Table of Contents

Introduction Yitzhak Y. Melamed and Hasana Sharp; 1. What is real about 'ideal constitutions'? – Spinoza on political explanation Michael A. Rosenthal; 2. Statesmen vs. philosophers: experience and method in Spinoza's Political Treatise Julie E. Cooper; 3. The condition of human nature: Spinoza's account of the ground of human action in the Tractatus Politicus Moira Gatens; 4. Politically mediated affects: envy in Spinoza's Tractatus Politicus Susan James; 5. Longing (desiderium) for vengeance as the foundation of the commonwealth Chantal Jacquet; 6. Family quarrels and mental harmony: Spinoza's Oikos-Polis analogy Hasana Sharp; 7. Spinoza on national religion Mogens Laerke; 8. Religion and the civil state in the Tractatus Politicus Daniel Garber; 9. Spinoza on aristocratic and democratic government Theo Verbek; 10. When is having too much power harmful? – Spinoza on political luck Yitzhak Y. Melamed; 11. Spinoza and political absolutism Justin Steinberg; 12. The revolutionary foundation of political modernity: Machiavelli, Spinoza, and constituent power Filippo Del Lucchese.

Promotional Information

Brings scholarly attention to the least studied of Spinoza's major works, from a range of different scholarly perspectives.

About the Author

Yitzhak Y. Melamed is the Charlotte Bloomberg Professor of Philosophy at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the coeditor of Spinoza's 'Theological-Political Treatise': A Critical Guide (Cambridge, 2010), Spinoza and German Idealism (Cambridge, 2012), the editor of Spinoza's Ethics: A Critical Guide (Cambridge, 2017), and the author of Spinoza's Metaphysics: Substance and Thought (2013). Hasana Sharp is Associate Professor of Philosophy at McGill University, Montréal. She is author of Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization (2011) and co-editor of Between Spinoza and Hegel (2012) and Feminist Philosophies of Life (2016).