Abstract

This book represents a collection of twelve previously published and two new papers. The previously published papers are said to have been revised and to some extent even rewritten. As with most collections of this sort, there is inevitable overlap and repetition among the papers as well as some disparity of purpose, and the prospective reader should not expect a unified account of Spinoza's philosophy as a whole. Rather, its author discusses what he calls 'various particularly teasing problems that arise out of Spinoza's thought... and the way in which certain recent and contemporary commentators have addressed them". The book is divided into three parts. The first deals with "Epistemology and Metaphysics," the second with "Politics and Religion," and the third covers "Spinoza and His Successors." Parts 1 and 3 go better together than one might expect, but Part 2 covers rather different materials and seems to answer to different concerns. The three papers on Spinoza's treatment of natural law, the original contract, and the question of whether there is an esoteric doctrine in the Tractatus seem to have little to do with substance. Though the title of the book is intended to be ambiguous, suggesting that the book deals both with the doctrine of substance in Spinoza and the substance of Spinoza's philosophy, this artifice is but scant justification for including moral and political considerations in a book that is primarily about metaphysical and epistemological concerns.