Small Portraits (02_2024)

by Rodrigo Ballon Villanueva

Johannes Wagner

Our guest for this month’s issue is Johannes Wagner. Johannes comes from an interdisciplinary background. He holds a BSc and an MSc in Psychology from the University of Graz (Austria) and a BA in Philosophy from the same institution. He then received an MA in Philosophy from King’s College London (UK) and has recently submitted his PhD thesis in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge (UK).

Johannes’s first research projects were in experimental philosophy, studying the relations between ethical theory and everyday life. With Philipp Schönegger, he conducted an empirical study on the moral behaviour of Ethics professors. Additionally, with Thomas Pölzler and Jennnifer Wright, he analysed laypeople’s metaethical attitudes and implications for common-sense arguments for moral realism.

Through his studies of contemplative traditions and spiritual practice with Rohini Ralby, Johannes began to explore the relations between philosophy and ethical life, focusing on mystical experience, the love of God, and human happiness. In his graduate work, he specialised in Spinoza, early modern philosophy, and the Neoplatonic tradition originating with Plotinus. In this line, his doctoral dissertation develops a Neoplatonic reading of Spinoza’s pantheistic philosophy.

According to Johannes, in modern anglophone scholarship, Spinoza is often read through a modern secularised lens in which God is simply a placeholder for the natural cosmos. By contrast, he suggests that Spinoza’s philosophy is better understood by setting modern assumptions aside, paying attention instead to the ancient Neoplatonic tradition. Although Spinoza likely did not read the ancient Neoplatonists, he was exposed to and adopted Neoplatonic materials from the Jewish Kabbalah and Renaissance Neoplatonism, as well as from the Christian and Jewish-Islamicate medieval traditions. Johannes argues that Spinoza’s reception of Neoplatonic elements concerns not merely peripheral aspects but the core of his philosophical commitments. For instance, Spinoza aligns with Neoplatonic metaphysics by conceiving all things as emanating from God, who is then present and expressed in the whole of reality while remaining unfragmented and undiminished. Similarly, Spinoza adopts Neoplatonic epistemology and ethics by claiming that human souls can directly know and unite with the divine essence manifested in all things, which leads to a supreme joyful state.

The programmatic introduction to Johannes’ Neoplatonic reading of Spinoza can be found here, together with his review of Alexander Douglas’ new book, The Philosophy of Hope: Spinoza on Beatitude. Johannes is currently seeking to do postdoctoral work on Spinoza and mysticism and a smaller project involving manuscript work on Mary Astell’s Platonised notion of the love of God.