Spinoza's 'Theological-Political Treatise': A Critical Guide

by Yitzhak Y. Melamed (Editor), Michael A. Rosenthal (Editor)

Overview

Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was published anonymously in 1670 and immediately provoked huge debate. Its main goal was to claim that the freedom of philosophizing can be allowed in a free republic and that it cannot be abolished without also destroying the peace and piety of that republic. Spinoza criticizes the traditional claims of revelation and offers a social contract theory in which he praises democracy as the most natural form of government. This Critical Guide presents essays by well-known scholars in the field and covers a broad range of topics, including the political theory and the metaphysics of the work, religious toleration, the reception of the text by other early modern philosophers and the relation of the text to Jewish thought. It offers valuable perspectives on this important and influential work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780511851780
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/18/2010
Series:	Cambridge Critical Guides
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	491 KB

About the Author

Yitzhak Y. Melamed is Associate Professor in the Philosophy Department at The Johns Hopkins University. He works primarily on early modern philosophy, German idealism, metaphysics and medieval philosophy. He is the author of Spinoza's Metaphysics of Substance and Thought (forthcoming), as well as several articles on early modern philosophy, German idealism and metaphysics, and the editor of Eternity (forthcoming).
Michael A. Rosenthal is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washington. He is the author of numerous articles on Spinoza and early modern philosophy, which have appeared in journals including Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie, Journal of the History of Philosophy, and Journal of Political Philosophy. He is currently working on a book on the Theological-Political Treatise. He was recently a Visiting Fellow at the Forschungskolleg für Humanwissenschaften in Bad Homburg, Germany.

Table of Contents

List of contributors; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Introduction Yitzhak Y. Melamed and Michael Rosenthal; 1. Spinoza's exchange with Albert Burgh Edwin Curley; 2. The text of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Piet Steenbakkers; 3. Spinoza on Ibn Ezra's Secret of the Twelve Warren Zev Harvey; 4. Reflections of the medieval Jewish-Christian debate in the Theological-Political Treatise and the Epistles Daniel J. Lasker; 5. The early Dutch and German reaction to the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus: foreshadowing the Enlightenment's more general Spinoza reception? Jonathan Israel; 6. G. W. Leibniz's two readings of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus Mogens Laerke; 7. The metaphysics of the Theological-Political Treatise Yitzhak Y. Melamed; 8. Spinoza's conception of law: metaphysics and ethics Donald Rutherford; 9. Getting his hands dirty: Spinoza's criticism of the rebel Michael Della Rocca; 10. 'Promising' ideas: Hobbes and contract in Spinoza's political philosophy Don Garrett; 11. Spinoza's curious defense of toleration Justin Steinberg; 12. Miracles, wonder, and the state in Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise Michael A. Rosenthal; 13. Narrative as the means to freedom: Spinoza on the uses of imagination Susan James; Bibliography.

Editorial Reviews

"...Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise: A Critical Guide is a delightful book, an impressive demonstration of erudition and scholarship. The presentation is clear and forthright."
—George Lăzăroiu, PhD, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, New York

From the Publisher