Affective Physics: Affectus in Spinoza’s Ethica

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

Fulke Greville’s Dedication broaches many themes familiar from the early modern literature on friendship, such as the ideal of an affective politics based on consensus rather than coercion, and the need for rulers to accept the frank criticism of their subjects. It is through friendship that Greville approaches the question that he regarded as one of the central problems of political life: how to achieve a balance between the need for order, and man’s natural desire for freedom and equality. Throughout the period, authors ranging from Erasmus and Juan Luis Vives to John Milton struggled with the problem of male female friendship, trying to square the circle by attempting to harmonize the inequality arising from woman’s subjection to the will of her husband to spiritual equality and friendship. Greville’s Dedication presents Sidney as a man of exemplary political and moral virtues, embodying the highest ideals of Elizabethan England, construed retrospectively as a lost golden age.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationPassions and Subjectivity in Early Modern Culture
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages33-49
Number of pages17
ISBN (Electronic)9781317083474
ISBN (Print)9781472413642
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2016

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Arts and Humanities

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Affective Physics: Affectus in Spinoza’s Ethica'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this