Abstract
The author invites to a consideration of the work of Spinoza as a unitary plan, where the fundamental political tenets are built on the theories he developed in the Ethics. The theory on natural right, the development of the state, the concept of democracy and the notion that the absolute power of the state may only be upheld if executed rationally involve the solutions to some metaphysical, epistemological and ethical problems; solutions which Spinoza worked out in the Ethics. The paper first takes a look at Spinoza’s fundamental ontological and anthropological concepts as preconditions for political life. It then examines his theory on natural right and democracy. The paper finally analyzes the central role the freedom of thought and speech, liberation from prejudice and defense of civil rights play in Spinoza’s political thinking.
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Notes
- 1.
The concept “immanent” here implies that God is not distinct from the World.
- 2.
On Deus sive Natura or Deus seu Natura: this wording occurs twice in E.IV. Praefatio: “For the eternal and infinite being we call God or Nature acts by the same necessity as that by which it exists” (æternum namque illud et infinitum Ens quod Deum seu Naturam appellamus, eadem qua existit necessitate agit) … “Therefore the reason or cause why God or Nature acts and why it exists is one and the same” (Ratio igitur seu causa cur Deus seu Natura agit et cur existit una eademque est.): this all shows that the wording is used on the productive level. The wording is undoubtedly emblematic for Spinoza ’s philosophy, but occurs only twice in all of his works and only when he speaks of the “potentia”—level.
- 3.
Translation of the Latin terms potentia and potestas is difficult to be made in English since the English word power includes two meanings whose difference is essential in the ontology of Spinoza . Martial Gueroult (Spinoza , T.1: Dieu (Ethique, I), 1968) was one of the first which rightly emphasizes this difference. Toni Negri in his “The savage Anomaly” from 1981 analyzes deeply this question: “potestas refers to power in its fixed, institutional or ‘constituted form’, while potentia refers to power in its fluid, dynamic or ‘constitutive’ form” (Negri 1981, p. xv.) I will therefore make a distinction between potentia and potestas by using power for potentia and actualised force or strength for potentia.
- 4.
“appetitum autem esse ipsam hominis essentiam quatenus determinata est ad ea agendum quae ipsius conservationi inserviunt” (Eth.III, Affectum definitiones, Def.1 et explicatio).
- 5.
Homo quatenus pars est Naturae, eatenus partem potentiae Naturae constituit. (TTP, cap. IV, Spinoza opera. Im Auftrag der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften hrsg. von Carl Gebhardt. 4 vols, Heidelberg, Carl Winter-Verlag, 1925. v.3, p. 58).
- 6.
N. Machiavelli , Il Principe in Tutte le opere, storiche, politiche e letterarie, a cura di Alessandra Capata . Roma: Newton & Compton editori, 1998, p. 33.
- 7.
TTP, chap. III, G.3, p. 46.
- 8.
Eth. II, p. XLIX, sch. G.II, p. 136.
- 9.
TTP Chap.16, G.3, p 237.
- 10.
Ibid.
- 11.
“non sana ratione sed cupiditate et potentia determinatur” (TTP XVI, s.378; jfr. TP, II, 5).
- 12.
Here Spinoza breaks with traditional contract theory, even when using the concept of pact in TTP. The interpretation of Spinoza ’s relationship to contract theory is quite controversial. Exemplary of an anti-contract theory interpretation is Matheron, A. (1969) Individu et communauté chez Spinoza. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit; Matheron (1990) Le problème de l’évolution de Spinoza du TTP au TP, in Edwin Curley & Pierre-François Moreau (red.) Spinoza. Issues and directions. The Proceedings of the Chicago Spinoza Conference (1986). Leiden: E. J. Brill, pp. 258–270; Matheron “The theoretical function of democracy,” in Bostrenghi , Daniela (ed.) (1988) Hobbes e Spinoza: scienza e politica: atti del Convegno internazionale, Urbino 14–17 ottobre, 1988. Naples: Bibliopolis. Published again in Lloyd , Genevieve (ed.) (2001) Spinoza – Critical assessments of leading philosophers, vol. III. London: Routledge. Among those who interpret Spinoza’s political theory as contract theory: Giancotti, E. Individuo e stato nelle prime teorizzazioni dello stato moderno: Hobbes e Spinoza a confronto, pp. 12–25; (In: Massa folla individuo, ed. Alberto Burgio , Gian Mario Cazzaniga , Dominico Losurdo ). Urbino: Quattro Venti, pp. 11–25.; Bobbio , Norberto (1979) Il modello giusnaturalistico, in Nobbio, N. & Bovero , Mario Società e stato nella filosofia politica moderna. Milano: Il Saggiatore.
- 13.
Ref. T P, II, pp. 13–15.
- 14.
TP, II, p. 17.
- 15.
Ref. ETH. IV sch. II prop. XXXVII.
- 16.
Ep. 50, G. IV, pp. 238–39.
- 17.
TTP. XVI, G. 3, p. 241.
- 18.
TTP, XVI G.3, p. 243.
- 19.
TTP, V, G.3, p. 130.
- 20.
Ref. Ethica, IV, 37 Scholium2 and P.T., pp. 18, 19 and 23.
- 21.
TTP, V, G.3, p.129 XVI, G.3 pp. 381–382.
- 22.
TTP, cap XVI, G. 3, p. 194.
- 23.
Re. Mignini , F. (1991) “Spinoza oltre l’idea di tolleranza,” in Sina , M. (ed.) La tolleranza religiosa. Indagini storiche e rif lessioni filosofiche. Milan, pp. 163–197.
- 24.
TTP, XX, G.3, p. 247.
- 25.
ref. TTP, XX, G. 3, p. 241.
- 26.
We must here give only a very short and somewhat superficial sketch of all this. A good introduction may be found in Garrett (1996).
- 27.
Jacob , Margaret (1981) The Radical Enlightenment: Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans. London/Boston; Israel, Jonathan (2001) Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650–1750. Oxford.
Bibliography
Recommended Further Reading: The works of Spinoza, translations, encyclopediae and bibliography
Akkerman, F. (1977). Spinoza’s tekort aan woorden: humanistische aspecten van zijn schrijverschap. Leiden: Brill.
Bartuschat, W. (1977). Neuere Spinoza-Literatur. Philosophische Rundschau, 24 (1977), 1–44.
Baruch de Spinoza Sämtliche Werke. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 1976.
Baruch de Spinoza Obras Completas, I-V Prologada por Abraham J. Weiss y Gregorio Winberg. Tradocciones.
Baruch de Spinoza Opera. Lateinisch-deutsch. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1979 und 1980 (Zweite, unveränderte Auflage: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1989).
Benedicti de Spinoza. (1802). Opera Quae Supersunt Omnia (H. E. G. Paulus, Ed., 2 vols.). Jena.
Benedicti de Spinoza. (1882–1883). Opera (J. van Vloten & J. P. N. Land, Eds., 2 vols.). The Hague. (Reprinted 1895, 1914)
Boucher, W. I. (1999). Spinoza in English: A bibliography from the seventeenth century to the present (2nd ed.). London, New York: Thoemmes Press.
Bulletin de bibliographie spinoziste, rédigé par le Groupe de Recherches Spinozistes (CNRS/CERPHI) en collaboration avec l’Association des Amis de Spinoza depuis 1979.
Crapulli, G., & Giancotti Boscherini, E. (1969). Ricerche lessicali su opere di Descartes e Spinoza. Roma: Ed. dell’Ateneo.
Œuvres de Spinoza Traduit et annoté par Charles Appuhn (4 vols.). Paris: Garnier, 1964.
Fassò, G. (1966). Storia della filosofia del diritto. Bari: Laterza.
Giancotti Boscherini, E. (Ed.). (1970). Lexicon Spinozanum (2 vols.). La Haye: Nijhoff.
Gueret, M., Robinet, A., & Tombeur, P. (1977). Spinoza Ethica: Concordances, Index, Listes de fréquences, Tables comparatives. Louvain-la-Neuve: CETEDOC Université Catholique de Louvain.
Kajanto, I. (2005). Spinoza’s latinity. Leiden: Brill.
Næss, A. (1970). Equivalent terms and notions in Spinoza’s ethics. Oslo: Inquiry, Filosofisk Institutt, Universitet i Oslo.
Préposiet, J. (1973). Bibliographie Spinoziste. Paris: Belles-Lettres.
Santinelli, C. (1983). Spinoza in Italia. Bibliografia degli scritti italiani su Spinoza dal 1675 al 1982. Urbino: Università degli studi di Urbino.
Spinoza. (1999). Œuvres (Pierre-François Moreau, Ed., 5 vols.). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France (An excellent bilingual critical edition with French translation).
Spinoza. (2007). Opere, a cura e con un saggio introduttivo di Filippo Mignini, trad. e note di Filippo Mignini e Omero Proietti. Milano: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, I Meridani – Classici dello Spirito.
Spinoza. (2010). Tutte le opere, testi originali a fronte, red. A. Sangiacomo. Milano: Bompiani, “Il Pensiero Occidentale”.
Spinoza Opera. (1925). Im Auftrag der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften hrsg. von Carl Gebhardt (4 vols.). Heidelberg: Carl Winter-Verlag.
Spinoza: Complete works (S. Shirley, Trans. and M. Morgan, Ed.). Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002.
The collected writings of Spinoza. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Totaro, G., & Veneziani, M. (1993). Indici e concordanze del Tractatus theolocico-politicus di Spinoza. Lexicon philosophicum, 6, 51–193.
Wetlesen, J. (1968). A Spinoza bibliography. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Wetlesen, J. (1974). Internal guide to the ethics of Spinoza. Oslo: University of Oslo.
About Spinoza
Note: There is a huge bibliography on Spinoza in many languages, especially French, Italian, Dutch, English and German. This is a very selective list of books.
Biographies
Dunin-Borkowski, S. (1910). Der junge De Spinoza. Leben und Werdegang im Lichte der Weltphilosophie. Münster: Aschendorff. 2. Aufl. 1933.
Freudenthal, F. (1904). Spinoza, Sein Leben und Seine Lehre. Stuttgart: F. Fromman.
Nadler, S. (1999). Spinoza: A life. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.
Pollock, F. (1880). Spinoza, his life and philosophy. London: C. Kegan Paul.
General works on Spinoza’s philosophy – Miscellanies
Althusser, L. (1993). L’unique tradition matérialiste. In J. Baudrillard, L. Altusser, et al. (Eds.), Logiques du capitalisme. Paris: Hazan.
Balibar, E., Seidel, E., & Walther, M. (Hrsg./Eds.). (1994). Freiheit und Notwendigkeit. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.
Bend, J[ohannes] G[erit] van der (Hrsg./Ed.). (1974). Spinoza on knowing, being and freedom. Assen: Van Gorcum.
Garrett, D. (Ed.). (1996). The Cambridge companion to Spinoza. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press.
Giancotti Boscherini, E. (a cura di) Spinoza I. Agora, n° 2/3-2003.
Montag, W., & Stolze, T. (Eds.). (1997). The new Spinoza. Theory out of bounds. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Moreau, P. F. (Hrsg./Ed.). (1996). Architectures de la raison. Fontenay/Saint-Cloud: ENS Éditions.
Spinoza nel 350. Centenario della nascita Atti del Congresso internazionale di Urbino 4-8 ottobre 1982, a cura di E. Napoli: Bibliopolis, 1985.
Wetlesen, J. (Ed.). (1978). Spinoza’s philosophy of man. In Proceeding of the Scandinavian Spinoza symposium (1977). Oslo.
Studies
Deleuze, G. (1968). Spinoza et le problème de l’expression. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit.
Deleuze, G. (1981). Spinoza – Philosophie pratique. Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit.
Gueroult, M. (1968). Spinoza. I. Dieu (Ethique, I). Paris: Aubier-Montaigne.
Gueroult, M. (1974). Spinoza. II. L’âme (Ethique, II). Paris: Aubier-Montaigne.
Hubbeling, H. G. (1964). Spinoza’s methodology. Assen: Van Gorcum.
Lloyd, G. (1996). Spinoza and the ethics. London: Routledge.
Macherey, P. (1977). Hegel ou Spinoza. Paris: Maspero.
Misrahi, R. (1972). le Désir et la réflexion dans la philosophie de Spinoza. Paris/London/New York: Gordon & Breach.
Montag, W. (2002). Bodies, masses, power: Spinoza and his contemporaries. London: Verso.
Moreau, P. F. (1971). Spinoza et le spinozisme. Paris: P. U. F., coll. “Que sais-je ?”.
Moreau, P. F. (1975). Spinoza. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.
Næss, A. (1999). Det frie menneske: en innføring i Spinozas filosofi. Oslo: Kagge.
Scruton, R. (1986). Spinoza: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Vernière, P. (1954). Spinoza et la pensée française avant la Révolution (2 vols.). Paris: P. U. F.
Wetlesen, J. (1979). The sage and the way: Spinoza’s ethics of freedom. Assen: Van Gorkum.
Wolfson, H. A. (1934). The philosophy of Spinoza (2 vols.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Zac, S. (1963). L’Idée de vie dans la philosophie de Spinoza. Paris: P. U. F.
Zac, S. (1965). Spinoza et l’interprétation de l’Écriture. Paris: P. U. F.
Zac, S. (1996). The relation between life, conatus, and virtue in Spinoza’s philosophy. Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal, 19(1), 151–173.
On Spinoza’s political thinking
Balibar, E. (1998). Spinoza and politics. London: Verso.
Balibar, E., Seidel, H., & Walther, M. (Special Editorial Team). (1993). Studia Spinozana, Spinoza and modernity: Ethics and politics (Vol. 9). Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.
Bartuschat, W. (1984). The ontological basis of Spinoza’s theory of politics. Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Company.
Belaief, G. (1971). Spinoza’s philosophy of law. The Hague/Paris: Mouton.
Bostrenghi, D. (a cura di). (1992). Hobbes e Spinoza, Scienza e politica, Introd. by E. G. Boscherini. Napoli: Bibliopolis.
De Cuzzani, P. (2003). ‘Imaginatio’ og demokrati hos Spinoza. Agora, (2/3).
Den Uyl, D. (1983a). Power, state and freedom: An interpretation of Spinoza’s political philosophy. Assen: Van Gorcum.
Giancotti, E., Matheron, A., & Walther, M. (Special Editorial Team). (1985). Studia Spinozana, Spinoza’s philosophy of society (Vol. 1). Alling: Walther & Walther/Verlag Königshausen & Neumann.
Gianini, H., Moreau, P. F., & Vermeren, P. (Hrsg./Eds.). (1997). Spinoza et la politique. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Levene, K. N. (2004). Spinoza’s revelation: Religion, democracy, and reason. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Matheron, A. (1969). Individu et communauté chez Spinoza. Paris: Éd. de Minuit.
Matheron, A. (1971). le Christ et le salut des ignorants chez Spinoza. Paris: Aubier-Montaigne.
Matheron, A. (1988). The theoretical function of democracy. In D. Bostrenghi (Ed.), Hobbes e Spinoza, Scienza e politica: Atti del Convegno internazionale, Urbino 14–17 ottobre, 1988. Napoli: Bibliopolis. New edition in Lloyd Genevieve (Ed.). (2001). Spinoza – Critical assessments of leading philosophers (Vol. III). London: Routledge.
McShea, R. J. (1968). The political philosophy of Spinoza. New York: Columbia University.
Negri, A. (1981). L’anomalia selvaggia saggio su potere e potenza in Baruch Spinoza. Milano: Feltrinelli (english translation: The savage anomaly).
Negri, A. (1998). Spinoza sovversivo: variazioni (in) attuali, Introd. by Emilia Giancotti. Roma: A. Pellicani, rist. in “Spinoza”/Derive Approdi.
Tosel, A. (1984). Spinoza ou le crépuscule de la servitude. Paris: Aubier.
Literature
In addition to the list of literature in Paola De Cuzzani “Conatus, individuo, modo in Spinoza” (PhD dissertation), University of Genova, Italy, 1982, s.250–270, see:
Balibar, E. (1985). Jus, pactum, lex in Studia Spinozana I, republished in Montag, Warren & Stolze, Ted (1997) The new Spinoza. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Bodei, R. (1991). Geometria delle passioni. Paura, speranza e felicità: filosofia e uso politico. Milano: Feltrinelli.
Curley, E. (1996). Kissinger, Spinoza and Gengis Khan. In D. Garrett (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Spinoza. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Cuzzani, P. (1987). La pace tra potentia e potestas: strutture sociali e strutture economiche nel ‘Tractatus theologico-politicus’ di Spinoza. in: “I filosofi e la pace”. In Atti del V Convegno tra studiosi di Filosofia Morale in memoria di R. Crippa (Sanremo 15 dicembre 1984). Genova: E.C.I.G.
De Cuzzani, P. (1999). Essence et existence dans la Pensées de Spinoza. In Actes du Congrès de l’ASPLF, n° XXVII. Quebec/Paris: Les Presses de l’Université Laval/Librairie philosophique Vrin.
De Cuzzani, P. (2001). Fornufts arbeid i skyggen av kjærlighet. Spinoza og ‘amor erga foeminam’. Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift, (4).
De Cuzzani, P. (2002). Une anthropologie de l’homme décentré. Philosophique, (1).
De Cuzzani, P. (2003). ‘Imaginatio’ og demokrati hos Spinoza. Agora, (2/3).
Den Uyl, D. (1983b). Power, state and freedom. Assen: Van Gorcum.
Goetschel, W. (2004). Mendelssohn, Lessing, and Heine. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Morfino, V. (2002). Il tempo e l’occasione. L’incontro Spinoza Machiavelli. Milano: LED.
Negri, A. (1981). L’anomalia selvaggia. Saggio su potere e potenza in Baruch Spinoza. Milano: Feltrinelli.
Negri, A. (1992). Spinoza sovversivo. Roma: Pellicani.
Tosel, A. (1984). Spinoza ou le crepuscule de la servitude. Paris: Aubier-Montaigne.
Zac, S. (1964). État et nature chez Spinoza. Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 14–40.
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De Cuzzani, P. (2015). Baruch Spinoza: Democracy and Freedom of Speech. In: Fløistad, G. (eds) Philosophy of Justice. Contemporary Philosophy: A New Survey, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9175-5_7
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