Spinoza and the Freedom of Philosophizing
Title | Spinoza and the Freedom of Philosophizing PDF eBook |
Author | Mogens Lærke |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 401 |
Release | 2021-02-25 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0192648721 |
Spinoza and the Freedom of Philosophizing is a study of freedom of speech, good government, civic responsibility, public education, and the foundations of religion and society, as seen through the eyes of seventeenth-century Dutch philosopher Spinoza. During the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic, a new kind of public sphere emerged. Courtly structures of political advice made room for new, republican forms of public consultation between the sovereign powers and the general citizenry. Missing, however, were guidelines for how and when to address questions of public concern and how to form unprejudiced citizens in possession of their own free judgment, capable of speaking up for themselves in public deliberations with the common interest in view. The book argues that Spinoza's conception of the freedom of philosophizing, and the systematic political theory he developed to defend it in his 1670 Theological-Political Treatise, were conceived to provide just such guidelines. It shows how Spinoza understood the freedom of philosophizing as a collective style of reasoning and argument based on mutual teaching and advising, a model for the public sphere in a free republic. It studies the conditions under which such a public sphere of free philosophizing could flourish, how it would require popular reform of public education and democratic reorganization of the relations between political counsel and sovereign command. It also shows how Spinoza designed theological and political doctrines of universal faith and social contract in order to promote true religion and a sense of civic duty, and asserted the state's right over sacred matters as a means to ensure mutual toleration in a multi-religious society.
Spinoza and the Freedom of Philosophising
Title | Spinoza and the Freedom of Philosophising PDF eBook |
Author | Mogens Lærke |
Publisher | |
Pages | 400 |
Release | 2021 |
Genre | Electronic books |
ISBN | 9780191916229 |
This study considers freedom of speech and the rules of engagement in the public sphere; good government, civic responsibility, and public education; and the foundations of religion and society, as seen through the eyes of seventeenth-century Dutch philosopher, Spinoza.
Spinoza and the Freedom of Philosophizing
Title | Spinoza and the Freedom of Philosophizing PDF eBook |
Author | Mogens Lærke |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 272 |
Release | 2021-02-25 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0192648713 |
Spinoza and the Freedom of Philosophizing is a study of freedom of speech, good government, civic responsibility, public education, and the foundations of religion and society, as seen through the eyes of seventeenth-century Dutch philosopher Spinoza. During the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic, a new kind of public sphere emerged. Courtly structures of political advice made room for new, republican forms of public consultation between the sovereign powers and the general citizenry. Missing, however, were guidelines for how and when to address questions of public concern and how to form unprejudiced citizens in possession of their own free judgment, capable of speaking up for themselves in public deliberations with the common interest in view. The book argues that Spinoza's conception of the freedom of philosophizing, and the systematic political theory he developed to defend it in his 1670 Theological-Political Treatise, were conceived to provide just such guidelines. It shows how Spinoza understood the freedom of philosophizing as a collective style of reasoning and argument based on mutual teaching and advising, a model for the public sphere in a free republic. It studies the conditions under which such a public sphere of free philosophizing could flourish, how it would require popular reform of public education and democratic reorganization of the relations between political counsel and sovereign command. It also shows how Spinoza designed theological and political doctrines of universal faith and social contract in order to promote true religion and a sense of civic duty, and asserted the state's right over sacred matters as a means to ensure mutual toleration in a multi-religious society.
Spinoza and Moral Freedom
Title | Spinoza and Moral Freedom PDF eBook |
Author | S. Paul Kashap |
Publisher | State University of New York Press |
Pages | 216 |
Release | 2012-02-01 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 1438408390 |
Spinoza and Moral Freedom guides the reader through Spinoza's principal ideas and powerful lines of reasoning, clearing up obscurities along the way, while acknowledging the genuine difficulties and gaps. At the same time, it neither intrudes the author's own beliefs and personality upon the reader nor gives instructions on what the reader's own final judgment should be. What Kashap offers is pure Spinoza, rather than a Spinoza reformed in light of another person's wishes or preoccupations. In this respect, Kashap's approach is refreshingly new and unique. The style is graceful and lucid, and in no way obscured by philosophical jargon.
The Ethics of Spinoza
Title | The Ethics of Spinoza PDF eBook |
Author | Benedictus de Spinoza |
Publisher | |
Pages | 228 |
Release | 1976 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN |
The seventeenth century Dutch philosopher views the ability to experience rational love of God as the key to mastering the contradictory and violent human emotions.
Spinoza's Book of Life
Title | Spinoza's Book of Life PDF eBook |
Author | Steven B. Smith |
Publisher | Yale University Press |
Pages | 256 |
Release | 2003-01-01 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0300128495 |
Offering a new reading of Spinoza's masterpiece, Smith asserts that the 'Ethics' is a celebration of human freedom and its attendant joys and responsibilities and should be placed among the great founding documents of the Enlightenment.
Spinoza, Right and Absolute Freedom
Title | Spinoza, Right and Absolute Freedom PDF eBook |
Author | Stephen Connelly |
Publisher | CRC Press |
Pages | 256 |
Release | 2015-02-11 |
Genre | Law |
ISBN | 1317575091 |
Against jurisprudential reductions of Spinoza’s thinking to a kind of eccentric version of Hobbes, this book argues that Spinoza’s theory of natural right contains an important idea of absolute freedom, which would be inconceivable within Hobbes’ own schema. Spinoza famously thought that the universe and all of the beings and events within it are fully determined by their causes. This has led jurisprudential commentators to believe that Spinoza has no room for natural right – in the sense that whatever happens by definition has a ‘right’ to happen. But, although this book demonstrates how Spinoza constructs a system in which right is understood as the work of machines, by fixing right as determinate and invariable, Stephen Connolly argues that Spinoza is not limiting his theory. The universe as a whole is capable of acting only in determinate ways but, he argues, for Spinoza these exist within a field of infinite possibilities. In an analysis that offers much to ongoing attempts to conceive of justice post-foundationally, the argument of this book is that Spinoza opens up right to a future of determinate interventions –as when an engineer, working with already-existing materials, improves a machine. As such, an idea of freedom emerges in Spinoza: as the artful rearrangement of the given into new possibilities. An exciting and original contribution, this book is an invaluable addition, both to the new wave of interest in Spinoza’s philosophy, and to contemporary legal and political theory.