Spinoza's 'Theological-Political Treatise': A Critical Guide (Cambridge Critical Guides)

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 New Critical Guide Presents New 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 New Perspectives On This Important And Influential Work-- Machine Generated Contents Note: List Of Contributors; Acknowledgements; List Of Abbreviations; Introduction Yitzhak Y. Melamed And Michael Rosenthal; Spinoza's Exchange With Albert Burgh Edwin Curley; The Text Of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-politicus Piet Steenbakkers; Spinoza On Ibn Ezra's Secret Of The Twelve Warren Zev Harvey; Reflections Of The Medieval Jewish-christian Debate In The Theological-political Treatise And The Epistles Daniel J. Lasker; The Early Dutch And German Reaction To The Tractatus Theologico-politicus: Foreshadowing The Enlightenment's More General Spinoza Reception? Jonathan Israel; G. W. Leibniz's Two Readings Of The Tractatus Theologico-politicus Mogens Laerke; The Metaphysics Of The Theological-political Treatise Yitzhak Y. Melamed; Spinoza's Conception Of Law: Metaphysics And Ethics Donald Rutherford; Getting His Hands Dirty: Spinoza's Criticism Of The Rebel Michael Della Rocca; 'promising' Ideas: Hobbes And Contract In Spinoza's Political Philosophy Don Garrett; Spinoza's Curious Defense Of Toleration Justin Steinberg; Miracles, Wonder, And The State In Spinoza's Theological-political Treatise Michael A. Rosenthal; Narrative As The Means To Freedom: Spinoza On The Uses Of Imagination Susan James; Bibliography. Edited By Yitzhak Y. Melamed And Michael A. Rosenthal. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover 1 Half-title 3 Series-title 4 Title 5 Copyright 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 Contributors 11 Acknowledgments 14 Abbreviations 15 Introduction 17 Chapter 1 Spinoza’s exchange with Albert Burgh 27 Chapter 2 The text of Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus 45 1 Genesis 45 2 Printing history: the latin text 49 3 The early translations 51 4 The “annotations to the tractatus theologico-politicus” 54 5 Later editions of the latin text 55 Chapter 3 Spinoza on Ibn Ezra’s “secret of the twelve” 57 1 Spinoza’s exposition 58 2 Review of spinoza’s exposition 61 3 Influences 64 4 Spinoza and rabbi joseph ben eliezer 64 5 Spinoza and rabbi eleazar ben mattathias 67 6 Spinoza and hobbes 70 7 Concluding remark 71 Chapter 4 Reflections of the medieval Jewish–Christian debate in the Theological-Political Treatise and the Epistles 72 Chapter 5 The early Dutch and German reaction to the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus: foreshadowing the Enlightenment’s more general Spinoza reception? 88 1 The early european impact 88 2 The early dutch and german responses 92 3 Spinoza and the dutch arminians 100 4 Van mansvelt’s cartesian reply 102 5 The lutheran perspective 106 6 The socinian predicament 110 7 Conclusion 115 Chapter 6 G. W. Leibniz’s two readings of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus 117 1 Introduction 117 2 The first reading of the ttp 118 3 The second reading of the ttp 123 4 Leibniz on spinozism, naturalism, and socinianism 126 5 Leibniz on spinoza and meyer 131 6 Leibniz on spinoza and hobbes 136 7 Conclusion 142 Chapter 7 The metaphysics of the Theological-Political Treatise 144 1 Introduction 144 2 Metaphysical principles: the principle of sufficient reason and the priority of the infinite 145 3 The god of the ttp: god and nature 149 4 The god of the ttp: god’s essence is existence 153 5 Substance and attributes 156 6 The conatus 157 7 Conclusion 158 Chapter 8 Spinoza’s conception of law: metaphysics and ethics 159 1 General analysis of law 159 2 The natural and the normative 164 3 Divine law 172 4 Reconciling the two conceptions of divine law 179 5 Conclusion 182 Chapter 9 Getting his hands dirty: Spinoza’s criticism of the rebel 184 1 Who’s a rebel? 185 2 Hold the sauce 189 3 The frying pan 193 4 The state, similarity, and point of view 196 5 A rebel without internal coherence 198 6 The fire 200 7 Special sauce after all? 202 Chapter 10 “Promising” ideas: Hobbes and contract in Spinoza’s political philosophy 208 1 Puzzles about hobbes and spinoza on promising and contract 208 2 Key doctrines in hobbes and spinoza 212 3 Puzzles solved 221 4 Conclusion 224 Chapter 11 Spinoza’s curious defense of toleration 226 1 The roads not taken 227 1.1 Why toleration must be justified 227 1.2 The argument from epistemic humility 228 1.3 The argument from pluralism 229 1.4 The argument from rights 232 2 The prudential, anticlerical basis of spinoza’s tolerationism 234 2.1 Spinoza’s anticlerical intolerance 235 2.2 Spinoza’s anticlerical toleration 236 2.3 Moral legislation as self-defeating 239 3 Toleration and the ends of governance 241 Chapter 12 Miracles, wonder, and the state in Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise 247 1 Introduction 247 2 Collective action problems in the social contract theory 249 3 Spinoza’s critique of wonder 252 4 Miracles 255 5 The miracle of the will 259 6 The origins of human law 261 7 Conclusion 264 Chapter 13 Narrative as the means to freedom: Spinoza on the uses of imagination 266 Bibliography 284 SPINOZA 284 MAIMONIDES 284 DESCARTES 285 HOBBES 285 OTHER WORKS 285 Index 302 "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 new Critical Guide presents new 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 new perspectives on this important and influential work"-- Résumé de l'éditeur