TY - JOUR
T1 - Conspiracy theories as superstition
T2 - Today’s mirror image in spinoza’s tractatus theologico-politicus
AU - van der Klaauw, J (Jamie)
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/5/18
Y1 - 2021/5/18
N2 - The contention in this paper is that the theological-political disputes Spinoza was con-cerned with 350 years ago are similar to the conspiratorial disputes we experience today. The world in Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus, a political intervention in his time, serves as a “mir-ror image”, that is to say, it deals with the same problem we face today albeit in a different mode. Understanding our contemporary condition under the auspices of a Spinozist perspective, problems in countermeasures to the conspiratorial disputes come to light. Scholarly work and practice focus on the epistemological dimension of conspiracy theories, tying in the extent to which they are problematic to the degree in which they deal in untruth. However, the lesson from Spinoza’s analysis of the theological-political disputes is that such theories do not deal in truth, but, in affect, they do not spring from a lack of education but a lack of certainty. The work of Spinoza opens up a different approach, and if our aim is like that of the TTP, to defend political life against the threat of civil war, such a different approach is in order.
AB - The contention in this paper is that the theological-political disputes Spinoza was con-cerned with 350 years ago are similar to the conspiratorial disputes we experience today. The world in Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus, a political intervention in his time, serves as a “mir-ror image”, that is to say, it deals with the same problem we face today albeit in a different mode. Understanding our contemporary condition under the auspices of a Spinozist perspective, problems in countermeasures to the conspiratorial disputes come to light. Scholarly work and practice focus on the epistemological dimension of conspiracy theories, tying in the extent to which they are problematic to the degree in which they deal in untruth. However, the lesson from Spinoza’s analysis of the theological-political disputes is that such theories do not deal in truth, but, in affect, they do not spring from a lack of education but a lack of certainty. The work of Spinoza opens up a different approach, and if our aim is like that of the TTP, to defend political life against the threat of civil war, such a different approach is in order.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112410192&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/philosophies6020039
DO - 10.3390/philosophies6020039
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85112410192
SN - 2409-9287
VL - 6
JO - Philosophies
JF - Philosophies
IS - 2
M1 - 39
ER -