3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Digital Spinozism will introduce you to Spinoza with the means of digital media. The global pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of teaching and the usage of digital media for research in the humanities more generally. This seminar uses digital tools to introduce Spinoza’s Ethics as a prime example of digital learning. Spinoza’s Ethics offers the whole spectrum of philosophical inquiry in just about 300 pages. Its content is as daring as it was in 1678 (when it was published): God and nature are the same thing (and that is all there is). Freedom does not exist – everything happens with necessity. The body and the soul are not distinct. We should guide our actions and our politics not according to abstract virtues or norms but according to a rational understanding of emotions. Thus, Spinoza’s philosophy helps us comprehend aspects of our contemporary life, such as emotions and their role in political processes in an interdisciplinary endeavour. Every week, we will read a package of topic based propositions, accompanied either by scaffolding secondary literature or else by class discussion aimed at framing the new material within preceding readings. We will also learn about various digital tools that are meant to make Spinoza’s writings more accessible to us and discuss our thoughts and questions on a messaging board beyond class time. Most of you are already familiar with some of the digital resources that we will be using (Zoom, pdfs etc.). For those seeking an academic career, familiarity with more advanced tools and the broadening of their capacity to think about approaching text in general will prove invaluable. However, the training offered in this class is highly applicable not only to other materials in the humanities, but also to concrete and daily digital interactions that we are already engaged in. As we learn about the structure and make up of digital communication, this knowledge becomes applicable not only to Spinoza, but beyond.