Man and nature or man is nature?

a look at the part-whole relationships and the geometric of the passions in Spinozian ethics

Abstract

This article aims to make some considerations about Spinoza's ethics, taking a look at the many conceptions of nature and, in particular, of the relationship between man (and society) and nature. Therefore, the article begins with a discussion on the impacts of utilitarian conceptions and mechanistic models of understanding nature (which recalls the important influence of the modern philosopher René Descartes). Then, it looks at some points of Spinoza's ethics: his conception of God and Substance – associated to the part-whole relationship in his work – and his geometrical physics of the passions. Finally, it presents some provocations/contributions of Spinozian philosophy and its ethics which, not sharing the anthropocentrism present in more traditional ethics, proposes a relationship between parts and whole that is closer to some currents of ecological thought.

Keywords: Nature. Spinoza. Ethic. Part-whole relationship. Primitive Affections.