Kant and Spinozism

In the late eighteenth century, several thinkers attempted to fuse Kant's transcendental idealism with Spinoza's philosophy of immanence. These 'Spinozistic' readings of Kant had a profound influence on the development of his theories of nature and teleology in the Critique of Judgment, and on the transformation of his philosophical system in the Opus Postumum. Lord examines Ka...

In the late eighteenth century, several thinkers attempted to fuse Kant's transcendental idealism with Spinoza's philosophy of immanence. These 'Spinozistic' readings of Kant had a profound influence on the development of his theories of nature and teleology in the Critique of Judgment, and on the transformation of his philosophical system in the Opus Postumum. Lord examines Kant's relation to three of his Spinozistic readers -- F.H. Jacobi, J.G. Herder, and Solomon Maimon -- and investigates his response to their provocative suggestion that an immanent ontology solves the problems of transcendental idealism. Lord argues that this is the right context in which to understand Gilles Deleuze's reading of Kant, thereby opening new avenues for understanding both the centrality of Spinozism to Kant's thought, and the complex interrelations between Spinoza, Kant, Maimon, and Deleuze.