Spinoza's Political Philosophy - Einzelansicht

Although Spinoza's political philosophy has not received as much attention as that of other famous early modern political thinkers, such as Hobbes, Locke or Rousseau, it is hardly less interesting. One interesting thing is that, while Spinoza starts with premises similar to those of Hobbes, he ends up in a very different place that the latter. While Hobbes advocates for absolute sovereignty, Spinoza ends up defending democracy and freedom of thought and expression. One of our tasks will be to see how he arrives at these positions starting with strongly egoistic positions in ethics and philosophical psychology.

In this seminar we will read the texts where Spinoza presents his political and social philosophy, namely his Theological-Political Treatise (where he also provides his critical approach towards biblical interpretation) and the Political Treatise.

A short paper (5-7 pages) at the end of the semester, or an in-class discussion of the text (20-30 minutes).