From Complex Bodies to a Theory of Art: Melancholy, Bodies, and Art in the Philosophy of Spinoza
- Submitting institution
-
Manchester Metropolitan University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 252146
- Type
- D - Journal article
- DOI
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10.5840/epoche201815107
- Title of journal
- Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy
- Article number
- -
- First page
- 367
- Volume
- 22
- Issue
- 2
- ISSN
- 1085-1968
- Open access status
- Technical exception
- Month of publication
- April
- Year of publication
- 2018
- URL
-
https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/624565/
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
0
- Research group(s)
-
B - Art & Performance
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This article contributes to an area of Spinoza scholarship that is lacking, but which in recent years has seen a growth of interest. Building on the recent surge of interest in the philosophy of Spinoza, this article makes a significant and original contribution to both contemporary cultural and aesthetic theory and the history of philosophy. By undertaking a rigorous close reading of certain key passages in both the Ethics and Theological-Political Treatise, this article puts forward an original thesis on the place and role of art in Spinoza’s naturalist philosophy. The research process is made visible through foregrounding the existing state of debate on the topic, the reasons why this is inadequate, the new approach being proposed and why, the possible counter arguments, the objections, the significance of what is being proposed for the field. Further, the article assesses the existing literature on the topic, offers a critique of one of its central protagonists (Morrison, 1989), and argues for a revision of this received opinion. The paper argues that whilst Spinoza does not have an explicit aesthetic theory, and whilst his words on beauty and art appear hostile to matters concerning art and aesthetics, his philosophy is nevertheless instructive and useful for those wishing to think outside of existing frameworks of philosophical aesthetics and art theory. Further, the article takes up Spinoza’s own naturalistic framework to give an account of the work of art as a ‘complex body’ that can be theorised according to Spinoza’s relational theory of the individual. This makes the article distinct from previous work on Spinoza and aesthetics/art theory (Morrison, 1989, Uhlmann, 2011, Gatens, 2013), as well as beginning to go beyond the specifics of Spinoza’s account of art to give a truly Spinozistic theory of art and its production.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -