This paper outlines Spinoza’s two diametrically opposed views on the question of sexual equality. In the Political Treatise, he contends that women are naturally inferior to men, and that they are unable to practice virtue. Yet, he presents an antithetical portrait of Eve in his retelling of the Fall in the Ethics. There, Eve’s nature accords perfectly with Adam’s, and their relationship might have promoted virtue in each of them. Attention to Spinoza’s version of the Fall reveals the profound importance (...) of the human bond for the enjoyment of freedom, and the possibility that women are not categorically excluded from Spinoza’s vision of virtue. (shrink)

The “black page” in Spinoza’s Political Treatise has been much discussed and interpreted. These can be roughly divided into three groups: Approaches that see the “black page” as an extension of Spinoza’s theory of the passions and imagination; approaches that maintain that Spinoza excluded women from politics not because of their innate weaknesses but because of their social conditions; approaches that maintain that he excluded women because he saw them as weaker beings, but this contradicts his certain accounts, especially in (...) the Ethics. In this paper, I take the latter view. My contribution is to argue that this contradiction is not unique to the Ethics. I pursue my reading along two lines, one ontological and one political. In the first, I focus on the continuity between the Ethics and the Political Treatise and show that the “black page” is also inconsistent with the ontology and methodology of the Political Treatise itself. In the second, I argue that the exclusion of women also contradicts the concept of the political absolute developed in this last work, since this concept problematizes any kind of exclusion and provides for political stability the strategic principle of increasing the number of decision-makers as much as possible. (shrink)

O presente texto procura trabalhar algumas acepções do conceito de corpo em Espinosa atendendo aos seus aspectos físicos, psíquicos, metafísicos e políticos. Também toma em conta a dupla condição do corpo - enquanto existente na duração e enquanto pensado por Deus. A noção de "conatus", presente em todos os corpos, é pretexto para lembrar a recente obra de António Damásio, A Estranha Ordem das Coisas e para comparar a potencia individual que habita os indivíduos com a potencia política que existe (...) nas sociedades. é nessa perspectiva que se analisa o modo como o lósofo considera a condição feminina. tentando-se perceber a severidade com que ele encara a actuação das mulheres no corpo político. Sobre esta temática apresentam-se os posicionamentos de algumas lósofas feministas apreciando- se criticamente as suas teses. O texto termina com a interrogação "Estará vedado às mulheres o "amor intellectualis Dei"?", sustentando que no livro V da ética encontramos elementos que asseguram às mulheres uma salvação de pleno direito, sem que para tal tenham que renunciar ao seu corpo. (shrink)