Spinoza admires the works of his fellow philosopher Descartes. Descartes argues that human actions are determined by their mental state hence stating that there exists a relationship between mind and body (Moore, 20). Spinoza distances them from the concept and tries to argue that there is a controlling force over human beings.
Grosz addresses Spinoza’s argument as providing leeway to bypass mind-body relation (Cartesian dualism), and supports the fact that there may be a different force of nature affecting a human’s way of thinking and acting. She further acknowledges Spinoza’s fundamental assumption of the existence of an absolute and infinite power that is singular in kind and number. Spinoza argues that the mind and body can never be separated and act as one pure substance whereas the endless element is God and Nature that also cannot be separated.
Differences between Descartes and Spinoza
- Descartes argues that the mind and body can be separated whereas Spinoza states that they can never be two different substances (Detlefsen, 5).
- Descartes primarily tried to explain how a spiritual element (mind) would interact with a physical entity (body). Spinoza’s stated that body and mind were one physical entity and tried to explain how they are finite modules of a single (God or nature) substance.
- Spinoza strongly rejects the Cartesian dualism and states that it is misleading in not appreciating the presence of a spiritual controlling force.
Egalitarian feminism
Egalitarian feminism is a form of gender equality movement that aims at equalizing male and female dominance in decision making and other aspects of living.Grosz acknowledges that women are treated as the body by men who perceive themselves as the mind. She criticizes the dominance of men treating and seeing women as body substance, and that is only allowed to express themselves through body gestures (Detlefsen, 5). She further criticizes women who see themselves as a bodily substance out to please men and be submissive to them all the time. I agree with Grosz all through since she tries to justify why they still exist men dominance today.
Why feminists are not interested in how the body is given
According to Grosz, feminists fail to understand their physical body formation since they are brainwashed from day one that only their looks matter to men and hence try to adjust themselves to suit men’s tastes (Langton, 252).
How this disrupt conventional analyses of embodiment in philosophy
Philosophy is passed on through support in the future from other philosophers. The development of different concepts regarding the correlation between body and mind will further drift the problem of explaining whether they are related or not.
Conclusion
This study has been able to address the dominance stature that men of today possess. Philosophers Descartes and Spinoza argued that mind and body play a significant role in the way we behave, act, and think. They try to explain the differences between male and female sexes that make the man predominant over what women do, talk, and behave. Grosz further attempts to tell why women are generally brainwashed by their looks and have set their primary role in the world as to pleasing men through their physical examinations. Grosz states that women give men the chance to dominate over them and dictate on what role they can play in society about governance and any critical decision making concerning life.
Work cited:
Detlefsen, Karen. “Cartesian and its feminist promise and limits: The case of Mary Astell.” (2018): 1-18. <https://philarchive.org/archive/DETCAI>.
Langton, Rae. “Feminism in philosophy.” (2017): 232-254. <http://web.mit.edu/langton/www/pubs/FeminismInPhilosophy.pdf>.
Moree, Davis. What were some similarities and differences between Descarets and Spinoza? 2017. <https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-some-similarities-differences-descartes-1272311>.