Spinoza on Learning to Live Together

Philosophising, as Spinoza conceives it, is the project of learning to live joyfully. This in turn is a matter of learning to live together, and the most obvious test of philosophical insight is our capacity to sustain a harmonious way of life. Susan James defends this interpretation and explores Spinoza's influence on contemporary debates.

List of contents

• Introduction: Philosophy as the Art of Living Together


• Part I. Learning to Live Together


• Creating Rational Understanding: Spinoza as a Social Epistemologist


• When Does Truth Matter? The Relation Between Theology and Philosophy


• Spinoza on Superstition: Coming to Terms with Fear


• Narrative as a Means to Freedom: Spinoza on the Uses of Imagination


• Responding Emotionally to Fiction: A Spinozist Approach


• Part II. The Politics of Living Together


• Law and Sovereignty in Spinoza's Politics


• Natural Rights as Powers to Act


• Democracy and the Good Life in Spinoza's Philosophy


• Freedom, Slavery and the Passions


• Freedom of Conscience and Civic Peace: Spinoza on Piety


• Part III. Philosophical Communities


• Freedom and Nature: A Spinozist Invitation


• The Affective Cost of Philosophical Self-Transformation


• Fortitude: Living in the Light of our Knowledge

About the author

Susan James is Professor Emerita at Birkbeck College London and Visiting Professor of Philosophy at King's College London. She has written on a range of themes in early modern philosophy, including political philosophy, philosophical psychology and the philosophy of art. Among her publications are Passion and Action: The Emotions in Early Modern Philosophy (Oxford, 1997) and Spinoza on Philosophy Religion and Politics: The Theologico-Political Treatise (Oxford 2012).

Product details

• Authors: Susan (Professor Emerita of Philosophy James, James Susan
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 13.06.2025, delayed
• EAN: 9780198966296
• ISBN: 978-0-19-896629-6
• No. of pages: 240
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: antiquity to present day; PHILOSOPHY / Political, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Modern, PHILOSOPHY / Ethics & Moral Philosophy, PHILOSOPHY / Movements / Phenomenology, Social & political philosophy, Ethics & moral philosophy, social and political philosophy, Ethics and moral philosophy, Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900, Philosophical traditions and schools of thought