Unconscious of Thought in Leibniz, Spinoza, and Hume

Gil Morejón teaches at Loyola University Chicago. His research focuses on early modern metaphysics and political theory. He is the author of The Unconscious of Thought in Leibniz, Spinoza and Hume (Edinburgh University Press, 2022) and co-edited and co-translated Alexandre Matheron's Politics, Ontology and Knowledge in Spinoza (Edinburgh University Press, 2020).

An essential contribution for anyone who wishes to know more about the history of the unconscious. Morejón’s greatest merit lies in clearly identifying structural similarities regarding the unconscious in thinkers who differ in terminology, background, and philosophical approach. The book, via an original and promising approach, thus casts new light on a little-studied epoch in the history of the unconscious.

• Introduction: Involuntarism and Philosophy; Philosophy, Genealogy, Symptomatology; The Unconscious of Thought; Freedom without Voluntarism; Speculative Empiricism and Materialist Epistemology; Outline of the BookThe Obscure Dust of the World: The Unconscious of Perception in Leibniz; Conscious Thought and its Limits; Imperceptible Perceptions; Inclination and Determination; The Metaphysics of Interaction and the Problem of Bodies; Infinitesimal AgencyInevitable and Persistent Inadequacies: The Unconscious of Ideas in Spinoza; Inadequacy: Partial and Abstract Ideas; Adequate Knowledge: Causes and Actuality; Understanding and Power; The Persistence of the Inadequate and Spinozist ConsciousnessDeteriora Sequor: The Unconscious of Desire in Spinoza; Spinozist Desire and the Critique of Voluntarism; The Identity of Intellect and Volition; In Defense of the Identity (Ethics II, 49 Scholium); The Unconscious of DesireThe Gravity of Ideas: The Unconscious of Habit in Hume; Ideal Relations and Association; Secret Powers: Hume’s Critiques of Causation; Belief, Habit, Synthesis; Hume’s Antinomy and the Problem of Correction Conclusion: Obscurity and InvolvementWorks Cited