Reading Spinoza in the Anthropocene

Central to Genevieve Lloyd’s approach is a fresh look at Spinoza’s critique of what he regards as Descartes’ flawed way of imagining the nature and status of human thought in relation to the rest of Nature. Lloyd argues that the influence of the Cartesian model lingers in the contemporary collective imagination. She challenges a common way of reading the Ethics, which reflects and reinforces the figure of Spinoza as a ’rationalist’ -- committed to the superiority and dominance of Reason within human minds. By offering a more nuanced account of Spinoza’s version of Reason, Lloyd brings his philosophy to bear on a range of familiar, but largely unexamined attitudes, which connect the supposed supremacy of Reason within the human mind to humanity’s supposed supremacy within Nature.

Genevieve Lloyd is Emeritus Professor in Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and a fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. Her main research areas have been in History of Philosophy, Philosophy and Literature and Feminist Philosophy. She is the author of Reclaiming Wonder: After the Sublime (Edinburgh University Press, 2018), Enlightenment Shadows (Oxford University Press, 2013), Providence Lost (Harvard University Press, 2008), Collective Imaginings(Routledge, 1999), Spinoza and the Ethics (Routledge, 1996), Part of Nature (Cornell University Press, 1994), Being in Time (Routledge, 1993) and The Man of Reason (2nd edn) (Routledge,1993).