Spinoza and the Rise of Systems

Diego Donna is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bologna, where he focuses on the history of modern and contemporary philosophy. His research ranges from early modern philosophy – especially the thought of Descartes and Spinoza – to contemporary philosophy and epistemology, on which he has published numerous articles in international journals. He has been a Visiting Scholar at several international research centres, including IRPhiL (Université Lyon III), Birkbeck College (London), Princeton University and Utrecht University. He is the author of I diagrammi della filosofia. Una storia eretica della filosofia contemporanea in Francia (Mucchi, 2024); Contre Spinoza. Critique, système et métamorphoses au siècle des Lumières (Georg, 2021); Hermeneutics and Conflict. Spinoza and the Downfall of Exegetical Interpretation (Brill, 2021); Dispersione, ordine, distanza. L’Illuminismo di Foucault, Luhmann, Blumenberg (Quodlibet, 2020); con P. Schiavo [eds], Ragione e mito. Hans Blumenberg e la costituzione della razionalità moderna (Mucchi, 2018). Brent Waterhouse received his PhD in Musicology from University of Bologna/Paris IV Sorbonne. He is the translator of Luca Bragalini, From La Scala to Harlem. Duke Ellington’s Symphonic Dreams, Oxford: Oxford University Press (forthcoming), Monica Massari and Vittorio Martone (ed.), Mafia Violence. Political, Symbolic and Economic Forms of Violence in Camorra Clans, NY: Routledge, 2019, Monia Cappuccini, Austerity and Democracy in Athens. Crisis and Community in Exarchia, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. He is the author of Références à la musique et au sonore dans l’œuvre de Deleuze, in Pascale Criton, Jean-Marc Chouvel (ed.) Gilles Deleuze. La Pensée-musique, Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine: Paris 2015 and Tracce di una cultura musicale ne Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons di Gabriel Théodat Sagard, in Paola Dessi (ed.), Per una storia dei popoli senza note: atti dell'Atelier del Dottorato di ricerca in musicologia e beni musicali (F. A. Gallo): Ravenna, 15-17 October 2007, Bologna: Clueb, 2010.

Spinoza and the new idea of system in the French Enlightenment. The birth of critical history of philosophy. Is Spinoza a systematic atheist? A model for the libertine movements from eclectism to scientific philosophy. From Bayle to Condillac, Donna explores the many-sided figure of the “French” Spinoza. An illuminating book on the history of philosophy.

• Introduction: Spinoza: A Controversial LegacyAbbreviationsI. System and ContagionTowards a New Critical History of PhilosophyThe ‘Virtuous Atheist’. Bayle on SpinozaFrom Reasonable Faith to the ‘Spinozist King’Endless Contradictions. The System of AtheismDualistic vs Monistic Systems. Spinoza and the ManichaeansSpinoza in ChinaII. Translation and CriticismBoulainvilliers’ System of NatureThe Reasons for Force. The Rights of ConquerorsCondillac in the Labyrinth of Systems. ‘Abstract Systems’ and ‘Legitimate Systems’Cause, Essence, Substance. The Treatise on SystemsMos Geometricus or Langue des Calculs?III. Crisis and Renaissance of SystemsSystems of Atheism and the Common Sense of Philosophy. Voltaire on Spinoza‘Spinoza’, ‘Spinozist’, ‘Atheist’, ‘Soul’ ‘Chaos’, ‘Immaterialism’, ‘Freedom’. Spinoza in the EncyclopédieD’Holbach and the Battle among SystemsVariations on the Encyclopaedic Spirit. New Perspectives on French SpinozismBibliographyWorks by SpinozaWorks Cited