<p>While both intuitive knowledge (<italic>scientia intuitiva</italic>) and reason (<italic>ratio</italic>) are adequate ways of knowing for Spinoza, they are not equal. "The greatest virtue of the mind" and "the greatest human perfection" consist in understanding things by intuitive knowledge, which Spinoza regards as superior to reason. Understanding why on Spinoza's account intuition is superior to reason is crucial for understanding his epistemological and ethical theories. Yet, the nature of this superiority has been the subject of some controversy due to Spinoza's parsimonious treatment of the distinction between reason and intuitive knowledge in the Ethics. In my dissertation, I explore this fundamental but relatively unexplored issue in Spinoza scholarship by investigating the nature of this distinction and its ethical implications. I suggest that these two kinds of adequate knowledge differ not only in terms of their method, but also with respect to their representative content. More specifically, I hold that unlike reason, which is a universal knowledge, intuitive knowledge descends to a level of particularity, including an adequate knowledge of one's own essence as it follows directly from God, which represents a superior form of self-knowledge. Attaining this superior self-knowledge makes intuitive knowledge the culmination of not only understanding but also happiness. Since, for Spinoza, there is an intrinsic relationship between the pursuit of knowledge and how we live our lives, I argue that these two ways of knowing are at the same time two ways of living.</p> / Dissertation

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T17:27:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Fernando Rocha Sapaterro.pdf: 1519028 bytes, checksum: 20c080e2600133773a449661cfaddba7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-07 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Our thesisaims to investigate the Epicurus concept of e&#945;&#954;&#945;&#961;&#953;j&#964;&#951;&#962;, blessedness, as belonged between gods and men, who despite the divine asribute is fact, it is unclear as human asribute. If gods and men have the same asribute we can pass from the fact to the knowledge about gods, founding a theology, since it is supported by elements of the Epicurus doctrine. First of all, we proceed searching the nature of the asribute to the asribution mode, or the possibility to pass from men to gods knowledge, by a the ology taken against filed Epicurean atheism / Nossa tese tem o intuito de investigar a noção de e&#945;&#954;&#945;&#961;&#953;j&#964;&#951;&#962;, beatitude, em Epicuro, como atributo partilhado entre deuses e homens,que apesar de ser fato como atributo divino, é obscuro como atributo humano. Supomos que se deuses e homens partilham de um mesmo atributo é possível passar do fato ao conhecimento, firmando uma Teologia, desde que isso seja corroborado pelos elementos da doutrina de Epicuro. Procedemos, assim, investigando qual a natureza do atributo para passarmos ao modo de atribuição, ou a possibilidade da passagem do conhecimento dos homens aos deuses, por meio de uma Teologia assumida contra o impetrado ateísmo epicurista

The work focuses on the virtue of love by Thomas Aquinas. It mainly deals with the principles of love in the philosophy of T. Aquinas, but also with themes that with concept of love directly related - such as the general conception of virtue, goodness, happiness or sins against love. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter is an introduction to the work of T. Aquinas. The second chapter deals with the basic characteristic of the concept of virtue and differentiation of natural and supernatural virtues. The next chapter deals with the concept of love itself. In this chapter there are the basic definitions and differentiation types of love. Another chapter is devoted to one of the question in Summa Theologica - About love itself which is perceived like basic question of the concept virtue of love by T. Aquinas. The fifth chapter deals with sins against love, which are seens as contravene to the love. Another sixth chapter focuses on whether love can be increased or decreased. The last chapter is devoted to the love from the today perspective.