CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Göde, Zsófia |
|---|---|
| Title | Was Spinoza a crypto-dogmatist? The problem of miracles in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus |
| Summary | Spinoza’s treatment of miracles in the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus has long been a puzzle for scholars. The traditional problem is that Spinoza allows himself to use reason to determine whether miracles happened in biblical times, even though elsewhere in the TTP he advocates for interpreting Scripture based on Scripture alone. Here, I aim to discuss a different, albeit not unrelated, problem: Spinoza’s insistence that the prophets’ beliefs about miracles were not contrary to reason and thus agreed with his own. In my analysis, I draw heavily on Carlos Fraenkel’s research, who has argued, I believe mistakenly, that Spinoza displays a commitment to dogmatism, or Averroism, with respect to the issue of miracles. A key element of dogmatism is the belief that religion is part of a pedagogical program, which the prophets, being also philosophers, devised for the moral and political education of the masses. Since Spinoza famously argued that the prophets were not intellectually gifted, Fraenkel’s analysis amounts to charging Spinoza with a major inconsistency. I hope to show that while Spinoza’s discussion of miracles is indeed problematic, he does not go as far as endorsing the dogmatist conception of prophets. |
| Supervisor | Griffin, Michael Vance |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/gode_zsofia.pdf |
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