Spinoza and the Sign

Lorenzo Vinciguerra is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Bologna, Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Amiens and director of Sive Natura. International Center for Spinozan Studies (ICSS). He is the director of Sive Natura. International Center for Spinozan Studies (ICSS). He has written several books on Spinoza which have been published and translated into different languages: Spinoza (Carocci, Rome 2015; La semiotica di Spinoza (ETS, Pisa 2012), Qu l’avenir pour Spinoza? Enquêtes sur les spinozismes à venir (Kimé, Paris 2001) and with Pierre-François Moreau he edited Spinoza et les arts (L’Harmattan, Paris, 2020). His interests move through the history of Spinozism, pragmatism, ethics, aesthetics and the philosophy of art. Alexander Reynolds is a translator and independent scholar. He recently translated Individuality and Beyond: Nietzsche Reads Emerson by Benedetta Zavatta (Oxford University Press, 2019), Vincenzo de Risi: Francesco Patrizi’s Conceptions of Space and Geometry, in Boundaries, Extents and Circulations: Space and Spatiality in Early Modern Natural Philosophy (eds. Vermeer and Regier) (Springer, 2016) and Davide Crippa, The Impossibility of Squaring the Circle in the 17th Century, Birkhäuser, (Springer Nature Switzerland, 2019). Helen Glanville, Lauréate Académie de France 2022, is a translator and independent scholar.

An outstanding, original, and meticulous study of Spinoza’s semiology, this work by eminent Spinoza scholar, Lorenzo Vinciguerra, will draw much attention and applause.

• Preface to the English edition: Beneath the dry rubbish-heaps of SpinozaPreface to the second edition: On some conclusions without premisesAbbreviations Introduction: Thinking the signSpinoza and the signGenesis of the imaginationpart one: ÆstheticaSection ONE: SensatioChapter 1: Doubt and SensationThe monoideistic hypothesisVera dubitatioThe ass’s dilemmaAequilibrium & salus Incroyable DescartesChapter 2: Sensation and AmazementAmazementAdmirable DescartesMonoideism and amazementThe idea-sensationThe winged horseSection TWO: Union and SensationChapter 3: “What, then, is this sensation?”The union of mind and bodyThe scent of truthConsciousness and sensationChapter 4: Feeling EternityWe feel that we are eternalActuality and existenceChapter 5: The Finite and FinitudeThe singular and the finiteThe three ways of being finitumpart two: THE BODY AND ITS TRACESection THREE: The logic of affectionChapter 6: Ontology and phenomenologyThe emergence of the singularA blind spot?The affected bodyChapter 7: Affection and perceptionPrimum & secundum Sensation and affectionUnicum & primumSection FOUR: The traces of the bodyChapter 8: VestigiaThe fifth postulateThe ‘Categories’: hard, soft, fluidTraceabilityRetention and distanceThe vestigia of the pineal glandThe re-markable being of the traceThe fluidChapter 9: Form and FigureThe figuring of formForm, Figure, TraceThe figures of reasonVestigia intellectusChapter 10: Traces and FormThe amnesiac poetInfans adultuspart THREE: Of Images and SignsSection FIVE: The Genesis of ImagesChapter 11: From Traces to ImagesOn the difference between trace and imageThe idea of the traceEnvelopment / developmentAetiology and semiologyChapter 12: The images of thingsThe definition of imagesMimesis and semiosisThe idea of imageAnnouncement and referralThe signifying process of imagesSection SIX: Cognitio ex signis Chapter 13: Sign and InterpretationConcatenatioInterpretationThe interpreterThe soldier, the farmer, the ant, the sunflowerThe body–signChapter 14: The genesis of the signThe common imagesDistinction and crystallisationThe TranscendentalsThe public aspect of the signChapter 15: Consuetudo, Usus, PraxisThe semiotic relationWhen believing is doingFaithpart FOUR: On the use of signsSection SEVEN: The signs of menChapter 16: Homines & OminaThe semiology of fearThe sign as contractChapter 17: The empire of the signThe regime of superstitionArcana & mysteriaThe exculpation of reasonArcana imperiiChapter 18: The two RevelationsThe definition of prophecyPropheta & propagatorInterpretatio naturaeChapter 19: Revelation by signsWhen God gives a signCausa, index, signumThe corporeal nature of GodAngelsChapter 20: The prophet and his signsThe second signMoral certaintyJustitiae vestigiabibliography Spinoza’s WorksOriginal EditionsReference EditionsSeparated Editions and English TranslationsOther Translations usedJournals and Collections Devoted to SpinozaCommentariesBibliographies on SpinozaIndexes and LexiconsSecondary sources citedindex