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

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

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Yitzhak Y. Melamed
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Reprint, 5/30/2013
EAN 9781107636927, ISBN10: 1107636922

Paperback, 310 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
Language: English

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.

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.