{"product_id":"peeling-potatoes-or-grinding-lenses-aristides-baltas-9780822967866","title":"Peeling Potatoes or Grinding Lenses: Spinoza and Young Wittgenstein Converse on Immanence and Its Logic","description":"\"I can work best now while peeling potatoes. . . . It is for me what lens-grinding was for Spinoza.\"--L. Wittgenstein \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMore than 250 years separate the publication of Baruch Spinoza's \u003ci\u003eEthics\u003c\/i\u003e and Ludwig Wittgenstein's \u003ci\u003eTractatus Logico-Philosophicus.\u003c\/i\u003e Both are considered monumental philosophical treatises, produced during markedly different times in human history, and notoriously challenging to interpret. In \u003ci\u003ePeeling Potatoes or Grinding Lenses, \u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTo 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThrough 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Aristides Baltas\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0822967863\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780822967866\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Pittsburgh Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/14\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 312\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.97lbs","brand":"Aristides Baltas","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47424739803391,"sku":"9780822967866","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_7cb7ed9b-4466-4c0b-a99b-4cfdac4fb13e.jpg?v=1761532211","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/peeling-potatoes-or-grinding-lenses-aristides-baltas-9780822967866","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}