Book Reviews: The Political Philosophy of Spinoza, The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham 1752–1780, The Mind of Jeremy Bentham, The Improvement of Mankind: The Social and Political Thought of John Stuart Mill, Ethique Et Politique, The Ethics of Punishment, Action, Symbolism and Order, The Promise of Politics, the Politics and Dynamics of Human Rights, New Law for a New World, An Introduction to Legal Systems, Major Legal Systems in the World Today, Law without Sanctions, Local Government in South-East England, the Lessons of London Government Reforms
| Author | W. Stark,Howard Warrender,Peter G. Richards,Thomas McPherson,John Rees,Harry Street,D. I. Manning |
| Published date | 01 June 1969 |
| Date | 01 June 1969 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-9248.1969.tb00641.x |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
BOOK
REVIEWS
THE
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY
OF
SPINOZA.
By
ROBERT
J.
MCSHEA.
‘It is almost as though [Spinoza] had not written.
.
.he was too abstract for the Utilitarians, too
naturalistic for the Romantics, too metaphysical and dogmatic (or shall we say too philosophi-
cally engaged?) for the modems. His political philosophy, meant to fit all ages.
.
.has been taken
seriously, by none.
.
.if this
is
the verdict of history, then it must be reversed’ (pp.
10
and
11).
This well-produced volume begins with the philosophical and political background to
Spinoza’s thought-Jewish scholasticism and Cartesianism; the new science as
a
body of
verifiable empirical generalizations; the contemporary situation
in
Holland with its struggle
between the oligarchs and the House of Orange. The author then turns to Spinoza’s meta-
physics-self-preservation is the first law of all beings; the universe is
a
single and infinite
system, which
is
known to
us
in two ways, as thought and as extension. Though determined,
man has
a
type of freedom in action originating wholly in his interest. To be rational is to
follow one’s interests intelligently but nothing is more useful to other men, and whoever seeks
freedom for himself must also seek it for others. Spinoza interprets natural right as equivalent to
power. Indeed all the major ramifications of his political thought are deductions from his
equivalence of right with power. There follows an outline of Spinoza’s five stages of political
development and his evaluation of different forms of government. The order in which he pre-
sents his model constitutions is an order of increasing value and absoluteness; aristocracy
is
more absolute than monarchy, and democracy more absolute than aristocracy.
There is a good chapter to the effect that Spinoza was a more logical Hobbist than Hobbes,
though it does not show that Spinoza’s thought is more true of the world. On obligation the
author passes too quickly over such points as the distinction between being determined from
without and being determined from within; or the distinction between personal prudence and
the general more permanent principles which are in the interests of all men at all times. Spinoza’s
version of naturalistic ethics is to be highly regarded. ‘The history of utilitarianism, and of the
empiricisms which followed it, can be seen in the light
of
Spinoza’s thought to have been the
history of the trivialization of philosophy..
.’
(p.
168).
The author considers briefly some applications of Spinoza’s thought
:
to international rela-
tions, to the Church/State conflict, to civil liberty and the right to revolution. He concludes with
an assessment of Spinoza’s achievements which, apart from inventing modern techniques of
Biblical analysis, are ‘the conversion of a great metaphysical tradition into
a
philosophy of
science, the creation of
a
naturalistic ethics, and the reconciliation of the claims of individual
freedom and social peace through an analysis of the nature of political power’
(p.
197).
On the
political side, he is to be regarded essentially as
a
bourgeois ideologist-a supporter of the
modern secular omnicompetent State, to which he contributes
a
very significant analysis of
power, and its relation to absolutism and to freedom.
In general, this book is
a
good introduction to the subject; it is clearly written, modest, and
free from padding
or
jargon. If it has
a
fault, it is that it is not long enough; the advanced student
would have welcomed
a
more concrete statement of what we may now hope to achieve from
a
renewed study of Spinoza’s work. Nevertheless, Professor McShea is to be congratulated in
having given us such a fair start.
(Columbia University
Press.
Pp.
viii+214.
67s.
6d.)
The Queen’s University
of
Berfast
HOWARD WARRENDER
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