Medicine in Spinoza's Ethics: diágnosis and therapeutiké

• Grant number: 25/08816-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: January 01, 2026
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Luís César Guimarães Oliva
• Grantee: Felipe Bellei Cordeiro
• Supervisor: Giuseppina Totaro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Istituto Per Il Lessico Intellettuale Europeo E Storia Delle Idee Cnr, Italy
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/09094-2 - Medicine in Spinoza's Ethics, BP.MS

Abstract

This internship is part of the master's research project Medicine in Spinoza's Ethics (FAPESP 2024/09094-2). The hypothesis of the research is that Spinoza's Ethics can be read as a work inspired by Hippocratic thought. Our objective is to highlight the presence of the medical method in its constitution, which entails two levels of pertinence: (1) Spinoza's place within the tradition of interpenetration between medicine and philosophy, and (2) the presence of the medical method within the Ethics. This research begins with the birth of medicine (tékhne iatriké - the art of healing/caring) among the Hippocratic Greeks and follows the incorporation of its method into the history of philosophy. In Plato, medical tékhne becomes a model of method for the emerging discipline philosophia, which ought to deal with the psyche in the same analytical manner that Hippocrates deals with the soma. Aristotle also draws upon tékhne as a methodological model for his Nicomachean Ethics. Cicero equates them, defining philosophy as medicina animi. In Spinoza, we observe - as argued by Marilena Chaui (2020) - the incorporation of medical methods in the construction of the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect. In the Ethics, just as in the Hippocratic texts, a method for salus (healing/salvation) emerges from the very order of nature. Our hypothesis is that the diagnostic and therapeutic dimensions of the Ethics are shaped by the condition of dual causality (internal and external), proper to human nature. Based on this, we will explore the diagnosis of subjection to the passions as illness, and the hypothesis of the internalization of causality as therapeutic. The internship abroad represents a crucial step in advancing the research in Brazil, offering direct access to historical collections in Italian libraries, as well as to current transdisciplinary studies in the history of philosophy. This will help refine key concepts (diagnosis and therapeutics) and situate Spinoza's work historically. (AU)