Spinoza studies seemed to revolve almost exclusively around metaphysical
issues for centuries. In these last few decades, this situation
tended to change – mainly prompted by French neo-Marxist studies in
the 1960s – insofar as there has been recognition of an original political
philosophy deeply rooted in Spinoza’s ontology. Nevertheless, to this
day only seldom have studies appeared focusing on the axis around
which these two dimensions of the system are articulated – an axis
that could be expressed in the formula ‘law, or power’, which by itself
would epitomize at the outset a slogan for a radically new version of
modern natural law. This book’s first task is to expound and argue with
Spinoza’s conception of natural law from inside that axis. This makes it
a book on Spinoza’s natural law theory and, consequently, probably the
first major book dedicated to his Philosophy of Law entirely from the
viewpoint of his internal connection between metaphysics and politics.
That is why it must be interdisciplinary in nature, going from basic
metaphysical premises toward specific political purposes, and involving
a reconstruction of concepts usually associated with the modern natural
law tradition (such as the individual, right, law of Nature, the State,
the social contract, freedom, etc.). Together, they represent the extent of
Spinoza’s revolutions in natural law.