MEDIATION OF SPINOZISM The Introduction in the Pantheism Controversy

Abstract

The so-called pantheism controversy raised about 1783. out of the Jacobi’s assertion that Lessing was a Spinozist and interest in philosophy of Spinoza since then have been increased. This is the historical significance of the pantheism controversy. The philosophical one lies in the fact that the most important philosophical doctrines of these times were formed through the confrontation with the revitalized Spinozism. Because of that, the author in this paper examines the assumptions, circumstances and the course of the dispute, considering the standpoints of its best known participants. At the end of the final chapter, he is trying to find the implications of the controversy in the contemporary philosophical debates, too.