Affect and Effect

Abstract

Spinoza argues that all entities are animated. Nonetheless, his philosophy provides a systematic grounding for our everyday distinction between living and non-living things. While all bodies in motion bring about transitive effects, living things share a further capacity for bringing about transformative effects, making real changes in themselves and in other entities. Further, this capacity in living things derives from their acting in virtue of their inadequate ideas. Inadequate ideas in Spinoza’s philosophy are thus intrinsic to living things’ being the kinds of things they are, underpinning both the everyday distinction between living and non-living things and the observable varying repertoires of effect among living things themselves.