Charlie Huenemann

Spinoza and Prime Matter

Spinoza claims that God is extended and corporeal, but he resists identifying God with the extended, corporeal world. How then are we to understand the relation of God to the physical world? This essay first critically examines interpretations offered by Schmaltz and Woolhouse which claim that Spinozas God is not actually extended, but a nonextended essence of extension. It is then suggested that Spinozas God can be understood as something akin to (a modified version of) scholastic prime matter. On this view, Spinozas God is actually extended, but cannot be identified with the corporeal world, which is changeable and variegated in a way that prime matter is not.

Nietzschean Health and the Inherent Pathology of Christianity

This paper argues that Nietzsche offers a tolerably clear conception of philosophical health, and one that is meant to be objective, though dependent upon some empirical hypotheses. The paper also explains why some philosophical worldviews or ways of life - especially Christianity - are inherently sick, according to Nietzschean psychology. It also takes on the question of why Nietzschean health is supposed to be valuable, and suggests that although its value is not objective, it is massively intersubjective, and we cannot know of any greater value.

Spinoza and the Light of Scripture

When Hugo Boxel wrote to Spinoza in 1674, asking for his opinion of ghosts and spirits, Spinoza made it quite clear that he held no stock whatsoever in such things. What they are and what they do is impossible, according to natural reason. Furthermore, natural psychology is wholly capable of explaining why humans should invent such fancies and such strange stories. But suppose Boxel had instead sent Spinoza a copy of the Bible and suppose Spinoza had never seen one before. Would Spinoza’s response have been the same? Would he have seen the Bible as just so many ghost stories or would he have seen special truths contained within it?