FELIPE BELLEI CORDEIRO

The hypothesis is that Spinoza's Ethics can be read as a work of Hippocratic inspiration. Our objective is to emphasize the medical method in its constitution, focusing on two points: (1) Spinoza's place in the tradition linking medicine and philosophy, and (2) the medical method within the Ethics. This project begins with the emergence of medicine as tékhne iatrike (art of healing/caring) among the Hippocratic Greeks, tracing its incorporation into philosophy. In Spinoza, as Chaui (2020) argues, the medical method is incorporated in the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect. We propose that Spinoza retraces Greek medicine’s development. In the Ethics, as in Hippocratic texts, a method for salvation (salus) arises from nature’s order. Our hypothesis is that the diagnostic and therapeutic framework in the Ethics is based on dual causality (internal and external) inherent to human nature. We will explore the diagnosis of subjugation to passions as illness and the hypothesis of internalizing causality as therapy.