Riccardo Caporali is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Bologna, Italy. He is the author of Il netto e il sospetto: a proposito di Machiavelli (Cesena, 2014), La pazienza degli esclusi. Studi su Spinoza (Mimesis, 2012), Uguaglianza (il Mulino, 2012), La tenerezza e la barbarie. Studi su Vico (Liguori, 2006), La fabbrica dell’imperium. Saggio su Spinoza (Liguori, 2000) and Heroes gentium. Sapienza e politica in Vico (il Mulino, 1992). This is his first book to be translated into English. Fabio Gironi is an independent researcher. He is the author of Analytic and Continental Kantianism: The Legacy of Kant in Sellars and Meillassoux (Routledge, 2017) and Naturalizing Badiou: Mathematical Ontology and Structural Realism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). He is the translator of Becoming Animal: Philosophy of Animality After Deleuze by Felice Cimatti (EUP, 2020).

Developing an interpretation of Baruch Spinoza’s political thought, Caporali surveys the Theological-Political Treatise and the unfinished Political Treatise, but roots his analysis in the metaphysics of Spinoza’s masterwork, the Ethics. Caporali begins with the concept of causa sui (cause of itself), which frames God’s causal power not as will or authority but as the generative unity of substance. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

• Introduction: ‘I am a good Republican’1. Metaphysics and PoliticsNon nimis improprie (Descartes)‘Therefore it will be the cause of itself’ (Spinoza)Causa rerumEo sensu2. Towards a Political OrderThe imagination of order (premise)The conatusNothing is more useful to manNatural LawThe artifice of nature3. A Militant Design: The Theological-Political TreatisePhilosophy and theologyObedienceUniversal faithThe free RepublicThe pactum4. Between Realism and Project: The Political TreatiseRealismMultitudoThe Kinds of StateOn MonarchyThe AristocracyAbsolutum, sive democratiaThe patience of the excludedBibliographyA. Works by SpinozaB. Other AbbreviationsC. Secondary LiteratureIndex

Riccardo Caporali is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Bologna, Italy. He is the author of Il netto e il sospetto: a proposito di Machiavelli (Cesena, 2014), La pazienza degli esclusi. Studi su Spinoza (Mimesis, 2012), Uguaglianza (il Mulino, 2012), La tenerezza e la barbarie. Studi su Vico (Liguori, 2006), La fabbrica dell’imperium. Saggio su Spinoza (Liguori, 2000) and Heroes gentium. Sapienza e politica in Vico (il Mulino, 1992). This is his first book to be translated into English. Fabio Gironi is an independent researcher. He is the author of Analytic and Continental Kantianism: The Legacy of Kant in Sellars and Meillassoux (Routledge, 2017) and Naturalizing Badiou: Mathematical Ontology and Structural Realism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). He is the translator of Becoming Animal: Philosophy of Animality After Deleuze by Felice Cimatti (EUP, 2020).

Developing an interpretation of Baruch Spinoza’s political thought, Caporali surveys the Theological-Political Treatise and the unfinished Political Treatise, but roots his analysis in the metaphysics of Spinoza’s masterwork, the Ethics. Caporali begins with the concept of causa sui (cause of itself), which frames God’s causal power not as will or authority but as the generative unity of substance. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

• Introduction: ‘I am a good Republican’1. Metaphysics and PoliticsNon nimis improprie (Descartes)‘Therefore it will be the cause of itself’ (Spinoza)Causa rerumEo sensu2. Towards a Political OrderThe imagination of order (premise)The conatusNothing is more useful to manNatural LawThe artifice of nature3. A Militant Design: The Theological-Political TreatisePhilosophy and theologyObedienceUniversal faithThe free RepublicThe pactum4. Between Realism and Project: The Political TreatiseRealismMultitudoThe Kinds of StateOn MonarchyThe AristocracyAbsolutum, sive democratiaThe patience of the excludedBibliographyA. Works by SpinozaB. Other AbbreviationsC. Secondary LiteratureIndex

Riccardo Caporali is Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Bologna, Italy. He is the author of Il netto e il sospetto: a proposito di Machiavelli (Cesena, 2014), La pazienza degli esclusi. Studi su Spinoza (Mimesis, 2012), Uguaglianza (il Mulino, 2012), La tenerezza e la barbarie. Studi su Vico (Liguori, 2006), La fabbrica dell’imperium. Saggio su Spinoza (Liguori, 2000) and Heroes gentium. Sapienza e politica in Vico (il Mulino, 1992). This is his first book to be translated into English. Fabio Gironi is an independent researcher. He is the author of Analytic and Continental Kantianism: The Legacy of Kant in Sellars and Meillassoux (Routledge, 2017) and Naturalizing Badiou: Mathematical Ontology and Structural Realism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015). He is the translator of Becoming Animal: Philosophy of Animality After Deleuze by Felice Cimatti (EUP, 2020).

Developing an interpretation of Baruch Spinoza’s political thought, Caporali surveys the Theological-Political Treatise and the unfinished Political Treatise, but roots his analysis in the metaphysics of Spinoza’s masterwork, the Ethics. Caporali begins with the concept of causa sui (cause of itself), which frames God’s causal power not as will or authority but as the generative unity of substance. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.

• Introduction: ‘I am a good Republican’1. Metaphysics and PoliticsNon nimis improprie (Descartes)‘Therefore it will be the cause of itself’ (Spinoza)Causa rerumEo sensu2. Towards a Political OrderThe imagination of order (premise)The conatusNothing is more useful to manNatural LawThe artifice of nature3. A Militant Design: The Theological-Political TreatisePhilosophy and theologyObedienceUniversal faithThe free RepublicThe pactum4. Between Realism and Project: The Political TreatiseRealismMultitudoThe Kinds of StateOn MonarchyThe AristocracyAbsolutum, sive democratiaThe patience of the excludedBibliographyA. Works by SpinozaB. Other AbbreviationsC. Secondary LiteratureIndex