Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-15T00:38:29.671Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

71. - Form

from F

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

Karolina Hübner
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Justin Steinberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

Spinoza typically uses “form” (forma) as a synonym for “nature” or “essence.” He writes in E2p10 for instance that “The being of substance does not pertain to the essence of man, or [sive] substance does not constitute the form of man.” In the TIE, the “form” of a true idea has the extrinsic feature of agreeing with its object and the intrinsic feature of being known to itself; both, it appears, characterizing different features of the nature or essence of truth (TIE[69, 71, 105]). Spinoza also writes in several lemmata in his Physical Digression that “the individual will retain its nature, without any change of its form” (E2L4). It seems we could reverse “essence” and “form” in E2p10, and “nature” and “form” in the lemmata, without any substantive change in how we read or understand each claim. If so, why the extra term? When Spinoza writes in E2p24d that a human body “completely preserves its nature and form,” is the latter wholly redundant, or might “form” refer to a particular way of understanding an object’s nature or essence?

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Recommended Reading

Garrett, D. (1994). Spinoza’s theory of metaphysical individuation. In Barber, K. & Gracia, J. (eds.), Individuation and Identity in Early Modern Philosophy (pp. 73101). State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Manning, R. (2006). Spinoza’s physical theory. In E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/spinoza-physicsGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×