•  1378
    The Concept of Affectivity in Early Modern Philosophy (edited book)
    with Gábor Boros and Judit Szalai
    Eötvös Loránd University Press. 2017.
    Collection of papers presented at the First Budapest Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy.
  •  809
    Memory, Recollection and Consciousness in Spinoza's Ethics
    Society and Politics 12 (2): 50-71. 2018.
    Spinoza’s account of memory has not received enough attention, even though it is relevant for his theory of consciousness. Recent literature has studied the “pancreas problem.” This paper argues that there is an analogous problem for memories: if memories are in the mind, why is the mind not conscious of them? I argue that Spinoza’s account of memory can be better reconstructed in the context of Descartes’s account to show that Spinoza responded to these views. Descartes accounted for the preser…Read more
  •  680
    Inherence of False Beliefs in Spinoza’s Ethics
    Society and Politics 10 (2): 74-94. 2016.
    In this paper I argue, based on a comparison of Spinoza's and Descartes‟s discussion of error, that beliefs are affirmations of the content of imagination that is not false in itself, only in relation to the object. This interpretation is an improvement both on the winning ideas reading and on the interpretation reading of beliefs. Contrary to the winning ideas reading it is able to explain belief revision concerning the same representation. Also, it does not need the assumption that I misinterp…Read more
  •  632
    In this paper I examine the question whether Spinoza can account for the necessity of death. I argue that he cannot because within his ethical intellectualist system the subject cannot understand the cause of her death, since by understanding it renders it harmless. Then, I argue that Spinoza could not solve this difficulties because of deeper commitments of his system. At the end I draw a historical parallel to the problem from medieval philosophy.
  •  596
    Spinoza's theory of intellect – an Averroistic theory?
    In Jozef Matula (ed.), Averroism between the 15th and 17th century, Verlag Traugott Bautz. pp. 281-309. 2020.
    In this paper, I investigate whether Spinoza theory of intellect can be considered as an Averroistic, Themistian or Alexandrian theory of intellect. I identify key doctrines of these theories that are argumentatively and theoretically independent from Aristotelian hylomorphism and thus can be accepted by someone rejecting hylomorphism. Next, I argue that the textual evidence is inconclusive: depending on the reading of Spinoza's philosophy accepted, Spinoza's theory of intellect can or cannot be…Read more
  •  554
    A fresh look on the role of the second kind of knowledge in Spinoza’s Ethics
    Hungarian Philosophical Review (2): 37-56. 2017.
    In this paper, through a close reading of Spinoza's use of common notions I argue for the role of experiential and experimental knowledge in Spinoza's epistemology.
  •  403
    A defense of reconstructivism
    Hungarian Review of Philosophy 65 (1): 51-68. 2022.
    The immediate occasion for this special issue was Christia Mercer’s influential paper “The Contextualist Revolution in Early Modern Philosophy”. In her paper, Mercer clearly demarcates two methodologies of the history of early modern philosophy. She argues that there has been a silent contextualist revolution in the past decades, and the reconstructivist methodology has been abandoned. One can easily get the impression that ‘reconstructivist’ has become a pejorative label that everyone outright …Read more
  •  329
    Reconstructivism not dead. Introduction
    Hungarian Review of Philosophy 65 (1): 5-8. 2022.
  •  263
    In this paper, I argue for a novel reading of Spinoza’s position in his exchangewith Boyle about Boyle’s experiment with nitre. Boyle claimed to have shownthrough experiments that nitre ceased to be nitre after heating. Spinozadisagreed and proposed the alternative hypothesis that nitre has changed itsstate and not its nature. Spinoza’s position was construed in the literature asrational scepticism denying that experiments can yield knowledge ofessences because all sensory experience is …Read more
  •  49
    A short overview of the theories of Individuality in early modern philosophy.
  •  46
    Preface: Remembering Consciousness
    Society and Politics 12 (2): 05-07. 2018.
    This issue is dedicated to consciousness in medieval and early modern philosophy of mind. It aims to shed new light on the continuities and innovations during the transition from medieval to early modern philosophy of mind. The four papers, by Sonja Schierbaum, Daniel Schmal, Oliver Istvan Toth, and Philipp N. Müller, focus on consciousness and, more specifically, on one of its less frequently considered aspects: memory.
  •  40
    Lust auf Kuchen: Rationale Durchdringung und Arten der Begierde bei Thomas
    Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 69 (3): 480-485. 2021.
    In this review of Dominik Perler’s book Eine Person sein, Perler’s reconstruction of the relationship between Thomas Aquinas’s unitarist position and his theory of incontinence is analyzed. Perler argues that the unitarist position of Thomas allowes him to conceive of incontinence as a weakness of the whole psychological system of the person. Unlike the mad person, the incontinent has responsibility because she has preserved a degree of rational control. Perler argues that the incontinent person…Read more
  •  32
    In this paper, we reconstruct the development of Spinoza’s theory of judgment against the backdrop of the development of his political views. In this context we also look at the difference between Descartes’ meta-act theory of judgment, which Spinoza criticises, and his own all-inclusive approach. By “meta-act theory” we understand the claim that content and judgment about the truth of the content are metaphysically really distinct mental items. By an “all-inclusive theory” we understand the cla…Read more