November 17

Sanja Särman (Uppsala U)

Spinoza's Infinite Shortcut to Contingent Appearance

Abstract: Spinoza’s own words seem to commit him to necessitarianism, or the view that everything that exists does so necessarily. There is overwhelming textual evidence for attributing this view to Spinoza. Nonetheless, necessitarianism is a difficult position to defend. For this reason, arguments have been made to make room for contingency in his system. Two such arguments are Curley (1969), restated in Curley and Walski (1999), and Newlands (2010). It is interesting that all these arguments appeal to Spinoza’s claim that all finite things are locked in an infinite nexus of causal relations obtaining between finite things. The question central to the present paper is whether metaphysical contingency can really be derived from an infinity of causal ancestors. The goal of this paper is twofold. First, I aim to show that Curley’s original proposal (1969) fails. Second, I aim to present an alternative reading of the relation between infinity and contingency in Spinozism.

Sanja Särman is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University. She received her PhD from Hong Kong University in 2020 and her dissertation won the Li Ka Shing Prize for best PhD thesis. She has interests in early modern metaphysics as well as Ancient Greek literature and philosophy.

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