Born in Amsterdam in 1634, Benedict Spinoza continues to be one of the most admired thinkers. His work, including the Ethics, the Tractatus Theologico Politicus and the Political Treatise that we present in this volume are widely read and the subject of philosophical, political, religious and psychological studies, not only by fellow philosophers but also by writers and poets. Famous writers and poets became admirers and followers of Spinoza, particularly Lessing, Heine, Auerbach, Coleridge, Shelley, George Eliot and many more. Robert Harvey Monro Elwes a renowned XIX century English scholar and the English translator of Spinoza's works, in his Introduction to the Tractatus Theologico Politicus (included in this book) wrote that these poets and intellectuals "not only admired him but studied him deeply. Shelley not only contemplated but began a translation of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, to be published with a preface by Lord Byron, but the project was cut short by his death." "to be a philosopher one must first be a Spinozist.." G. W. F. Hegel "I, at last, chanced upon the Ethica of this man. To say exactly how much I gained from that work was due to Spinoza or to my reading of him would be impossible; enough that I found in him a sedative for my passions and that he appeared to me to open up a large and free outlook on the material and moral world." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "Spinoza, like Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, on whose lives and philosophy I have based two earlier novels, wrote much that is highly relevant to my field of psychiatry and psychotherapy--for example, that ideas, thoughts, and feelings are caused by previous experiences, that passions may be studied dispassionately, that understanding leads to transcendence--and I wished to celebrate his contributions through a novel of ideas." Irvin D. Yalom, from his novel The Spinoza Problem

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The second and final volume of the most authoritative English-language edition of Spinoza's writings The Collected Works of Spinoza provides, for the first time in English, a truly satisfactory edition of all of Spinoza's writings, with accurate and readable translations, based on the best critical editions of the original-language texts, done by a scholar who has published extensively on the philosopher's work. The centerpiece of this second volume is Spinoza’s Theological-Political Treatise, a landmark work in the history of biblical scholarship, the first argument for democracy by a major philosopher, and a forceful defense of freedom of thought and expression. This work is accompanied by Spinoza’s later correspondence, much of which responds to criticism of the Theological-Political Treatise. The volume also includes his last work, the unfinished Political Treatise, which builds on the foundations of the Theological-Political Treatise to offer plans for the organization of nontyrannical monarchies and aristocracies. The elaborate editorial apparatus—including prefaces, notes, glossary, and indexes—assists the reader in understanding one of the world’s most fascinating, but also most difficult, philosophers. Of particular interest is the glossary-index, which provides extensive commentary on Spinoza’s technical vocabulary. A milestone of scholarship more than forty-five years in the making, The Collected Works of Spinoza is an essential edition for anyone with a serious interest in Spinoza or the history of philosophy.