Desire and Servitude in Spinoza

• Grant number: 24/03778-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 29, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Homero Silveira Santiago
• Grantee: Matheus Romero de Morais
• Supervisor: Stefano Visentin
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo, Italy
• Associated to the scholarship: 22/00807-0 - Desire and servitude in Spinoza, BP.DR

Abstract

The scope of this project, in general terms, is the problem of voluntary servitude as it is thought by Étienne de La Boétie and, especially, by Spinoza. From a certain perspective, it can be described as a comparative analysis of their thought, insofar as we aim to see the differences in how this problem is built by both authors considering the distance between the concepts they mobilize. However, from a different perspective, it is an evaluation of whether this problem can be ascribed to Spinoza or not, since his conceptual apparatus brings us some important difficulties. Positioning ourselves against those who answer this question negatively, we intend to show that even though Spinoza uses a different set of concepts he is indeed concerned with a problem similar to the one presented by La Boétie.