True Freedom: Spinoza's Practical Philosophy

by Brent Adkins

True Spinoza's Practical Philosophy is a straightforward presentation of Spinoza's philosophy focused on the issue of how one might live. The book is unique among recent Spinoza scholarship in the way in which it centers on the ethical component in Spinoza's work. In order to bring Spinoza's ethics to the fore, Brent Adkins begin with what he considers to be Spinoza's fundamental ethical namely, that emotions are controlled by understanding them. Adkins reveals how the process of unfolding Spinoza's philosophy is always anchored in the very practical issue of living well.

The significance of True Freedom lies in its understanding of Spinoza's ethics as an "experimentalism" and its accessibility to a very wide audience. Despite the fact that Spinoza died over 300 years ago, his writings remain remarkably prescient for a wide variety of disciplines, from religion to neuroscience. The source of this prescience, however, comes from Spinoza's recasting ethical theory in terms of how we might live rather than in terms of how we should live. Freedom in every aspect of life from the personal to the political to the religious is dependent on a particular way of engaging with the world. This engagement takes the form of an experiment to see if what we engage with results in an increase or a decrease in our capacity to affect and be affected by the world. True freedom, for Spinoza, lies in increasing our capacities.

Genres: Philosophy

114 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Brent Adkins is Professor of Philosophy at Roanoke College.

Reviews

[Amir matin Ghariblu]

محض اطلاع ترجمه چند فصل (تقریبا تمام کتاب) از کتاب فوق و چند مطلب مشابه را به ترجمه خود فرشید مقدم سلیمی و دیگر عزیزان را می توانید در وبسایت «دموکراسی رادیکال» که عموما با نام عادل مشایخی گره خورده و بیشتر مطالب سایت از ایشان است و همچنین مطالبی مانند تالیف و ترجمه های دیگرانی چون مترجم و یا حامد موحدی ویراستار کتاب بیابید.

https://radicald.net/

[Melika Khoshnezhad · Rating 4 out of 5]

«از آنچه گفته شد درمی‌یابیم که قوت انسان دانا چیست و تا چه اندازه از انسان نادان، که تنها تحت هدایت شهوات است، توانمندتر است. زیرا انسان نادان، علاوه‌براینکه به طرق متعدد دستخوش علل خارجی است، و هرگز قادر نیست از آرامش راستین ذهن برخوردار شود، به‌علاوه چنان می‌زید که گویی نه خود را می‌شناسد، نه خدا را و نه اشیاء را؛ و به‌محض اینکه رویش فعلی انجام نمی‌شود، از هستی نیز بازمی‌ماند. برعکس، انسان دانا، از این حیث که این چنین اعتبار شده است، تقریباً هیچ‌وقت دچار تلاطم روح نمی‌شود و با ضرورت سرمدی خاصی از خود، از خدا و از اشیاء آگاه است، هرگز از هستی بازنمی‌ماند و همواره از آرامش راستین ذهن برخوردار است.

اگرچه راهی که من برای رسیدن به این مقصود نشان دادم سخت است، دستیابی بدان توانستنی است. البته باید هم سخت باشد، زیرا به‌ندرت می‌توان بدان دست یافت. اگر نجات نزدیک می‌بود و انسان می‌توانست بدون زحمت زیاد بدان دست یابد، چگونه امکان می‌داشت که تقریباً مورد غفلت همگان قرار گیرد؟ اما هرچیز عالی همان‌قدر که نادر است دشوار هم هست.»

من فکر می‌کنم اسپینوزا با تعریف متفاوتش از خدا و آزادی که اتفاقاً در کنار مفهوم ضرورت فهمیده می‌شود و نه اراده خیلی از مشکلات را حل می‌کند. مسئله‌ی شر حل می‌شود، انسان‌انگاری خدا و توقعاتی که به‌طبع در پی چنین نگرشی پیش می‌آیند کنار گذاشته می‌شوند و به‌ زیباترین شکل ممکن به فهمی از آزادی می‌رسیم که شاید به‌نظر من فقط در بینشی موسیقیایی دست‌یابی به آن ممکن است. این کتاب مدخل مقدماتی و بسیار شیوا و رسایی برای آشنایی با اسپینوزاست. مثال‌های بامزه و امروزی می‌زند و با روایتی نرم و روان خواننده را همراه می‌کند تا پیچیده‌ترین بینش‌های فلسفی اسپینوزا را تا حدی درک کند. اما مهم است که توجه کنیم این کتاب صرفاً مدخلی مقدماتی است و برای آشنایی عمیق‌تر با اسپینوزا بهتر است به خود کتاب «اخلاق» مراجعه کرد.

[Fateme Ahmadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

همزمان شدن خوندن آزادی راستین با آشناییم با روان‌درمانی اگزیستانسیال یه مقداری توی فهم اثر گیجم کرده.
آره! این کتاب رو هم دوباره باید بخونم :)

[S h a y a N · Rating 5 out of 5]

اگر کتاب روح اسپینوزا اثر نیل گراسمن براتون سنگینه یا حالشو ندارید بخونید می‌تونید بجاش این کتاب رو بخونید که ساده، خلاصه و روان مفاهیم بنیادی فلسفه اسپینوزا رو توضیح داده.

[Babak əlipur · Rating 5 out of 5]

به زبان ساده اخلاق اسپینوزا رو توضیح داده
با مثال هایی کاربردی فهم مفاهیم واسه خواننده راحت تر شده

[Peter Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spinoza came up on my reading list so I went to the UVM library to take a look at what was available. I selected a few books to look at but most of them seemed too technical. True Freedom looked a little more friendly. It is self-help book based on Spinoza’s philosophy. I enjoy reading books about how fiction or philosophy can help me lead a better life. How Proust Can Change Your life by Alain de Botton and How to Live: Or a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell are both good examples of this genre.

At the UVM library I also noticed Spinoza: Practical Philosophy by Gilles Deleuze. I read that book many years ago. When I started reading True Freedom I noticed a couple of references to the book by Deleuze. I looked up the other books written by Brent Adkins and I discovered that he had written a guide to A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. In the late seventies I went into a bookstore in New York City and saw a journal called Semiotext(e). It was devoted to another book by Deleuze and Guattari called Anti-Oedipus. The essays in Semiotext(e) were nearly incomprehensible but I also found them really exciting. For the next ten years I was passionate about Deleuze and Guattari, especially the work of Gilles Deleuze. Like my pursuit of Zen, an interest in their work was something that set me apart. It made me feel special. Part of the reason I went to France was to improve my French so I could read more of their work in the original. For a couple of months I lived with a French family in a village just south of Lyon. I took long walks during the day and in the evening I read a book by Delèze and Guattari about Franz Kafka. I was reading in French and had to look up a great many words. While I was walking ideas came to me which I would later incorporate into my performances.

I continued my interest in D&G when I returned to the States. I got acquainted with the translater of A Thousand Plateaus, Brian Massumi. He was teaching at McGill in Montreal. He too discovered D&G through Semiotext(e). He then spent eight years translating A Thousand Plateaus. It was his Ph.d thesis. I did a series of performances about A Thousand Plateaus and he was kind enough to come to one of them. I found it very difficult to translate A Thousand Plateaus into performances.

I have read many books by Gilles Deleuze but not all of them. While Guattari was trained as a psychiatrist, Deleuze was a philosopher. He wrote a series of books about philosophers. I decide that I should first read a book by the philosopher in question and then read Deleuze’s book on that philosopher. His first book was about David Hume. I struggled through one of Hume’s books and then read Empiricism and Subjectivity by Deleuze. I understood little or nothing. After that I gave up. Recently I have been writing about my many failures and as a completist I certainly failed with Deleuze.

[Hossein · Rating 5 out of 5]

مواجهه با فلسفه اسپینوزا، بار دیگر، آشوب‌های ذهنم رو تسکین داد. اسپینوزا! اسپینوزا! اسپینوزا!

[Paulo Reimann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spinoza translated to day to day

Here we have a book, easy but not that much easy, to be read. Translates Spinoza's thought to our daily life. Showing his causality and moreover, pantheistic view over the chain of occurrences. Short, great book.