza (vol. 1). For letters
29-84, TP, TTP, and HG I refer to Shirley’s translation.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................. ii

DEDICATION ............................................................................................................ iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ iv

NOMENCLATURE ................................................................................................... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... viii

LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................... xii

CHAPTER I (PART 1. OVERVIEW): INTRODUCTION ......................................... 1

1.1 Preface ................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Background and guiding aim .............................................................. 7
1.3 Roadmap ........................................................................................... 23

CHAPTER II (PART 1. OVERVIEW): REALIST-ANTIREALIST
POSITIONS ............................................................................................................... 27

2.1 Introductory remarks ........................................................................ 27
2.2 Antirealism ....................................................................................... 31
2.3 Realism ............................................................................................. 41
2.4 Concluding remarks ......................................................................... 47

CHAPTER III (PART 2. SUBSTANCE): SPINOZA’S CONSTITUENT
ANALYSIS OF SUBSTANCES HAVING ATTRIBUTES ..................................... 53

3.1 Introductory remarks ........................................................................ 53
3.2 Core argument .................................................................................. 54
3.3 Objections and replies ...................................................................... 69
3.4 Concluding remarks ......................................................................... 77

CHAPTER IV (PART 2. SUBSTANCE): SPINOZA’S BUNDLE ANALYSIS
OF SUBSTANCES HAVING ATTRIBUTES .......................................................... 80

4.1 Introductory remarks ........................................................................ 80
4.2 Core argument .................................................................................. 81
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4.3 Mapping onto Suárez’s Taxonomy of Distinctions .......................... 89
4.4 Objections and replies .................................................................... 102
4.5 Concluding remarks ....................................................................... 132

CHAPTER V (PART 2. SUBSTANCE): SPINOZA’S BUNDLE REALIST
ANALYSIS OF SUBSTANCES HAVING ATTRIBUTES ................................... 134

5.1 Introductory remarks ...................................................................... 134
5.2 Case 1 ............................................................................................. 135
5.3 Case 2 ............................................................................................. 139
5.4 Case 3 ............................................................................................. 144
5.5 Case 4 ............................................................................................. 148
5.6 Case 5 ............................................................................................. 162
5.7 Concluding remarks ....................................................................... 184

CHAPTER VI (PART 3. MODES): SPINOZA’S REALIST ANALYSIS
OF MODES HAVING PROPERTIES IN COMMON ............................................ 187

6.1 Introductory remarks ...................................................................... 187
6.2 Victory does not come so easy ....................................................... 188
6.3 1p17s .............................................................................................. 201
6.4 1p8s2 .............................................................................................. 227
6.5 2p10s .............................................................................................. 232
6.6 2p39 ................................................................................................ 235
6.7 Concluding remarks ....................................................................... 259

CHAPTER VII (PART 3. MODES): SPINOZA’S REALIST ANALYSIS
OF MODE PROPERTIES AND OF MODES IN GENERAL ................................ 260

7.1 Introductory remarks ...................................................................... 260
7.2 All properties of modes are universals ........................................... 261
7.3 Modes are properties ...................................................................... 265
7.4 Modes are universals ...................................................................... 268
7.5 Objection and reply 1 ..................................................................... 270
7.6 Objection and reply 2 ..................................................................... 275
7.7 Concluding remarks ....................................................................... 286

CHAPTER VIII (PART 4. SPECIES): SPINOZA’S REALIST BRAND
OF SPECIES REALISM .......................................................................................... 295

8.1 Introductory remarks ...................................................................... 295
8.2 There are universal species essences .............................................. 299
8.3 Concluding remarks ....................................................................... 315

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CHAPTER IX (PART 4. SPECIES): THE UNIVERSAL SPECIES FORM
OF HUMAN ............................................................................................................. 318

9.1 Introductory remarks ...................................................................... 318
9.2 Form of human under Extension .................................................... 320
9.3 Form of human under Thought ...................................................... 337
9.4 Concluding remarks ....................................................................... 345

CHAPTER X (PART 5. CONCLUSIONS): ARISTOTELIAN AND
PLATONIC REALISM COMBINED IN SPINOZA’S ONTOLOGY ................... 350

10.1 Introductory remarks .................................................................... 350
10.2 The combination ........................................................................... 353
10.3 Objection and reply 1 ................................................................... 361
10.4 A “transcendent” form for each detail .......................................... 373
10.5 Objection and reply 2 ................................................................... 378
10.6 Summarizing the discussion so far ............................................... 398
10.7 Spinoza’s Platonism further restricted ......................................... 402
10.8 Concluding remarks ..................................................................... 407

CHAPTER XI (PART 5. CONCLUSIONS): THE CONSISTENCY
OF SPINOZA’S REALISM ..................................................................................... 411

11.1 Introductory remarks .................................................................... 411
11.2 Resolving the tension: the passages ............................................. 416
11.3 Resolving the tension: objections and replies .............................. 442
11.4 Concluding remarks ..................................................................... 464

BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 468

APPENDIX A: EARLY MODERN ANTIREALISM ............................................ 642

A.1 Introductory remarks ...................................................................... 642
A.2 Nonconstituent antirealism ............................................................ 642
A.3 Constituent antirealism .................................................................. 657
A.4 Concluding remarks ....................................................................... 662

APPENDIX B: EARLY MODERN REALISM ...................................................... 663

B.1 Introductory remarks ...................................................................... 663
B.2 Immanent realism ........................................................................... 663
B.3 Transcendent realism ..................................................................... 667
B.4 Concluding remarks ....................................................................... 677

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