Book Review Spinoza and Hegel - Substance and Negativity Gregor Moder (Northwestern University Press: 2017)

Abstract

To claim that the field of Philosophy encompasses different lines of thought is nothing but an understatement. Sometimes philosophy can be seen as the ultimate clash of thought boxed into a field. We could name pairs and pairs of opposing sides, of opposing schools of thought, opposing rationales, opposing concepts and with time, see the in-depth level of complexity added to the homologies and analogies derived from the clashes embedded within this field. The investigation of a knowledge issue is a challenging proposal, especially when we are dealing with a field build upon diversity of thought. There are many risks and very few shortcuts. Well, it is safe to say that one of the fundamental issues of philosophy does revolve around the affirmative aspect of being or its negativity. In other words, all which is derived from the discussion if the being is or if it is not, is an open invitation to one of the greatest (if not the greatest) motif of philosophy. In Gregor Moder's latest book Hegel and Spinoza - Negativity and Substance (2017), what we find, page after page, goes way beyond the dry presentation of this issue through the history of epistemology, offering