The Unconscious of Thought in Leibniz, Spinoza, and Hume

217 Pages·2022·2.026 MB·English

by  Gil Morejón

The Unconscious of Thought in Leibniz,
Spinoza, and Hume
Cycles
Series Editors
Andrew LaZella, The University of Scranton
Richard A. Lee Jr., DePaul University
Critical perspectives on the history of philosophy, from Ancient Greece to the
nineteenth century, expanding traditional approaches to
Western Philosophy
Cycles shows how the history of philosophy is a living tradition, influencing
and determining our thinking in the present while maintaining its deep
and rich roots in the past.
Editorial Advisory Board
Jason Aleksander, Robert Bernasconi, Emanuela Bianchi, Sara Brill, Peter Casarella,
Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, Dan Selzer, Kristi Sweet.
Books available
Aristotle on the Matter of Form: A Feminist Metaphysics of Generation by
Adriel M. Trott
The Unconscious of Thought in Leibniz, Spinoza, and Hume by Gil Morejón
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The Unconscious of Thought
in Leibniz, Spinoza,
and Hume
Gil Morejón
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© Gil Morejón, 2022
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Reference Conventions ix
Introduction: Involuntarism and Philosophy 1
Philosophy, Genealogy, Symptomatology 3
The Unconscious of Thought 9
Freedom without Voluntarism 15
Speculative Empiricism and Materialist Epistemology 20
Outline of the Book 24
1. The Obscure Dust of the World: The Unconscious of
Perception in Leibniz 29
Conscious Thought and its Limits 30
Imperceptible Perceptions 34
Inclination and Determination 43
The Metaphysics of Interaction and the Problem of Bodies 55
Infinitesimal Agency 65
2. Inevitable and Persistent Inadequacies: The Unconscious of
Ideas in Spinoza 68
Inadequacy: Partial and Abstract Ideas 71
Adequate Knowledge: Causes and Actuality 84
Understanding and Power 91
The Persistence of the Inadequate and Spinozist Consciousness 99
3. Deteriora Sequor: The Unconscious of Desire in Spinoza 106
Spinozist Desire and the Critique of Voluntarism 108
The Identity of Intellect and Volition 115
vi contents
In Defence of the Identity (Ethics II, 49 Scholium) 122
The Unconscious of Desire 130
4. The Gravity of Ideas: The Unconscious of Habit in Hume 137
Ideal Relations and Association 139
Secret Powers: Hume’s Critiques of Causation 147
Belief, Habit, Synthesis 162
Hume’s Antinomy and the Problem of Correction 171
Conclusion: Obscurity and Involvement 178
Bibliography 185
Table of References to Leibniz, Spinoza, and Hume 197
Index of Names 201
Acknowledgements
Every work is a profoundly collaborative project; it feels wrong that only my
name will appear on the cover of this book. I can only hope to do justice to
the many people who have influenced me and shaped this project during its
development.
This book is a revised and expanded version of the dissertation research
I undertook at DePaul University while pursuing my doctorate in philoso-
phy. I owe a debt of gratitude first to Rick Lee, my dissertation director, as
well as to the other members of my dissertation committee at DePaul, Peg
Birmingham and María Acosta. Their continual support and critical feedback
were absolutely crucial throughout the long process of producing this work.
They are not alone among the faculty of the department of philosophy at
DePaul who made it possible. I am also very grateful to Hasana Sharp, my
outside reader.
My fellow graduate students during my time at DePaul played an invalu-
able role in my intellectual development and made an enormous impact in
shaping the nature and direction of this research. Let me name just a few of
the most important people in this regard: Vilde Lid Aavitsland, Eric Aldieri,
Ashley Bohrer, Joseph Dawes, Ashley Fleshman, Ryan Froese, Owen
Glyn-Williams, Carlie Hughes, Tom Krell, Mary LeBlanc, David Maruzella,
William Meyrowitz, Jeta Mulaj, Daniel Pepe, Michael Peterson, and Jacob
Singer. I am also grateful for my interlocutors and collaborators in the broader
philosophical community, including William Paris, Lillian Cicerchia, David
Mesing, John Bova, Michael Kim, Jason Read, Filippo Del Lucchese, Chris
Noble, David Johnson, Ed Kazarian, Geoff Pfeifer, Joshua Ramey, Alejo Stark,
Liam Kofi Bright, William Clare Roberts, and Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, again to
name only a few.
viii acknowledgements
I want also to thank the wonderful team at Edinburgh University Press. I
cannot overstate the kindness, patience, and hard work of Carol Macdonald
in particular. Thanks also to Tim Clark for his work editing and comment-
ing on the manuscript, and to the anonymous reviewers whose replies were
challenging and helpful.
I am extremely fortunate to be able to name my family as a constant source
of love and support. I thank my parents, Gil and Julie, along with my brother
Jason and my sister Andrea.
I am sorry that I have not named everyone. The full list of people that
made it possible for me to be here and for this book to exist would be a book
all its own. For any omissions in this regard, along with any errors that may be
found below, I bear full responsibility.
Finally, thank you.
Reference Conventions
For primary sources, I provide references based on the internal divisions of the
text; then in parentheses I provide a reference to the source of the translation
(by volume and page number where necessary) and then to the source of the
text in its original language (by volume and page number). Abbreviations for
those sources are listed below. Complete bibliographic information for these
texts can be found at the end of the volume.
I. Descartes
AT Oeuvres (12 vols), eds. Adam and Tannery.
CSM The Philosophical Writings of Descartes (3 vols), eds. Cottingham,
Stoothoff, and Murdoch.
II. Leibniz
FdC Nouvelles lettres et opuscules inédits, ed. Foucher de Careil.
GP Philosophische Schriften (7 vols), ed. Gerhardt.
L Philosophical Papers and Letters, ed. Loemker.
III. Spinoza
CWS Collected Writings of Spinoza, ed. Curley.
G Opera, ed. Gebhardt.
TdIE Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione
TP Tractatus Politicus
TTP Tractatus Theologico Politicus