Spinoza’s Epistemology through a Geometrical Lens

Acknowledgments
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
Chapter 1: Introduction
	1.1 The Question of Mathematization
	1.2 Outline of Chapters
	1.3 A Note on Texts
	References
Chapter 2: Mathematics and Methodology: Spinoza Contra Skepticism
	2.1 The Dogmatic Response
	2.2 Mathematical Ideas qua Epistemic Exemplars: Problems for the Dogmatic Interpretation
	2.3 Attaining the Idea of God: The Cartesian Response
		2.3.1 Textual Evidence for the Cartesian Interpretation
	2.4 The Cartesio-Dogmatic Response
	2.5 Objections and Replies
	References
Chapter 3: Realism and Antirealism About Mathematical Entities
	3.1 Figures as Beings of Reason
		3.1.1 Figures as (Imaginative) Universals
		3.1.2 Figures as a Form of Measure
		3.1.3 Figures as Non-beings
		3.1.4 Genetically Conceived Figures
	3.2 Reductio ad Acosmism: The Case Against Antirealism
	3.3 Figure and Finite Bodies: The Case for Realism
		3.3.1 Descartes and the Ontological Status of Figures
		3.3.2 Spinoza’s Theory of Corporeal Individuals and Figure
		3.3.3 What Are Figures in Spinoza?
	3.4 True Ideas of Number?
	References
Chapter 4: Reason and Imagination in Spinozan Science
	4.1 Reason and Spinozan Science
		4.1.1 Common Notions as Foundations of Reason and Laws of Nature
	4.2 Imagination in Spinozan Science and Issues of Adequacy
		4.2.1 From the Historia Naturae to Common Notions
		4.2.2 Descending to Particulars
	4.3 Peculiar Common Notions
	References
Chapter 5: Geometry and Spinozan Science
	5.1 Spinoza on the Geometry of Optical Lenses
	5.2 Response to an(other) Objection from Letter 12
		5.2.1 The Commensurability Response
	5.3 Letters 80–83 and the Incompleteness of Spinozan Science
	References
Chapter 6: Spinoza’s Notions of Essence
	6.1 Common Essence, Species Essence, and Individual Essence
	6.2 Formal Essence, Actual Essence, and Existence
		6.2.1 Formal Essences and Existence
			6.2.1.1	 Essences and Definitions
		6.2.2 Actual Essences and Existence
		6.2.3 E2p8 Reconsidered
	References
Chapter 7: Intuitive Knowledge: The Perfection of Reason
	7.1 Preliminary Analysis of the Principal Texts
	7.2 The Content of Intuitive Knowledge: The Common Essence Interpretation
	7.3 Beyond the Common Essence Interpretation
		7.3.1 A Geometrical Alternative to the Fourth Proportional Example: The Isoperimetric Problem
		7.3.2 The Isoperimetric Example and Spinoza’s Definition of Intuitive Knowledge
	7.4 The Difference Between Reason and Intuitive Knowledge: A Method Interpretation
		7.4.1 Can Conatus Save the Content Interpretation?
	7.5 Amor Dei Intellectualis and the Supremacy of Intuitive Knowledge
	7.6 Intuitive Knowledge in Spinozan Science
	References
Chapter 8: Conclusion
	8.1 Spinoza’s Epistemic Outlook
	8.2 Spinoza Vis-à-Vis Descartes (and Galileo)
	References
References
Index