Inertial Onto-Theology: Heideggerian Meditations on the Historical and Philosophical Significance of Spinoza’s Onto-Theology

The purpose of this essay is to, with continual reference to the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, elucidate a previously concealed dimension of Spinoza’s thought. In particular, through a Heideggerian exploration of the way in which a uniquely modern ‘logic of inertia’ shapes the horizon of Spinoza's thinking, this essay will identify a hidden dimension of Spinoza’s historical and philosophical significance, and it will delineate the relation this dimension has to the emergence of certain broader scientific, technical, existential, economic, and onto-theological modes of thinking. In doing so, it should be emphasized that the point of the essay is not to mount a critique of Spinoza’s doctrine in terms of its own internal validity or consistency; it is, rather, to demonstrate the utility of applying Heidegger’s thinking onto a delineation of the inertial logics of Spinoza’s thought. Hence, while the essay is geared toward those already familiar with the philosophical intricacies of Spinoza and Heidegger, it may also prove edifying for a general readership interested in the modern-condition, the history of being, and Spinoza’s philosophy taken as a decisive epoch within the history of thought.