http://www.metafilter.com/tags/spinoza Posts tagged with 'spinoza' at MetaFilter. Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:35:34 -0800 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:35:34 -0800 en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 60 http://www.metafilter.com/70389/Spinoza%2Dand%2DBiology Public concern over ecological damage inflicted by human activity has led to growing recognition of the general importance of issues relating to biological science. Unfortunately, the dispute between creationists and upholders of the theory of evolution tends to overshadow public discussion of other more pertinent matters. Specifically, there are significant but relatively unpublicized initiatives underway to promote holistic approaches to biology. <a href="http://www.natureinstitute.org/index.htm">The Nature Institute</a> in New York is one such initiative... ...providing instruction in holistic approaches to natural science based on the work of Rudolf Steiner, who based his approach on that of Goethe, who in turn was inspired by Spinoza. The centrality of Spinoza for biology is an issue of increasing interest, with <a href="http://home.uchicago.edu/~rjr6/">Robert J. Richards</a> arguing that Darwin was inspired by the Spinozist doctrines of Goethe and his contemporaries. Spinoza's holistic, naturalistic approach effectively bypasses the creationist-evolutionist controversy, and provides an ecologically sound basis for human activity. For background, see the work of Robert J. Richards: ▪<em><a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=X7N4_i7vrTUC">The Romantic Conception of Life: Science and Philosophy in the Age of Goethe.</a> ▪<a href="http://www.google.ca/books?id=-tKjALjpYqMC">The meaning of evolution : the morphological construction and ideological reconstruction of Darwin's theory.</a> ▪<a href="http://books.google.ca/books?id=nQ-FwB8koK8C">Darwin and the emergence of evolutionary theories of mind and behaviour.</a> ▪<a href="http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521815161&ss=exc">Darwinian heresies.</a></em> tag:metafilter.com,2008:site.70389 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:35:34 -0800 Biology Ecology Evolution Goethe Spinoza No Robots http://www.metafilter.com/25229/Mind%2Dand%2DBody%2DAntonio%2DDamasio%2Don%2DDescartes%2Dand%2DSpinoza <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/19/arts/19EMOT.html?ei=5062&en=b979059d9665d5cb&ex=1051329600&partner=GOOGLE&pagewanted=print&position=" title="But by the early 20th century, science had fallen sway to behaviorism and affect was off limits. Human beings, it was thought, could be understood purely by observing what they did. Internal mental states were dismissed as irrelevant. As Dr. Damasio put it, ''Neuroscience gave the cold shoulder to emotion.'' Feelings, he said, were considered ''elusive, indescribable, too subjective.'' When Dr. Damasio began to study affect in the late 1980's, it was by accident, not design. Dr. Damasio and his wife, Hanna Damasio, also a neurologist, became professors at the University of Iowa, where he acquired a reputation as an authority on language, memory and Alzheimer's disease. But it was his work with brain-damaged patients with impaired decision-making skills that led him to wonder about emotions.''I was forced to think about emotions because of those patients with frontal lobe damage,'' Dr. Damasio said. ''They had incredible problems with social behavior that had normally been attributed only to cognitive disturbances. I was very struck by the fact that they had clear disturbances of emotion. I started thinking that emotions might play a role in making decisions and choices in a normal way.''">I Feel, Therefore I Am</a>. Consider the work of <a href="http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/damasio.html" title="Antonio Damasio: Dictionary of Philosophy of Mind entry">Dr.</a> <a href="http://hcs.harvard.edu/~husn/BRAIN/vol8-spring2001/damasio.htm" title="An Interview with Antonio R. Damasio">Antonio</a> <a href="http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/w/b/wbur/connection/audio/2000/10/con_1012b.rm" title="From NPR's The Connection, a recording of Antonio Damasio on Consciousness and Emotion: Exploring the role of emotion and subjectivity in consciousness">Damasio</a>, humanist and neuroscientist, who has turned the <a href="http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/writing/mind-top.html" title="The Mind Body Problem">Mind and Body</a> debate between <a href="http://www.philosophypages.com/ph/desc.htm#links" title="After receiving a sound education in mathematics, classics, and law at La Fl&#0232;che and Poitiers, Ren&#0233; Descartes embarked on a brief career in military service with Prince Maurice in Holland and Bavaria. Unsatisfied with scholastic philosophy and troubled by skepticism of the sort expounded by Montaigne, Descartes soon conceived a comprehensive plan for applying mathematical methods in order to achieve perfect certainty in human knowledge. During a twenty-year period of secluded life in Holland, he produced the body of work that secured his philosophical reputation. Descartes moved to Sweden in 1649, but did not survive his first winter.">Ren&#0233;</a> <a href="http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exhibitions/Mind/Descartes.html" title="Mind and Body: Ren&#0233; Descartes to William James">Descartes</a> and <a href="http://rwmeijer.ws/spinoza" title="The Philosophy of Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677)">Benedictus <a href="http://home.pi.be/~pin86315/spinoza/essay2.htm" title="Spinoza’s Ethica A systematical presentation of the emotions (affectus)">de</a> <a href="http://www.trinity.edu/cbrown/modern/litrev/Spinoza-mindbody.html" title="Spinoza on Mind and Body - Rachel Florence">Spinoza</a> upon its head--or at least the heads of <a href="http://www.deakin.edu.au/hbs/GAGEPAGE/Pgstory.htm" title="Phineas Gage’s Story">Phineas Gage</a> and one <a href="http://www.gustavus.edu/oncampus/academics/philosophy/kaaren.html" title="Emotions and Social Intelligence: Jane Braaten and Antonio Damasio">Elliott</a>--via his research and writings such as <a href="http://psyche.cs.monash.edu.au/v6/psyche-6-10-mosca.html" title="A Review Essay on Antonio Damasio's The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness."><i>The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness</i></a>, <a href="http://www.cix.co.uk/~acampbell/bookreviews/r/damasio.html" title="Anthony Campbell reviews Antonio Damasio Descartes Error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain"><i>Descartes' Error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain</i></a> and <a href="http://www.curledup.com/spinoza.htm" title="Of the tremendous scientific revolutions in the past hundred years, in understanding the physical structure of reality, the genetic basis of humanity, and the history of the universe, understanding how the mind rules us is only now coming to the fore. Dr. Antonio Damasio, Professor and head of the department of neurology at the University of Iowa Medical Center, has published the third in his series of books that attempts to popularize key parts of that breakthrough. Looking for Spinoza continues his exposition of the overwhelming role of emotion in life and, exploiting the intuitive understandings of the seventeenth-century philosopher named in the title, hypothesizes how biology might link to ethics and a desirable lifestyle. "><i>Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain</i></a>. He's influenced writers like <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?res=9405E5D81231F933A25750C0A9649C8B63" title="Atonement - Ian McEwan">Ian</a> <a href="http://books.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4257871,00.html" title="Only love and then oblivion. Love was all they had to set against their murderers ">McEwan</a> and <a href="http://books.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4537260,00.html" title="Sense and sensibility - David Lodge">David Lodge</a>, and via his thoughts on the <a href="http://www.music-cog.ohio-state.edu/Music829D/Notes/Descartes.html" title="Music and Emotion - Notes on Antonio Damasio">perception of music</a>, inspired <a href="http://www.proarte.org/notes/adolphe.htm" title="Body Loops, for piano and orchestra By Bruce Adolphe ">a composition</a>. <i>(More Inside)</i></a> tag:metafilter.com,2003:site.25229 Sat, 19 Apr 2003 14:25:45 -0800 antoniodamasio benedictusdespinoza body damasio descartes emotion feelings gage mind mindbodyproblem music philosophy phineasgage renedescartes spinoza y2karl