Programme

Baruch Spinoza's "Theological-Political Treatise" is both one of the most important texts of modernity and one of its greatest scandals.Anonymously published in 1670, it was the object of fierce criticism from the very beginning, but it continued to enjoy an important clandestine circulation, which allowed it to exert a great influence until the Age of Enlightenment. In the course we will proceed to a complete reading of the work and an analysis of its central themes: the critique of the theological imaginary (prophecy, law, vocation, miracles) as ideological support of non-democratic powers, the rethinking of the relationship between natural religion and historical religions, the naturalistic foundation of the legal-political sphere and the relationship between state and ecclesiastical power, the 'libertas philosophandi'.At the same time, an attempt will be made to highlight the heterogeneous theoretical positions held by the work, trying to frame them within the evolution that in Spinoza's thought is realized somewhere between the early works and the final drafting of "Ethics". In other words, it will be a matter of testing how in the very pages of the "Treatise" there is an imperceptible transition from a first position, in which good consists solely in the union of the mind with God guaranteed by intellectual knowledge and imagination and passions are therefore an obstacle to be freed from, to a second position, in which imagination and passions play a decisive role not only in politics but also in ethics.

Core Documentation

Baruch Spinoza, Theological-political treatise (ed. by E. Curley)

- One of the following books:

Henri Laux, Imagination Et Religion Chez Spinoza: La Potentia Dans L'histoire, Paris, PUF, 1993
Vittorio Morfino, Il tempo e l'occasione. L'incontro Spinoza-Machiavelli, Milano, Led Edizioni universitarie, 2002
André Tosel, Spinoza, ou Le crépuscule de la servitude: Essai sur le 'Traité théologico-politique', Paris, Aubier, 1984
Theo Verbeek, Spinoza's 'Theologico-political Treatise': Exploring the Will of God, Routledge, 2003.
Stefano Visentin, La libertà necessaria. Teoria e pratica della democrazia in Spinoza, Pisa, ETS, 2001

Type of delivery of the course

The main teaching method will be that of the frontal lesson, on teams. Non-attendants will find links to the lessons on moodle. In addition to the teacher's lectures, student interventions will be scheduled on a voluntary basis. Finally, at the end of the course there will be a small seminar with the main Italian scholars of Spinotian political thought.

Type of evaluation

The exam will be oral. The student will be asked to prepare a 15-minute speech about an aspect of the program of his/her choice. From here, the teacher will continue to verify a more general knowledge of the texts in the program and the achievement of the educational objectives.