Ioan, Razvan:
Spinoza and Nietzsche on Freedom, Empowerment and Affirmation
In: European Journal of Philosophy 25, 4 (2017), 1864-1883
Literature type: Articles
Language: English
Thematic areas: Epistemology / methodology / philosophy of mind, Anthropology / psychology / doctrine of affections / body and mind, Ethics
Subject (individuals): Nietzsche, Friedrich
English commentary: "Against much of the philosophical tradition, Spinoza and Nietzsche defend an understanding of freedom opposed to free will and formulated as an ethical ideal consisting in a transition from a smaller to a greater power of acting. Starting from a shared commitment to necessity and radical immanence, they present freedom as a passage to a greater power of self‐determination and self‐expression of the body. Nevertheless, the continuities between their power ontologies and their respective commitments to a life of knowledge break down in their discussion of the various possible manifestations of power. I will argue that Nietzsche's distinctive formulation of power as struggle between wills to power enables him to formulate the question of the qualitative dimension of empowerment in a way that is foreign to Spinoza's rational determinism. While acknowledging the profound similarities, I will argue that we must see Nietzsche's discussion of affirmation as the culmination of his disagreement with his predecessor on the topic of freedom and empowerment." (abstract)
Link to this page: http://spinoza.hab.de/detail.php?id=19767&LANG=EN
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