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Author:   Henri Atlan ,  Robert Boncardo (Australian Catholic University.) ,  Inja Stracenski (Co-ordinator and Lecturer in the School of Jewish Theology, The University of Potsdam) ,  Pierre Macherey
Publisher:   Edinburgh University Press
Imprint:   Edinburgh University Press
ISBN:  

9781474489010

ISBN 10:   147448901
Pages:   568
Publication Date:   31 May 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Table of Contents

Preface by Pierre Macherey Foreword Introduction: Why Spinoza? Part I: The Intelligible and the Sensible: The Relevance of Spinoza's Doctrine Chapter 1. The Order of Philosophizing: Nature Chapter 2. From a Biophysics of the Individual to the Nature of the Human Mind Chapter 3. Matter and Thought: Identity and Differences Chapter 4. The Unfinished Part II: Psychophysical Causations Chapter 5. Ideas and Things Chapter 6. The Body Cannot Determine the Mind to Think (Ethics III, 2, First Move) Chapter 7. Detour Through Cognitive Neurosciences Chapter 8. Causes, Correlations, Information, Neuronal Codes Chapter 9. Unconscious Consciousness. From the Inadequate to the Adequate Chapter 10. Methods of Research and Metaphysical Temptations Chapter 11. The ""Whole of Nature"" Under Each Attribute Chapter 12. Emergence and Supervenience: Anomalous Monism and Synthetic Identity Conclusion Appendix: The conatus Bibliography

Reviews

Beyond a fecund commentary about Spinoza that will inflect future interpretations, more broadly, Atlan has long been a critic of the obfuscations arising from a dualist metaphysics setting mind and brain in opposition and this latest work brilliantly settles the score. -- Alfred I. Tauber, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Boston University Based on a groundbreaking seminar on 'Complexity and Self-Organization: Spinoza, a Philosophy for Today,' offered in 2007 at Johns Hopkins' Humanities Center where so-called French Theory was launched in the United States at a conference on the 'sciences of man,' in 1966, Henri Atlan's new book is the brilliant and long-awaited sequel to his earlier magnum opus, the two-volume Sparks of Randomness, centered likewise around the 17th century sage from Amsterdam. While that work read Spinoza in light of Kabbalah, modern epistemology, and computational models of scientific reasoning, whose insights were beautifully laid out as if on a Talmudic page, Spinoza and Contemporary Biology greatly extends Atlan's philosophical project into the most advanced reaches of the science of life as well as the cognitive neurosciences with the deep probing and discursive rigour that marks his unique oeuvre overall. This massive tome provides an actual course and pedagogical tour de force in assessing the age-old philosophical problems regarding the elusive nexus between the living and the inanimate, mind and body, truth and error, in a radically novel perspective. In addition, Atlan's latest study helps us make sense of Spinoza's own most fundamental thoughts, the so-called 'small physics' and larger metaphysics, with its guiding concept of cause and three kinds of knowledge to begin with. -- Hent de Vries, New York University

Author Information

Henri Atlan is Professor Emeritus of Biophysics at the Universities of Paris VI and Jerusalem and Honorary Director of Research in Philosophy of Biology at the cole des Hautes tudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Robert Boncardo is Sessional Tutor in the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy at Australian Catholic University. He completed his doctorate in French Studies at the University of Sydney and Aix-Marseille Universite. Inja Stracenski is Co-ordinator and Lecturer in the School of Jewish Theology at The University of Potsdam

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