Spinoza and the Stoics: Power, Politics and the Passions

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This important book examines Spinoza's moral and political philosophy. Specifically it considers Spinoza's engagement with the themes of Stoicism and his significant contribution to the origins of the European Enlightenment. Firmin DeBrabander explores the problematic view of the relationship between ethics and politics that Spinoza apparently inherited from the Stoics and in so doing asks some important questions that contribute to a crucial contemporary debate. Does ethics provide any foundation for political theory and if so in what way Likewise, does politics contribute anything essential to the life of virtue And what is the political place and public role of the philosopher as a practitioner of ethics In examining Spinoza's Ethics, his most important and widely-read work, and exploringthe ways in which this work echoes Stoic themes regarding the public behaviour of the philosopher, the author seeks to answer these key questions and thus makes a fascinating contribution to the study of moral and political philosophy.

Reviews

Mentioned in The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 23 2007, volume LIII, No. 29.
"Although the link between Spinoza and Stoicism has been explored to a certain extent ... DeBrabander's is the first book-length study... this is an interesting and stimulating book, and one any student of Spinoza should read." -Theo Verbeek, University of Utrecht, Notre Dame Philosophy Review, Nov 10, 2007
"What makes the study of DeBrabander exciting is that, unlike so many philosophers, he truly sees that Spinoza's philosophy is thoroughly social, down to its very roots'...What DeBrabander's study allows us to grasp, consequently, is the importance both of setting the Bible (biblical religion) in the context of the history of Judaism and Christianity (and today also Islam), and of making the history of Judaism and Christianity subject to biblical hermeneutics (consistent with Spinoza's Concept of biblical interpretation). Then we shall possess the critical methodology by which to recognize that the very basis of Spinoza's rejection of fundamental Stoic principles presupposes (depends on!) Judaeo-Christian metaphysics when understood as rooted in the Bible, not ancient philosophy." -Brayton Polka, Review of Metaphysics, June 2008

Author Bio

Firmin DeBrabander is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art, USA.