[MGSA-L] Aristeidis Baltas, Peeling Potatoes or Grinding Lenses: Spinoza and Young Wittgenstein Converse on Immanence and Its Logic

[Stathis Gourgouris]

This newly published book is not about Modern Greek Studies as such, but 
it is a groundbreaking publication by the most creative Greek 
philosopher living today.

http://www.upress.pitt.edu/BookDetails.aspx?bookId=36277

Peeling Potatoes or Grinding Lenses
Spinoza and Young Wittgenstein Converse on Immanence and Its Logic
Baltas, Aristides
	More than 250 years separate the publication of Baruch Spinoza's 
/Ethics/ and Ludwig Wittgenstein's /Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus/. In 
/Peeling Potatoes or Grinding Lenses,/ Aristides Baltas contends that 
these works bear a striking similarity based on the idea of "radical 
immanence." He analyzes the structure and content of each treatise, the 
authors' intentions, the limitations and possibilities afforded by 
scientific discovery in their respective eras, their radical opposition 
to prevailing philosophical views, and draws out the particulars, as 
well as the implications, of the arresting match between the two.

*Aristides Baltas* teaches at the National Technical University of 
Athens (NTUA), Greece. He is coeditor of /Scientific Controversies: 
Philosophical and Historical Perspectives./

"I can work best now while peeling potatoes. . . . It is for me what 
lens-grinding was for Spinoza."---L. Wittgenstein

More than 250 years separate the publication of Baruch Spinoza's 
/Ethics/ and Ludwig Wittgenstein's /Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus./ 
Both are considered monumental philosophical treatises, produced during 
markedly different times in human history, and notoriously challenging 
to interpret. In /Peeling Potatoes or Grinding Lenses,/ Aristides Baltas 
contends that these works bear a striking similarity based on the idea 
of "radical immanence." Each purports to understand the world, thought, 
and language from the inside and in a way leading to the dissolution of 
all philosophy. In that guise, both offer a powerful argument against 
fundamentalism of all sorts and kinds. To Spinoza, God is just Nature. 
God is not above or separate from the world, humanity, or mere objects 
for, as Nature, He inheres in everything. To Wittgenstein, logic is not 
above or separate from language, thought, and the world. The hardness of 
the logical "must" inheres in states of affairs, facts, thoughts, and 
linguistic acts. Outside there are no truths or sense---only nonsense. 
Through close readings of the texts based on lessons drawn from radical 
paradigm change in science, Baltas finds in both works a single-minded 
purpose, implacable reasoning, and an austerity of style that are rare 
in the history of philosophy. He analyzes the structure and content of 
each treatise, the authors' intentions, the limitations and 
possibilities afforded by scientific discovery in their respective eras, 
their radical opposition to prevailing philosophical views, and draws 
out the particulars, as well as the implications, of the arresting match 
between the two.

"In Aristides Baltas's widely learned and bracingly surprising 
interpretation, God for Spinoza and Logic for Wittgenstein emerge as 
specific expressions of the human need for an absolute authority from 
whose point of view the whole of reality or language can be understood 
and evaluated at once. Spinoza and Wittgenstein emerge, in turn, as 
implacable enemies of any such authority and make common cause against 
its claims to legislate what can be thought, valued, and done. 
Controversial and fascinating, the book is bound to provoke intense 
discussion and---more important---serious thought."---Alexander Nehamas, 
Princeton University

"Aristides Baltas has a well-deserved reputation for eloquence, 
erudition, and keen philosophical insight. /Peeling Potatoes or Grinding 
Lenses/ will do nothing but enhance this reputation. Baltas argues the 
initially somewhat implausible claim that there is a strong and 
meaningful structural analogy between the positions of Spinoza and 
Wittgenstein, which Baltas calls radical immanence, to the effect that 
there is no philosophical viewpoint outside of the world and language 
and thought. It is fascinating to watch Baltas carefully, precisely, and 
in loving detail erect his argument from the historical texts and then 
defend it in his inimitable elegant fashion. This is a book to dwell in 
with enormous rewards. I recommend it wholeheartedly."---George Gale, 
University of Missouri-Kansas City

"The key idea from which Aristides Baltas develops his parallel 
treatment of Spinoza and Wittgenstein is immanentism: Logic is in 
language for Wittgenstein just as God is in the world for Spinoza. To 
Baltas, each thinker insists upon immanence at the very moment at which 
a prior tradition of thought had recourse to an appeal to transcendence. 
In both cases, this undoing of traditional assumptions leads to a thesis 
about the impossibility of philosophy as traditionally conceived and a 
rejection of any point of view outside world, language, or thought. This 
is an outstanding book and obligatory reading for anyone interested in 
both Spinoza and Wittgenstein." ---Jim Conant, University of Chicago


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