Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Flakne, April

Area of Concentration

Philosophy

Abstract

Although Spinoza encourages us to understand Nature, and our place as parts in it, he felt inclined to say that the lower animals have nothing in common with our nature, and so ‘we have every right against them that they have against us’. Is he ultimately justified in making this claim? I believe that Spinoza's ethic, and the end that ensues from it would actually warrant fair consideration of the lower animals. I demonstrate this through the separation of the eternal essence and the particular essence which each individual is composed of. Insofar as humankind acts according to the universal essence, we are called upon to consider all parts of Nature. Through phenomenological application, I suggest that this consideration will require us to consider empathetic affectivity towards the lower animals, rather than asserting our power over them however we feel.

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