Examining the philosophical, theological, and political teachings of the Tractatus theologico-politicus, this book proposes that Benedict Spinoza fashions a ...

Treatments of the moral doctrine of René Descartes found in the Cartesian scholarship do not typically regard the Cartesian philosophy as being devoted to moral instruction. In this essay, it is argued that the moral philosophy of Descartes involves the connection of the method enunciated in the Discourse on the Method with the „morale par provision” articulated in that work. The affinity between morals and method is found in the fact that moral dispositions are to be adapted to the progress (...) achieved in scientific technology. Accordingly, it is the advance of science that determines the good of man. And it is concluded that the Cartesian moral teaching amounts to this: That which man can do is good or moral to do. (shrink)

Lemay has brought together nine essays in honor of Alfred Owen Aldridge, a scholar of eighteenth-century English and American literature with a special expertise in the history of ideas. The articles contained in the volume are intended to complement as well as compliment the work done by him in the areas of deism, masonry, and the Enlightenment. Professor Aldridge's contributions to scholarship in those fields include studies on Shaftesbury, Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire, Thomas Paine, and Jonathan Edwards.

In a work that draws on an impressive array of scholarly resources and an extensive study of Spinoza’s teaching, Steven Smith’s recent book examines the status of Spinoza as “the first emancipated Jew” in the broader context of “the Jewish Question”. The author’s interest is to relate Spinoza’s treatment of the theologico-political problem to his advocacy of liberalism and commercial republicanism in the Tractatus theologico-politicus. The authority of the doctrine conveyed in that work is reflected in the championing of religious (...) toleration, political liberalism, and popular education that was embraced during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Indeed, as Smith acknowledges, “it was the Enlightenment, above all, that made the case for Jewish emancipation and Bildung that is the theme of this book”. In particular, the author seeks to establish the “profound and determinative influence” of Spinoza’s Tractatus on the thinking of Mendelssohn, Lessing, Kant, and Hegel. (shrink)

This work is a posthumous publication of two essays written from 1973 to 1976: "Hobbes's Secret" and "Spinoza's Way." An introduction to the studies is provided by the editor who seeks to make "the whole course of the argument a bit more accessible to readers" inasmuch as its development is "quite unconventional, often unexpected, yet reliably unstudied in its ways of securing its effects". The intention of the combined essays is to address the problem of "being an individual and a (...) moral agent within the constraints of social and political life, and of history" in the text of Hobbes's Leviathan; and to confront the same problem in Spinoza's Ethics in terms of "the context of private life, with the focus on those special features of it that deserve to be called eternal". Nevertheless, it is not the author's aim to resolve controversies regarding Hobbes or Spinoza interpretation. Instead, he wishes to explore the boundaries or lines of demarcation appropriate to those controversies and hence the purpose and scope of the work is characterized as "a piece of philosophic writing in the meditative tradition". Considering the reflective mood of Rosenthal's studies, it is difficult to evaluate the success of his work: for instance, it does not seem pertinent to ask whether he has demonstrated a thesis or not. Still, perhaps the more appropriate question is to ask whether he has persuaded us to think seriously about Hobbes and Spinoza in accordance with the viewpoints he has proposed. And to that end something should be said about Hobbes's secret and Spinoza's way. (shrink)

The first complete English translation of Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus was published anonymously in London in 1689 under the title A treatise partly theological and partly political, though prior to it Charles Blount had incorporated a liberal translation of chapter 6 of the Tractatus in his Miracles no violations of the laws of nature. The language employed in the 1689 translation suggested a decidedly political intention for the work and thus certain liberties were taken with the text. Since that time there (...) have been translations of passages or chapters from the Tractatus into English. Most recently, A. G. Wernham has translated and edited selections from the Tractatus theologico-politicus and Tractatus politicus in The Political Works of Spinoza. Still, the standard source for English language readers of Spinoza has been R. H. M. Elwes's two-volume translation of The Works of Spinoza, published originally in 1883 and reprinted without emendations in 1951. His translation, however useful, is far from adequate and the appearance of Samuel Shirley's translation of Spinoza's Tractatus is most welcome. (shrink)

This volume contains a collection of twenty-two essays composed by Popkin from 1979 to 1989 addressing themes in the history of philosophy. The content of the essays ranges in consideration from the kinds of skepticism found in Thomas Hobbes, David Hume, or Joseph Glanville to the "incurable skepticism" of Henry More, Blaise Pascal, and Søren Kierkegaard, to the influence of religious movements on such modern thinkers as Baruch Spinoza and Isaac Newton. The array of figures examined by Popkin and their (...) connections with religious or epistemological skepticism are the means through which he proposes an alternative to the traditional approaches which have been taken to the interpretation of seventeenth-century thought. (shrink)