Spinoza And The Rise Of Liberalism

Author : Lewis S. Feuer
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 315 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2017-09-29
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781351488402

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Spinoza and the Rise of Liberalism by Lewis S. Feuer Pdf

In this classic work the author undertakes to show how Spinoza's philosophical ideas, particularly his political ideas, were influenced by his underlying emotional responses to the conflicts of his time. It thus differs form most professional philosophical analyses of the philosophy of Spinoza. The author identifies and discusses three periods in the development of Spinoza's thought and shows how they were reactions to the religious, political and economic developments in the Netherlands at the time. In his first period, Spinoza reacted very strongly to the competitive capitalism of the Amsterdam Jews whose values were ""so thoroughly pervaded by an economic ethics that decrees the stock exchange approached in dignity the decrees of God,"" and of the ruling classes of Amsterdam, and was led out only to give up his business activities but also to throw in his lot with the Utopian groups of the day. In his second period, Spinoza developed serious doubts about the practicality of such idealistic movements and became a ""mature political partisan"" of Dutch liberal republicanism. The collapse of republicanism and the victory of the royalist party brought further disillusionment. Having become more reserved concerning democratic processes, and having decided that ""every form of government could be made consistent with the life of free men,"" Spinoza devoted his time and efforts to deciding what was essential to any form of government which would make such a life possible.In his carefully crafted introduction to this new edition, Lewis Feuer responds to his critics, and reviews Spinoza's worldview in the light of the work of later scientists sympathetic to this own basic standpoint. He reviews Spinoza's arguments for the ethical and political contributions of the principle of determinism, and examines how these have guided, and at times frustrated, students and scholars of the social and physical sciences who have sought to understand and advance these disciplines.

Author : Lewis Samuel Feuer
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 1958
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:1228829307

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Spinoza and the Rise of Liberalism by Lewis Samuel Feuer Pdf

Author : Steven B. Smith
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 1997-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0300076657

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Spinoza, Liberalism, and the Question of Jewish Identity by Steven B. Smith Pdf

Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677)--often recognized as the first modern Jewish thinker--was also a founder of modern liberal political philosophy. This book is the first to connect systematically these two aspects of Spinoza's legacy. Steven B. Smith shows that Spinoza was a politically engaged theorist who both advocated and embodied a new conception of the emancipated individual, a thinker who decisively influenced such diverse movements as the Enlightenment, liberalism, and political Zionism. Focusing on Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise, Smith argues that Spinoza was the first thinker of note to make the civil status of Jews and Judaism (what later became known as the Jewish Question) an essential ingredient of modern political thought. Before Marx or Freud, Smith notes, Spinoza recast Judaism to include the liberal values of autonomy and emancipation from tradition. Smith examines the circumstances of Spinoza's excommunication from the Jewish community of Amsterdam, his skeptical assault on the authority of Scripture, his transformation of Mosaic prophecy into a progressive philosophy of history, his use of the language of natural right and the social contract to defend democratic political institutions, and his comprehensive comparison of the ancient Hebrew commonwealth and the modern commercial republic. According to Smith, Spinoza's Treatise represents a classic defense of religious toleration and intellectual freedom, showing them to be necessary foundations for political stability and liberal regimes. In this study Smith examines Spinoza's solution to the Jewish Question and asks whether a Judaism, so conceived, can long survive.

Author : Lewis S. Feuer
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2017-09-29
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781351488419

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Spinoza and the Rise of Liberalism by Lewis S. Feuer Pdf

In this classic work the author undertakes to show how Spinoza's philosophical ideas, particularly his political ideas, were influenced by his underlying emotional responses to the conflicts of his time. It thus differs form most professional philosophical analyses of the philosophy of Spinoza. The author identifies and discusses three periods in the development of Spinoza's thought and shows how they were reactions to the religious, political and economic developments in the Netherlands at the time. In his first period, Spinoza reacted very strongly to the competitive capitalism of the Amsterdam Jews whose values were ""so thoroughly pervaded by an economic ethics that decrees the stock exchange approached in dignity the decrees of God,"" and of the ruling classes of Amsterdam, and was led out only to give up his business activities but also to throw in his lot with the Utopian groups of the day. In his second period, Spinoza developed serious doubts about the practicality of such idealistic movements and became a ""mature political partisan"" of Dutch liberal republicanism. The collapse of republicanism and the victory of the royalist party brought further disillusionment. Having become more reserved concerning democratic processes, and having decided that ""every form of government could be made consistent with the life of free men,"" Spinoza devoted his time and efforts to deciding what was essential to any form of government which would make such a life possible.In his carefully crafted introduction to this new edition, Lewis Feuer responds to his critics, and reviews Spinoza's worldview in the light of the work of later scientists sympathetic to this own basic standpoint. He reviews Spinoza's arguments for the ethical and political contributions of the principle of determinism, and examines how these have guided, and at times frustrated, students and scholars of the social and physical sciences who have sought to understand and advance these disciplines.

Author : Benedictus de Spinoza
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 528 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 1889
Category : Ethics
ISBN : UVA:X000372899

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The Chief Works of Benedict de Spinoza by Benedictus de Spinoza Pdf

Author : Steven Nadler
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 299 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2011-10-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9780691139890

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A Book Forged in Hell by Steven Nadler Pdf

When it appeared in 1670, Baruch Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was denounced as the most dangerous book ever published. Religious and secular authorities saw it as a threat to faith, social and political harmony, and everyday morality, and its author was almost universally regarded as a religious subversive and political radical who sought to spread atheism throughout Europe. Steven Nadler tells the story of this book: its radical claims and their background in the philosophical, religious, and political tensions of the Dutch Golden Age, as well as the vitriolic reaction these ideas inspired. A vivid story of incendiary ideas and vicious backlash, A Book Forged in Hell will interest anyone who is curious about the origin of some of our most cherished modern beliefs--Jacket p. [2].

Author : Jonathan Israel,Michael Silverthorne
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 451 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2007-05-03
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781139463614

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Spinoza: Theological-Political Treatise by Jonathan Israel,Michael Silverthorne Pdf

Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise (1670) is one of the most important philosophical works of the early modern period. In it Spinoza discusses at length the historical circumstances of the composition and transmission of the Bible, demonstrating the fallibility of both its authors and its interpreters. He argues that free enquiry is not only consistent with the security and prosperity of a state but actually essential to them, and that such freedom flourishes best in a democratic and republican state in which individuals are left free while religious organizations are subordinated to the secular power. His Treatise has profoundly influenced the subsequent history of political thought, Enlightenment 'clandestine' or radical philosophy, Bible hermeneutics, and textual criticism more generally. It is presented here in a translation of great clarity and accuracy by Michael Silverthorne and Jonathan Israel, with a substantial historical and philosophical introduction by Jonathan Israel.

Author : Steven Nadler,Steven M. Nadler
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 459 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2018-08-16
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781108425544

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Spinoza by Steven Nadler,Steven M. Nadler Pdf

A fully updated new edition of the prize-winning and now standard biography of the great seventeenth-century philosopher Spinoza.

Author : Eugene Sheppard
Publisher : Brandeis University Press
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2007-01-31
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781584656005

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Leo Strauss and the Politics of Exile by Eugene Sheppard Pdf

A probing study that demystifies the common portrayal of Leo Strauss as the inspiration for American neo-conservativism by tracing his philosophy to its German Jewish roots.

Author : Baruch Spinoza
Publisher : Classy Publishing
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2024-03-27
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9355227035

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Theologico-Political Treatise by Baruch Spinoza Pdf

Theologico-Political Treatise, is a 1670 work of philosophy written in Latin by the Dutch philosopher Benedictus Spinoza. The book was one of the most important and controversial texts of the early modern period. In it, Spinoza expounds his views on contemporary Jewish and Christian religion and critically analyses the Bible, especially the Old Testament, which underlies both. In Theologico-Political Treatise, Spinoza argues for the separation of theology and philosophy insisting that whereas the goal of theology is obedience, philosophy aims at understanding rational truth. Spinoza believes that in order for man to realize his full potential a society organized around the principles of reason is necessary. The work has been characterized as 'one of the most significant events in European intellectual history', laying the groundwork for ideas about liberalism, secularism, and democracy.

Author : Sandra Leonie Field
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780197528242

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Potentia by Sandra Leonie Field Pdf

"This book offers a detailed study of the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and Benedict de Spinoza, focussing on their concept of power as potentia, concrete power, rather than power as potestas, authorised power. The focus on power as potentia generates a new conception of popular power. Radical democrats-whether drawing on Hobbes's 'sleeping sovereign' or on Spinoza's 'multitude'-understand popular power as something that transcends ordinary institutional politics, as for instance popular plebsites or mass movements. However, the book argues that these understandings reflect a residual scholasticism which Hobbes and Spinoza ultimately repudiate. Instead, on the book's revisionist conception, a political phenomenon should be said to express popular power when it is both popular (it eliminates oligarchy and encompasses the whole polity), and also powerful (it robustly determines political and social outcomes). Two possible institutional forms that this popular power might take are distinguished: Hobbesian repressive egalitarianism, or Spinozist civic strengthening. But despite divergent institutional proposals, the book argues that both Hobbes and Spinoza share the conviction that there is nothing spontaneously egalitarian or good about human collective existence. From this point of view, the book accuses radical democrats of pernicious romanticism; the slow, meticulous work of organizational design and maintenance is the true centre of popular power"--

Author : Hasana Sharp
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 255 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2021-02
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780226792484

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Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization by Hasana Sharp Pdf

There have been many Spinozas over the centuries: atheist, romantic pantheist, great thinker of the multitude, advocate of the liberated individual, and rigorous rationalist. The common thread connecting all of these clashing perspectives is Spinoza’s naturalism, the idea that humanity is part of nature, not above it. In this sophisticated new interpretation of Spinoza’s iconoclastic philosophy, Hasana Sharp draws on his uncompromising naturalism to rethink human agency, ethics, and political practice. Sharp uses Spinoza to outline a practical wisdom of “renaturalization,” showing how ideas, actions, and institutions are never merely products of human intention or design, but outcomes of the complex relationships among natural forces beyond our control. This lack of a metaphysical or moral division between humanity and the rest of nature, Sharp contends, can provide the basis for an ethical and political practice free from the tendency to view ourselves as either gods or beasts. Sharp’s groundbreaking argument critically engages with important contemporary thinkers—including deep ecologists, feminists, and race and critical theorists—making Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization vital for a wide range of scholars.

Author : Jerome E. Copulsky,Dana Hollander,Eric Jacobson,Gregory Kaplan,Daniel Weidner,Daniel Brandes,Sarah Hammerschlag,Zachary Braiterman,Robert Erlewine,Oona Eisenstadt,Brian Britt,Bruce Rosenstock
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Page : 367 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2013-12-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780253010391

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Judaism, Liberalism, & Political Theology by Jerome E. Copulsky,Dana Hollander,Eric Jacobson,Gregory Kaplan,Daniel Weidner,Daniel Brandes,Sarah Hammerschlag,Zachary Braiterman,Robert Erlewine,Oona Eisenstadt,Brian Britt,Bruce Rosenstock Pdf

These essays propose “a new and richly detailed engagement between Judaism and the political” (Jewish Book World). Judaism, Liberalism, and Political Theology provides the first broad encounter between modern Jewish thought and recent developments in political theology, arguing in opposition to impetuous associations of Judaism and liberalism and charges that Judaism cannot engender a universal political order. The vexed status of liberalism in Jewish thought and Judaism in political theology is interrogated with recourse to thinking from across the Continental tradition. “This collection of essays, which examines political theology from the distinct perspective of Jewish philosophy, could not be timelier or more useful for scholars and students navigating what is often viewed as very dense and difficult material.”—Claire Elise Katz, Texas A&M University

Author : Leo Strauss
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 374 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 1965
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : UCAL:B4397180

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Spinoza's Critique of Religion by Leo Strauss Pdf

Leo Strauss articulates the conflict between reason and revelation as he explores Spinoza's scientific, comparative, and textual treatment of the Bible. Strauss compares Spinoza's Theologico-political Treatise and the Epistles, showing their relation to critical controversy on religion from Epicurus and Lucretius through Uriel da Costa and Isaac Peyrere to Thomas Hobbes. Strauss's autobiographical Preface, traces his dilemmas as a young liberal intellectual in Germany during the Weimar Republic, as a scholar in exile, and as a leader of American philosophical thought. "[For] those interested in Strauss the political philosopher, and also those who doubt whether we have achieved the 'final solution' in respect to either the character of political science or the problem of the relation of religion to the state." —Journal of Politics "A substantial contribution to the thinking of all those interested in the ageless problems of faith, revelation, and reason." —Kirkus Reviews Leo Strauss (1899-1973) was the Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Chicago. His contributions to political science include The Political Philosophy of Hobbes, The City and the Man, What is Political Philosophy?, and Liberalism Ancient and Modern.

Author : Edmund Fawcett
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2015-09-22
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780691168395

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Liberalism by Edmund Fawcett Pdf

A compelling history of liberalism from the nineteenth century to today Liberalism dominates today's politics just as it decisively shaped the American and European past. This engrossing history of liberalism—the first in English for many decades—traces liberalism’s ideals, successes, and failures through the lives and ideas of a rich cast of European and American thinkers and politicians, from the early nineteenth century to today. An enlightening account of a vulnerable but critically important political creed, Liberalism provides the vital historical and intellectual background for hard thinking about liberal democracy’s future.