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18Spinoza and Scholastic PhilosophyIn Yitzhak Y. Melamed (ed.), A Companion to Spinoza, Wiley. 2021.Spinoza's writing style has been judged, by various commentators, alternatively as excessively dry or lavishly rich, depending on the precise text that these scholars had in mind when making such judgments. This chapter offers an overview of a selected list of Scholastic debates intersecting the CM. It highlights how Spinoza consciously intervenes in them, showing a certain awareness of the intricacies of Scholastic discourse. Spinoza opens the CM with a discussion of the term “being,” claiming …Read more
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30A Spinozist defense of trope theorySouthern Journal of Philosophy 61 (3): 439-456. 2023.Trope theory and Spinoza's metaphysics apparently present two incompatible ontological landscapes. Spinoza assigns a strong metaphysical priority to a grounding substance and describes common objects as adjectival upon such substance. By contrast, several contemporary trope theories attempt to reduce all substances (both universal and particular) to bundles of individual properties. In this article, I motivate, defend, and develop a compatible reading of Spinozism and trope theories. This interp…Read more
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53Spinoza and the Hybrid Distinction of AttributesHistory of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 26 (1): 28-53. 2023.In this paper, I address the issue of what kind of distinction separates the attributes of Spinoza’s substance. I propose to consider the distinction between attributes neither as a real distinction nor as a pure distinction of reason. Instead, I ventilate the alternative of understanding attributes as distinguished by a hybrid distinction, of which I trace the development during the Medieval and Early Modern eras. With the term hybrid, I capture distinctions which are neither a real distinction…Read more
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29IntroductionJournal of Early Modern Studies 11 (2): 9-11. 2023.The concept of expression grounds a large portion of Spinoza’s metaphysics, giving further depth to seemingly foundational concepts such as substance, causality, attribute, and essence. Spinoza adopts the term “expression” in crucial contexts such as the definition of attribute, the essential dependence of modes on substance, and the striving or effort of a finite conatus. In this essay, I seek to interpret expression as an instance of relational or structural ontology, escaping the reductionist…Read more
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37Triadic Metaphysics - Spinoza’s Expression as Structural OntologyJournal of Early Modern Studies 11 (2): 71-94. 2023.The concept of expression grounds a large portion of Spinoza’s metaphysics, giving further depth to seemingly foundational concepts such as substance, causality, attribute, and essence. Spinoza adopts the term “expression” in crucial contexts such as the definition of attribute, the essential dependence of modes on substance, and the striving or effort of a finite conatus. In this essay, I seek to interpret expression as an instance of relational or structural ontology, escaping the reductionist…Read more
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27David of Dinant and Negative PanentheismHistory of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 25 (2): 352-374. 2022.During the Middle Ages, heterodox applications of crucial tenets of Aristotle’s philosophy led philosophers to explore connections and suggestions that would have not been acceptable for the Stagirite. In this essay, I explore the conflagration of two such Aristotelian (or pseudo-Aristotelian) theses. First, I investigate the notion that prime matter cannot have any properties (as described, among others, by Simplicius and Aquinas); secondly, I take into account the thesis that no property can s…Read more
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539Spiritual Automata and Bodies Without Organs: Spinoza, Deleuze, and ParallelismLaDeleuziana. forthcoming.In this paper, I seek to examine Deleuze’s fascination with “spiritual automata” as a counterpoint to his more famous notion, the “body without organs”. I shall argue that both are grounded in a deep reflection, on Deleuze’s part, on the problems and issues generated by Spinoza’s notion of parallel attributes. Ultimately, I argue, the development of the two notions is motivated by identical metaphysical worries regarding the tenability of transformation, persistence, and affective interrelations…Read more
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24The Parmenidean Ascent by Michael Della Rocca (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2020)Philosophy 97 (2): 259-263. 2022.
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6The Parmenidean Ascent by Michael Della Rocca (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2020). (review)Philosophy 98 1-4. 2022.
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369Toward Linguistic Responsibility: The Harm of Speech ActsPublic Philosophy Journal 4 (1). 2021.In this short article, I analyze forms of public speech by individuals in positions of power through a framework based on Austin’s theory of speech acts. I argue that because of the illocutionary and perlocutionary force attached to such individuals’ offices and their public figures, their public speech qualifies for being framed as speech acts—which are not covered by even a broad understanding of freedom of speech or right to privacy. Therefore, I formulate a call for the assessment of public …Read more
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1Spinoza’s Metaphysics of Freedom and Its Essential ParadoxRivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica. forthcoming.One of the most peculiar features of Spinoza’s philosophy is his radical interpretation of the notion of freedom. Even though it plays a significant role in his metaethics and political philosophy, freedom is, for Spinoza, a deeply metaphysical notion, rooted in the most fundamental features of his ontology. In this paper, I analyze the internal structure that identifies a being as “free” within Spinoza’s metaphysics. I argue that this structure leads to an internal paradox, entailing that the v…Read more
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31Discrimination, Othering, and the Political Instrumentalizing of Pandemic DiseaseJournal of Interdisciplinary History of Ideas 9 (18). 2020.The complex history of pandemics has created a diversified array of anti-epidemic responses, which have allowed structures of authority to express their power in multiple ways. In this paper, by considering theories applicable to cases ranging from Europe to Asia, from the 11th to the 18th century, we conduct a comparative analysis capable of identifying common traits and radical differences, aiming to show how such deployment of power was not always commensurate with the medical theories of the…Read more
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35Spinoza, Jonas, and the Theory of OrganicismInterpretationes Studia Philosophica Europeanea 3 (2): 63-70. 2013.In this paper, I discuss an on Spinoza written by Hans Jonas in 1965: “Spinoza and the Theory of Organism”. First, I present Jonas’ main argument and the theoretical assumptions of his essay; then I expand on the possible development of these assumptions with the aim of proposing a complete theory of being; a Spinozian ontology. Finally, my argument will focus on the interpretation of Spinoza’s work and thought as an organicism and the possible relations between this reading and Jonas’ article.
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1Transcendence and Immanence in Anne ConwayIn L. Bastos Andrade & Roberto Casales García (eds.), Dios y la filosofía. Una aproximación histórica al problema de la trascendencia, Tirant Humanidades. 2022.In this chapter, I examine the metaphysics elaborated by Viscountess Anne Finch Conway in the effort of determining the meaning she assigned to the notions of transcendence and immanence. In the Early Modern period, her philosophy is one of the most original attempts towards an integration of notions deriving from Lurianic Kabbalah and Sufism into debates stemming from the confrontation of mainstream Protestantism with its most heterodox cognates, such as Quakerism. Responding to these variegate…Read more
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74Whole-Parts Relations in Early Modern PhilosophyEncyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. 2021.The approach adopted by Early Modern authors to the notions of ‘whole’ and ‘part’ (what is called, in contemporary metaphysics, “mereology”, from the Ancient Greek word μερος: ‘part’) constitutes a central feature of their respective systems. The issue of what constituted a whole became all the more crucial as the new, revolutionary approaches to matter and extension – which mark the unavoidably fuzzy beginning of what we define as “modernity” – demanded a novel (and in some cases, radical) appr…Read more
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35Spinoza and Scholastic PhilosophyIn Yitzhak Y. Melamed (ed.), Blackwell Companion to Spinoza, Blackwell. 2021.In the first section of this chapter, I offer an overview of a selected list of Scholastic debates intersecting Spinoza's Cogitata Metaphysica. I highlight how Spinoza consciously intervenes in them, showing a certain awareness of the intricacies of Scholastic discourse. In this first section, I emphasize Spinoza’s interest in three specific problems: the issue of the division of being into “real being” and “being of reason”; the eternity of God and its distinction from duration; and, finally, …Read more
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1Modes, aspects, power: Spinoza’s relational metaphysicsDissertation, . 2019.The core aim of the dissertation is the identification of criteria for the individuation of singular, finite modes within Spinoza’s monist system. The analysis encompasses two main routes. First, the characterisation of the notion of ‘mode’, contrasted with ‘substance’ and ‘attribute’. This route leads me to examine several interpretations, which have attempted a description of the core concepts of Spinoza’s metaphysics, and to propose a novel reading that makes a robust use of the historical no…Read more
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In this short paper, I offer a reconstruction of Tommaso Campanella's conception of necessity. I particularly focus on those aspects of his theory of necessity which relate to his peculiar cosmology.
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49Uno Spinoza sistemico: Strumenti per un'interpretazione sistemica del pensiero di SpinozaRivista di Filosofia Neo-Scolastica 106 (3): 525-535. 2014.In this study, I will attempt a comparison between the philosophy of Spinoza (especially his Ethics) and the systemic philosophy. Firstly, I will analyze the systemic specific terminology; then it will be compared with the Spinozian one, and I will suggest a hypothesis in order to translate Spinoza's terms into systemic ones. Of this hypothesis, I will present the strengths and weaknesses, especially about the notion of 'centralization' of a system and about Spinoza's epistemology.
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49Leibniz on Relations: From (Soft) Reductionism to the Expression of the UniverseJournal of Early Modern Studies 5 (1): 143-167. 2016.In this paper, I undertake an analysis of Leibniz’s theory of relations. My main argument focuses on distinguishing the ontological part of this theory from the logical/grammatical part, and showing that several studies of this subject are misplaced. I offer a clarification of the matter, presenting an argument that shows how Leibniz does not provide a unified theory for the two sides of his theory of relations. I proceed to argue about soft and hard reductionism, supporting the former. I show h…Read more