A Theologico-Political Treatise

by Benedict de Spinoza

Overview

Rational examination of the Old Testament to show that freedom of thought and speech is consistent with the religious life. True religion consists in practice of simple piety, independent of philosophical speculation. Also unfinished essay on theory of government founded on common consent. One of Spinoza's most important works. R. Elwes translation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781537800073
Publisher:	Jovian Press
Publication date:	11/22/2017
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	254
File size:	468 KB

About the Author

Baruch Spinoza (24 November 1632 - 21 February 1677, later Benedict de Spinoza) was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi/portuguese origin. By laying the groundwork for the 18th-century Enlightenment and modern biblical criticism, including modern conceptions of the self and the universe, he came to be considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy. Along with René Descartes, Spinoza was a leading philosophical figure of the Dutch Golden Age. Spinoza's given name, which means "Blessed", varies among different languages.

Editorial Reviews

Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise edited by Martin Yaffe (Focus, 480 pp., $24.95) Anyone lacking Latin who is seriously interested in, among other things, the philosophical foundations of liberal democracy, the rise of the historical-critical approach to the Bible, and Leo Strauss owes Martin Yaffe a substantial debt of gratitude for his edition of Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise. Yaffe's edition of the Treatise far surpasses all its competitors in its faithfulness to Spinoza's peculiar manner of writing. It thus provides us fresh access to the late 17th-century work, which is at once "the philosophical founding document of both modern liberal democracy and modern biblical criticism."

Yaffe's excellent interpretive essay helps readers to see why Spinoza regarded his dual foundings—of liberal democracy and of a "critical" way of reading the Bible—as being inextricably linked. As for Yaffe's contribution to the study of Strauss, it consists not only of the way in which he follows Strauss's admonition to translators not to impose their own prejudices on a text, but also the way he keys his text to the Latin editions that Strauss employed in his great essay "How to Study Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise."

Yaffe thereby enables Latinless readers to investigate the hundreds of citations to the Treatise that Strauss provides throughout his essay. Because of his seriousness and because of his modesty—he does not confuse himself with a thinker of Spinoza's rank—Yaffe is a most able guide to Spinoza.

— Steven Lenzner, Weekly Standard

From the Publisher