Spinoza and Identity

Is Spinoza the grandfather of the Semantic Web? 

Here is a short presentation by Philosopher Rocco Gangle: "Spinoza, Language, and Relational Identity"

http://vimeo.com/9581201

"Spinoza's philosophy shows how relationality and, in particular, the human capacity for language provides a model of human personhood in which individual subjectivity and identity exist only through mutually affective relations with the world and with others. Spinoza's Ethics offers definite ways to conceive and to implement interdisciplinary possibilities, particularly by applying the relational conception of personal identity more generally to the identities of collectivities and traditions. In this way, the concept of relational personhood opens out onto a more general framework for rethinking the constructive relationality of groups, traditions, disciplines and ways of life."

On the W3C WebID Incubator Group we have come across exactly this feature of identity. Your identity is how you are related to other people or things. Thinking this way leads one down paths were many problems suddenly just disappear that seemed insurmountable when thinking of things atomistically.

See http://webid.info/spec . 

Henry

Social Web Architect
http://bblfish.net/

Received on Tuesday, 6 December 2011 23:00:27 UTC