Spinoza vol 1 ebook Part 3: Was Spinoza a ‘Forerunner’ to Darwin?

Part 3: Was Spinoza a ‘Forerunner’ to Darwin?

Introduction

In Part 3, I would like to ask the question: Could Spinoza be a forerunner to Darwin so many centuries before him? At first blush, it would appear that no, however, I wish to argue that it is possible that Spinoza could anticipate a Darwinian evolutionary theory. This does not amount to the claim that Spinoza was Darwin in the making or that Darwin would never have come up with his evolutionary theory had Spinoza not got there first. It also does not involve superimposing Darwinian thought onto Spinoza or vice versa. By asking whether Spinoza was a forerunner to Darwin, I merely mean to compare and contrast features of their accounts, as well as how they compare with their predecessors and contemporary science, to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Spinoza and Darwin’s accounts.

I shall be using the word teleology in two ways:

One, to refer to the topic of teleology, both natural and divine, roughly amounting to explaining natural phenomenon in terms of human or divine purposes, desires and functions as a means to achieving a particular end goal, sometimes described in terms of final causes (which is a manner of thinking and explaining which Spinoza rejects).

Two, the methodological approach to the history of philosophy and interpreting philosophical texts in a way that, generically speaking, avoids using past philosophers and their texts as a means to explaining the merits of our contemporary attitudes, values and philosophy and sees the history of philosophy as valuable in itself.