May 23

Sean Butler (Claremont Graduate University)

Parallelism Problems

Abstract: It is widely recognized that one of Spinoza’s contributions to philosophy is his novel solution to the mind-body problem, a solution that has come to be referred to as Spinoza’s parallelism doctrine. As old as the doctrine itself are difficulties in making sense of it. This paper outlines two difficulties that are taken to be most impactful to the coherence of Spinoza’s system overall. These are 1) the priority of extension, and 2) the priority of thought. Beyond a delineation of these difficulties, this paper too presents solutions to these difficulties that have been put forward by prominent Spinoza scholars in recent years. These solutions, it is argued, all fail in that they propose solutions to 1 and 2 narrowly without recognizing that these difficulties are species of a broader problem—what I call the problem of cross-attribute reasoning. It is suggested that the problem of cross-attribute reasoning may be insurmountable but outlines why the ultimate failure of Spinoza’s parallelism doctrine may prove a boon to our understanding of Spinoza’s ethical theory.

Sean Butler recently earned his PhD in Philosophy and Religion from Claremont Graduate University with a dissertation on Spinoza.

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