The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) [Paperback]

Don Garrett (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521398657 | ISBN-13: 978-0521398657 | Publication Date: October 27, 1995

Benedict (Baruch) de Spinoza has been one of the most inspiring and influential philosophers of the modern era, yet also one of the most difficult and most frequently misunderstood. The essays in this volume provide a clear and systematic exegesis of Spinoza's thought informed by the most recent scholarship. They cover his metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, psychology, ethics, political theory, theology, and scriptural interpretation, as well as his life and influence on later thinkers.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"I do not presume to have discovered the best philosophy," Spinoza once wrote, "but I know that I understand the true one." Understanding the philosophy of Spinoza is not easy, to be sure, but The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza is intended to help. Aimed at the novice and the specialist alike, it contains 10 essays contributed by scholars who are among the foremost authorities on Spinoza's thought. "Taken as a whole," editor Don Garrett writes, "the essays in this volume present a detailed, coherent, and--I believe--accurate portrait of one of the most original and fruitful thinkers that humankind has yet produced."

The Companion is almost certainly the best anthology on Spinoza's philosophy presently available, and his major work, Ethics, is naturally at its center. Among the high points in Jonathan Bennett's compendious essay on Spinoza's metaphysics is his discussion of "size neutrality"--the claim that small things differ from large ones only in size--which is memorably described as "a blank check that philosophers wrote on Nature's bank and that did not visibly bounce until late in the 19th century." Other essays on Ethics deal with Spinoza's views on epistemology, the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind, and--unsurprisingly--ethics. Concerning other aspects of Spinoza's work, Edwin Curley's essay, delightfully titled "Kissinger, Spinoza, and Genghis Khan," argues that Spinoza's political philosophy is essentially Machiavellian; Spinoza's contributions to theology and Bible scholarship are carefully dealt with by the late Alan Donagan and Richard H. Popkin. --Glenn Branch

Review

"...a"detailed, coherent, accurate portrait of one of the most original and fruitful thinkers that humankind has yet produced"....useful to beginning students, but helpful to Spinoza scholars as well." Seventeenth-Century News

"The breadth of Garrett's grasp of Spinoza's intellectual context is very impressive...[his] new approach to perennially difficult themes of Spinoza's system is highyl enlightening and clearly a valuable addition to Spinoza and Early Modern scholarship Review of Metaphysics

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Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (October 27, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521398657
• ISBN-13: 978-0521398657
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #378,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential aid to students of Spinoza., June 10, 2000

By 

John S. Ryan "Scott Ryan" (Cuyahoga Falls, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza (Cambridge Companions to Philosophy) (Paperback)

This fine volume in the Cambridge "Companions" series is an essential aid to readers of Baruch Spinoza. Edited by Don Garrett, it includes ten essays on Spinoza's life and thought by ten world-class Spinoza scholars (including the late Alan Donagan, to whom the book is dedicated).

Topics covered are various and pretty much exhaustive. W.N.A. Klever opens the volume with a summary of Spinoza's life and works; the closing piece by Pierre-Francois Moreau traces the influence of "Spinozism" from Spinoza's death through the twentieth century. The eight essays in between discuss, in turn, Spinoza's metaphysics (Jonathan Bennett), his theory of knowledge (Margaret D. Wilson), his natural science and methodology (Alan Gabbey), his metaphysical psychology (Michael Della Rocca), his ethical theory (Don Garrett), his political theory (Edwin Curley, in a piece strikingly entitled "Kissinger, Spinoza, and Genghis Khan," in which he argues that Spinoza was essentially Machiavellian), his theology (Alan Donagan), and his influence on Biblical scholarship (Richard H. Popkin).

The resulting collection is a clear and thorough examination of every essential aspect of Spinoza's thought. My recommendation to new readers of Spinoza: begin with Roger Scruton's fine little book in the "Past Masters" series, and then go on to this one.