Commentary

• Spinoza and the Rise of Liberalism

  - Feuer, Lewis S. Spinoza and the Rise of Liberalism. Piscataway: Transaction Publishers, 1987.
  From the Publisher: “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… More

• “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

• “Autonomous Autonomy: Spinoza on Autonomy, Perfectionism, and Politics”

  - Den Uyl, Douglas. “Autonomous Autonomy: Spinoza on Autonomy, Perfectionism, and Politics.” Social Philosophy and Policy 20, no. 02 (2003): 30–69. doi:10.1017/S0265052503202028.
  Abstract: “These epigraphs present us with part of the problem that is to be discussed in this essay. For Spinoza (1632–1677) there is no metaphysical freedom, except for God/Substance/Nature. The behavior of individual things, or modes, is… More

• Spinoza and Spinozism

  - Hampshire, Stuart. Spinoza and Spinozism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
  From the Publisher: “Stuart Hampshire, one of the most eminent British philosophers of the twentieth century, will be perhaps best remembered for his work on the seventeenth-century philosopher Spinoza, all of which is gathered now in this volume. Among… More

• Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity

  - Goldstein, Rebecca. Betraying Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity. New York: Schocken, 2009.
  From the Publisher: “In 1656, Amsterdam’s Jewish community excommunicated Baruch Spinoza, and, at the age of twenty–three, he became the most famous heretic in Judaism. He was already germinating a secularist challenge to religion that would be as… 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