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 28
... Political Setting The Birth of Liberalism The Calvinist Party in the Netherlands Spinoza and John de Witt : the Geometrical Method in Politics 33 38 40 43 47 52 58 61 65 69 76 Spinoza and the Mass of Mankind Determinism and Social Science.
... Method .. Ultimate Uncertainty : the Failure of the Geometrical Method 221 227 Spinoza as a Left Cartesian 229 The Infinity of God vi CONTENTS.
... Method : the Language of Artisans and Merchants 242 The Final Disunity of Spinoza's Thought : Linguistic Nonsense or Linguistic Transfiguration ? 247 Epilogue 254 Notes 259 Index 309 PREFACE A thinker can be understood only as we relive ...
... method seemed too dangerously close to a Marxist standpoint , even when as a matter of fact , the conclusion to be derived from a study of Spinoza led in a contrary political direction . It was therefore a source of pleasure to me that ...
... method because it is " far from foolproof . " Since we can never verify our historical hypotheses by actual experiments upon past facts , historians , from her standpoint , might as well close up shop as far as judgments of causation ...
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 |