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28 results

Page 1 of 2

  • Chapter 1 - What Is Real about “Ideal Constitutions”?

  • Edited by Yitzhak Y. Melamed, The Johns Hopkins University, Hasana Sharp, McGill University, Montréal
  • Book:
    Spinoza's <I>Political Treatise</I>
    Published online:
    19 July 2018
    Print publication:
    02 August 2018, pp 12-28

  • Summary

    This chapter asks four questions about Spinoza’s political theory. First, what is the nature of Spinoza’s so-called “realism” about politics? Second, what is the ideal civil order or constitution? Third, what does it mean for a realist about politics to speak of ideal constitutions? Fourth, what is the relation of the TTP to the TP? Some have argued that Spinoza’s account in the TP is more “scientific” than in the TTP and eliminates artifices like the social contract and narrative. Rosenthal claims that the TP still depends upon them in crucial ways. He argues the same tri-partite structure of explanation is found in both the TTP and the TP: the descriptive or sociological (third-person); the juridical or normative (second-person); and the narrative (first-person). The goal of this chapter is to provide answers to the first three questions concerning how realism is compatible with idealization in terms of this tri-partite account.

  • United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 & Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action

  • Michael D. Rosenthal
  • Journal:
    International Legal Materials / Volume 55 / Issue 1 / February 2016
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    20 January 2017, pp. 98-195
    Print publication:
    February 2016

  • For many years, the United Nations Security Council expressed its concerns about the proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear program, doing so in the context of its primary responsibility under the Charter of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security. With the intent to resolve its concerns, the Security Council adopted Resolution 2231 on July 20, 2015. The Resolution endorsed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that had been concluded on July 14, 2015, by China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, the United States, the European Union, and Iran (the E3/EU + 3). Resolution 2231 and the JCPOA are closely intertwined. Their implementation will result in strict limits on Iran’s ability to produce weapongrade nuclear material. On-site verification and monitoring of these limits by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will provide assurance that Iran is observing them. Resolution 2231 and the JCPOA also provide for a step-by-step removal of sanctions imposed on Iran for its past failure to resolve concerns about its nuclear program. Past concerns about “possible military dimensions” to Iran’s nuclear program, while neither misplaced nor necessarily fully assuaged, were put aside, being outweighed by the prospect that the JCPOA offers, “a comprehensive, long-term and proper solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.”

Spinoza's 'Theological-Political Treatise'
  • A Critical Guide
  • Edited by Yitzhak Y. Melamed, Michael A. Rosenthal
  • Published online:
    10 January 2011
    Print publication:
    18 November 2010
  • Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was published anonymously in 1670 and immediately provoked huge debate. Its main goal was to claim that the freedom of philosophizing can be allowed in a free republic and that it cannot be abolished without also destroying the peace and piety of that republic. Spinoza criticizes the traditional claims of revelation and offers a social contract theory in which he praises democracy as the most natural form of government. This Critical Guide presents essays by well-known scholars in the field and covers a broad range of topics, including the political theory and the metaphysics of the work, religious toleration, the reception of the text by other early modern philosophers and the relation of the text to Jewish thought. It offers valuable perspectives on this important and influential work.

  • 12 - Miracles, wonder, and the state in Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise

  • Edited by Yitzhak Y. Melamed, The Johns Hopkins University, Michael A. Rosenthal, University of Washington
  • Book:
    Spinoza's 'Theological-Political Treatise'
    Published online:
    10 January 2011
    Print publication:
    18 November 2010, pp 231-249

  • Summary

    In the Theological-Political Treatise, Spinoza offers a secular account of sovereign authority. Scripture is full of examples in which sovereigns point to some supposed miracle in order to inspire awe and wonder in their subjects. This chapter argues that collective action problems in Spinoza's social contract theory cannot be solved via Spinoza's strong sense of reason without begging the question. All forms of religion are not problematic in Spinoza's view. Religion must be stripped of its metaphysical pretensions. The chapter shows that even if there is no explicit appeal to miracles and their attendant wonder, there is another way in which the structure of the miracle has been imported into Spinoza's political thinking at a key point. It claims that Spinoza re-establishes the structure of the miracle in his account of the lawmaker's will. The purpose of human law is to regulate those who are passionate and tend to conflict.

  • Introduction

  • Edited by Yitzhak Y. Melamed, The Johns Hopkins University, Michael A. Rosenthal, University of Washington
  • Book:
    Spinoza's 'Theological-Political Treatise'
    Published online:
    10 January 2011
    Print publication:
    18 November 2010, pp 1-10

  • Summary

    Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise was a notorious book in its own time both for what it attacked and for what it advocated. Spinoza did not hesitate to call into question traditional religious – and not only religious – pieties. He attacked the common understanding of prophecy as either a privileged and supernatural form of knowledge or a disguised mode of philosophizing. He denied that miracles, as violations of the Laws of Nature, were possible and claimed that belief in them demonstrated ignorance and undermined any adequate conception of God. Just as he hoped to demystify the content of Scripture, Spinoza sought to call into question its origin. Relying on historical and linguistic analysis, Spinoza argued that Scripture is itself a human artifact written and composed by several authors and editors over time. But Spinoza was not a skeptic about all things. He claimed that prophets used their vivid imaginations to advocate obedience to a social order in which justice and charity were paramount. He believed that the political model of the ancient Hebrews could be imitated in certain key respects. Spinoza's Realpolitik – his identification of right with might – led him to rather surprising conclusions. Unlike Hobbes, whose social contract theory justified absolute monarchy, Spinoza argued that democracy was a preferred form of government. And, finally, he thought that the state would be better off if it granted limited religious toleration and the freedom to philosophize.

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