Commentary

• “Power and Difference: Spinoza’s Conception of Freedom”

  - James, Susan. “Power and Difference: Spinoza’s Conception of Freedom.” Journal of Political Philosophy 4, no. 3 (1996): 207–228. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9760.1996.tb00050.x.
  Excerpt: “During the last two decades, an established though contested alliance between liberty and equality has been profoundly challenged by reassessments of the view that, when States impose the same rights and obligations on all their citizens,… More

• Piety, Peace and the Freedom to Philosophize

  - Bagley, P. J. Piety, Peace and the Freedom to Philosophize. New York: Springer, 1999.
  From the Publisher: “The 11 essays collected here have been composed by members of the North American Spinoza Society. They exhibit the fruits of the research, investigation and erudition of an array of established scholars and newer students whose… More

• Spinoza’s Book of Life: Freedom and Redemption in the Ethics

  - Smith, Steven B. Spinoza’s Book of Life: Freedom and Redemption in the Ethics. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.
  From the Publisher: “Most readers of Spinoza treat him as a pure metaphysician, a grim determinist or a stoic moralist, but none of these descriptions captures the author of the “Ethics”, argues Steven Smith in this book. Offering a new… More

• Spinoza’s Revelation: Religion, Democracy, and Reason

  - Levene, Nancy K. Spinoza’s Revelation: Religion, Democracy, and Reason. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  From the Publisher: “Nancy Levene reinterprets a major early-modern philosopher, Benedict de Spinoza – a Jew who was rejected by the Jewish community of his day but whose thought contains, and critiques, both Jewish and Christian ideas. It… More

• “Castellio Vs. Spinoza on Religious Toleration”

  - Curley, Edwin. “Castellio Vs. Spinoza on Religious Toleration.” In The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, 7:89–110, 2010.
  Abstract: “The central thesis of Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise is that the state not only can permit freedom of philosophizing without endangering piety or the public peace, but that it must do so if it is not to destroy piety and the… More

• Spinoza’s “Theological-Political Treatise”: A Critical Guide

  - Melamed, Yitzhak Y., and Michael A. Rosenthal, eds. Spinoza’s “Theological-Political Treatise”: A Critical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
  From the Publisher: “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… More