Spinoza and Politics [Paperback]

With Hobbes and Locke, Spinoza is arguably one of the most important political philosophers of the modern era, a premier theoretician of democracy and mass politics. In this revised and augmented English translation of his 1985 classic,Spinoza et la Politique, Etienne Balibar presents a synoptic account of Spinoza’s major works, admirably demonstrating relevance to his contemporary political life.

Balibar carefully situates Spinoza’s major treatises in the period in which they were written. In successive chapters, he examines the political situation in the United Provinces during Spinoza’s lifetime, Spinoza’s own religious and ideological associations, the concept of democracy developed in theTheologico-Political Treatise, the theory of the state advanced in thePolitical Treatiseand the anthropological basis for politics established in theEthics.“Etienne Balibar was one of the brilliant group of students around Althusser in the early 1960s. Since then he has established himself as one of France’s foremost philosophers on the Left.”—Radical PhilosophyÉtienne Balibaris a French Marxist philosopher and the most celebrated student of Louis Althusser. He is also one of the leading exponents of French Marxist philosophy and the author ofSpinoza and Politics,The Philosophy of Marxand co-author ofRace, Nation and ClassandReading Capital.

Warren Montagis Associate Professor of English at Occidental College, Los Angeles. He is the author ofBodies, Masses, Power: Spinoza and his Contemporariesand theUnthinkable Swift.US