A Theological-Political Treatise [Part IV]
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~28,600 words · 136 passages
Cite this work
- APABaruch Spinoza. (n.d.). A Theological-Political Treatise [Part IV]. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/baruch-spinoza/a-theological-political-treatise-part-iv
- MLABaruch Spinoza. A Theological-Political Treatise [Part IV]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/baruch-spinoza/a-theological-political-treatise-part-iv.
- ChicagoBaruch Spinoza. A Theological-Political Treatise [Part IV]. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/baruch-spinoza/a-theological-political-treatise-part-iv.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Fourth and last part of Elwes's translation: the political chapters, from natural right to freedom of thought.
Context and history
Published without an author's name in 1670, under a false imprint, and banned in 1674: it was the most dangerous book of its century, and contemporaries understood this at once. The thesis that carries everything is that the freedom to philosophise does not threaten piety or the peace of the state — suppressing it is what destroys them. To get there, Spinoza does something no one had done with such rigour: he reads Scripture as a historical document, written by men for men, in which prophecy is vivid imagination rather than knowledge, and miracles can prove nothing, because nothing happens outside the order of nature. Modern biblical criticism descends from this. The final chapters draw the political consequence: the covenant transfers power but not the capacity to think, and a state that tries to rule over opinions therefore injures itself. The English translation is Elwes's, of 1883, divided into four parts in the corpus.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
different hands. (83) I say, has attempted, for if punishment were not to overtake him till he had succeeded, it would often come too late, the sovereign rights would have been acquired or transferred already. (16:84) I also say, has attempted, for whatever reason, to seize the sovereign power, and I recognize no difference whether such an attempt should be followed by public loss or public gain. (85) Whatever be his reason for acting, the crime is treason, and he is rightly condemned: in war, everyone would admit the justice of his sentence. (86) If a man does not keep to his post, but approaches the enemy without the knowledge of his commander, whatever may be his motive, so long as he acts on his own motion, even if he advances with the design of defeating the enemy, he is rightly put to death, because he has violated his oath, and infringed the rights of his commander. (87) That all citizens are equally bound by these rights in time of peace, is not so generally recognized, but the reasons for obedience are in both cases identical. (88) The state must be preserved and directed by the sole authority of the sovereign, and such authority and right have been accorded by universal consent to him alone: if, therefore, anyone else attempts, without his consent, to execute any public enterprise, even though the state might (as we said) reap benefit therefrom, such person has none the less infringed the sovereign’s right, and would be rightly punished for treason. (16:89) In order that every scruple may be removed, we may now answer the inquiry, whether our former assertion that everyone who has not the practice of reason, may, in the state of nature, live by sovereign natural right, according to the laws of his desires, is not in direct opposition to the law and right of God as revealed.…