Notions of Beauty: A Case for Aesthetics in Spinozistic Epistemology

In James C. Morrison’s essay “Why Spinoza Had No Aesthetics,” Morrison aims to tackle what, if anything, is said about aesthetics by Spinoza, and what ground exists for it to fit inside his framework of ideas and knowledge. Though Morrison is correct that aesthetic ideas are tied up in the affects and cannot rise to the level of reason outlined in the two highest grades of knowledge, aesthetics is nonetheless overlooked as a crucial, if not optimal, medicine against bad affects and pathway to reason. In this paper, I will look at why Spinoza avoids aesthetics, some good reasons to think Spinoza wouldn’t consider them anything more than low-grade knowledge in the form of sensory perception, and conclude with some reasons to think aesthetics tells us a lot more than a traditional reading of Ethics leads us to believe.