Taniec Spinozy?

• Authors: Klimczyk Wojciech

Title variants

EN

THE DANCE OF SPINOZA?

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The philosophy of Baruch Spinoza is often (for example in Roger Scruton’s popular introduction or in Ernst Cassirer) looked at as an apotheosis of stillness. One can of course find also other interpretations, for example the one proposed recently by Agata Bielik-Robson in reference to the classic commentary to Spinoza’s oeuvre by Gilles Deleuze, which can be called vitalistic. Yet no one so far has attempted to look at the works of great seventeenth-century rationalist from the perspective of dance. This article is aimed at doing just that – proving that Spinoza’s works, especially Ethics, can be interpreted as philosophical dance, because of the author’s sensitivity to organized, but also lively movement. In this context a striking resemblance between Spinoza’s most famous portrait and Jan Steen’s Dancing Couple (1663) is noticed and analysed in the article. Although the two masters living in United Provinces in the middle of XVII century are not known to have been acquainted, a certain dance spirit common to both is worth reconstructing, if only to prove wrong the stereotype that puritan Dutch society of the era was insensitive to the beauty of movement of the human body.

Keywords

EN

Spinoza; dance; Steen; Dancing Couple

• Publisher: Instytut Filozofii - Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Estetyka i Krytyka
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 1(40)
• Pages: 23-42

Dates

published

2016

Contributors

author

Klimczyk Wojciech

• Uniwersytet Jagielloński