Spinoza and the Rise of LiberalismIn 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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 41
... knowledge of the facts , " and accepted my view that Spinoza's analysis of the downfall of the Hebrew Mosaic state was , in effect , directed against the Dutch Calvinist party whose fanaticism would contribute to undermining the liberal ...
... knowledge indicating that some proposition of his derived from " inadequate " ideas . 10 Soviet ideologists , above all , have been required to maintain an impermeable facade to prevent any scrutiny into the psychological origin of ...
... knowledge , the adaptations in Nature afford a large balance of probability in favor of creation by intelligence ? " 20 Of course , the use of psychoanalytic concepts , like any other scientific ones , is no infallible sign that ...
... knowledge of God . Spinoza thought that an " intuitive science " enabled us to advance from adequate ideas of the attributes of God to a direct apprehension of the essences of things , and thereby bringing the " highest joy ...
... knowledge of the abomi- nable heresies practised and taught by him , and of other enormi- ties committed by him , and have of this many trustworthy witnesses who have deposed and borne witness in the presence of the said Espinoza , and ...
Contents
1 | |
2 | |
4 | |
The Economic and Political Structure of Amsterdam Jewry | 5 |
the Cases of Menasseh ben Israel and Uriel Acosta | 9 |
How Spinoza Became a Liberal Republican | 17 |
Spinozas Rejection of Jewish Authority | 22 |
the Commercial Magnates and Rabbis Aboab and Morteira | 24 |
the People as Mob | 138 |
Spinoza Withdraws Again | 139 |
Why Did the Liberal Republic Fall? | 150 |
Theory of a Commercial Aristocracy | 158 |
Constitution for the Dictatorship of the Commercial Aristocracy | 164 |
The Impasse of Authoritarian Liberalism | 175 |
Academic Freedom and Public Education | 179 |
A Republican Conceives the Theory of Limited Monarchy | 182 |
The Trial | 33 |
Revolutionist in Mystic Withdrawal | 38 |
Retreat Among the Religious Communists | 40 |
Spinozas Mennonite Friends | 43 |
Spinozas Meeting With an English Quaker Missionary | 47 |
Spinozas Pantheism and the Radical Thought of the Seventeenth Century | 52 |
Political Scientist in the Cause of Human Liberation | 58 |
The Political Setting | 61 |
The Birth of Liberalism | 65 |
The Calvinist Party in the Netherlands | 69 |
the Geometrical Method in Politics | 76 |
Spinoza and the Mass of Mankind | 80 |
the Guide to Action and the Apotheosis of Acquiescence | 82 |
The Promise and Anguish of Democracy | 87 |
Demonstration of the Futility of Revolution | 90 |
What Is Democracy? | 101 |
Manifesto for Freedom | 108 |
To Preserve the Republic | 119 |
Philosophic Liberal in a Reactionary Age | 136 |
Free Men or Slaves? | 192 |
A Free Mans Philosophy | 198 |
The Ethics of the Free Man as a Critique of the Calvinist Ethics | 200 |
The Mystic Rejection of Libertine Hedonism | 207 |
Precursor to Freud | 210 |
Intellectual Love of God and Intellectual Hatred | 215 |
Spinozas Leap Beyond the Geometrical Method | 221 |
the Failure of the Geometrical Method | 227 |
Spinoza as a Left Cartesian | 229 |
the Discovery of the Plurality of Attributes | 233 |
Spinozas Panpsychism | 235 |
a Masochist Projection | 239 |
the Language of Artisans and Merchants | 242 |
Linguistic Nonsense or Linguistic Transfiguration? | 247 |
Epilogue | 254 |
Notes | 259 |
Index | 309 |