The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza

(Paperback)

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Benedictus Spinoza (1632-77) was among the most important of the post-Cartesian philosophers of the second half of the seventeenth century and is still widely studied today. He made original contributions in every major area of philosophy and is best known for his Ethics, which is often held up as a supreme example of a self-contained metaphysical system intended to explain the universe. The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza is the first to offer an accessible, encyclopaedic account of Spinoza's life and ideas, his influences and commentators, and his lasting significance. Some of the best features include an annotated chronology of Spinoza's life, bibliographies of his major influences and critics, a substantive dictionary of key Spinozan concepts, summaries of Spinoza's principal writings and concludes with a chapter on Spinoza's place in modern academic scholarship. The volume is also updated with words on the recent major event in Spinoza scholarship with the discovery of the Vatican manuscript of Spinozas Ethics. The Bloomsbury Companion to Spinoza is a valuable research tool for anyone interested in Spinoza and the era of great change in which he lived and wrote.

Reviews

The structure of the volume is unique in comparison with other books of the 'companion' genre. Instead of the regular eight to ten essays on the main aspects of the philosopher's thought, the current volume is structured more like a dictionary, framed by various introductory essays. The book consists of six divisions, each of which is accompanied by its own bibliography. The first division tells the story of Spinoza's life through a documentary history, presented more as a diary or chronicle than a narrative essay. This is a fresh, detailed, and very helpful unit . . . a fine volume summarizing one epoch in Spinoza scholarship. -- Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
The Continuum Companion to Spinoza is a valuable testimony to what a Dutch editing team can achieve in terms of a global introduction to Spinoza when bringing together an international team of specialized contributors. -- British Journal for the History of Philosophy (Vol 20, Issue 2, 2012)
The team of researchers who have completed this collective project present a panorama of the whole of the present state of research on Spinoza ... The variety of articles included in the glossary is impressive ... In summary, a very successful work. * Archives de Philosophie (Bloomsbury translation) *

Author Bio

Wiep van Bunge is Professor of the History of Philosophy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Henri Krop is Associate Professor in the History of Philosophy at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Piet Steenbakkers is Associate Professor in the History of Philosophy at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands and holder of the endowed chair of Spinoza studies at Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Jeroen van de Ven is a specialist in late medieval history and codicology, the history of the book and the history of 17th-century Dutch Enlightenment thought, more particularly of the intellectual networks of Ren Descartes and Benedictus de Spinoza. He is currently preparing an annotated chronology in English of Spinozas life and works (scheduled 2014).