ABSTRACT
Carlisle presents an attractive picture of Spinoza’s theory of sin in this second sense:On Spinoza’s interpretation, the Fall dramatised in Genesis 2, and repeated through all generations descended from Adam, is not from immortality to mortality, but from desire for life to fear of death. This chapter argues that the origin of this fallen condition, for Spinoza, lies in attachment to a determinate exemplar. Many people are inclined to resist making their ultimate goal the escape from attachment to any determinate exemplar. Spinoza’s theory does allow for the existence of unconscious appetites, as opposed to conscious desires. Spinoza would likely explain much of what we regard as evil in the world as arising from the pursuit of exemplars – or, more specifically, from the roots of ambition.
