Thomas Coomans

Jan De Maeyer

Herman De Dijn

Bert Verschaffel

Sacred places are not static entities but reveal a historical dynamic. This volume explores both the cultural developments that have shaped them and their varied multidimensional levels of significance.

Understanding Sacred Places

Loci Sacri

Benedictus de Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza

De Dijn's comprehensive introduction to Spinoza's philosophy is based on two key texts. He first provides an in-depth analysis of Spinoza's Treatise on the Improvement of the Understanding, which De Dijn characterizes as his introduction to philosophy. This notoriously difficult text is here made accessible, even in its details. This analysis is followed by a comprehensive survey of Spinoza's metaphysics as presented in his famous Ethics. De Dijn demonstrates how Spinoza's central philosophical project as introduced in the Treatise-the linkage of knowledge and salvation-is perfectly realized in the Ethics. In this way the unity of Spinoza's thought is shown to consist in his preoccupation with the "ethical" question of salvation. The book also contains introductory chapters on Spinoza's life and work, the original Latin text of the Treatise and its new English translation by Edwin Curley, and an annotated bibliography on the secondary literature.

The Way to Wisdom

Spinoza

Martin Moors

Gábor Boros

"Love is joy with the accompanying idea of an external cause." Spinoza's definition of love manifests a major paradigm shift achieved by seventeenth-century Europe, in which the emotions, formerly seen as normative "forces of nature," were embraced by the new science of the mind.This shift has often been seen as a transition from a philosophy laden with implicit values and assumptions to a more scientific and value-free way of understanding human action. But is this rational approach really value-free? Today we tend to believe that values are inescapable, and that the descriptive-mechanical method implies its own set of values. Yet the assertion by Spinoza, Malebranche, Leibniz, and Enlightenment thinkers that love guides us to wisdom-and even that the love of a god who creates and maintains order and harmony in the world forms the core of ethical behavior-still resonates powerfully with us. It is, evidently, an idea Western culture is unwilling to relinquish.This collection of insightful essays offers a range of interesting perspectives on how the triumph of "reason" affected not only the scientific-philosophical understanding of the emotions and especially of love, but our everyday understanding as well.

The Concept of Love in 17th and 18th Century Philosophy

Herman De Dijn

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