In March 2021, I co-organised a conference titled "Spinoza's TTP: Politics, Power, and the Imagination". My co-organiser was Marie Wuth from The University of Aberdeen. Our conference marked the passing of the 350th anniversary of Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, and it was supported by the British Society for the History of Philosophy. 

In 1670, Baruch Spinoza published the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (TTP, or the Theological-Political Treatise) - anonymously, under a false imprint. The book set out to defend the freedom to philosophize in the Dutch Republic, but it did much more than that. Spinoza set out in a way never done before, to undertake a historical and philosophical analysis of the nature of religious belief and politics.

The rationale for our conference was to bring together leading and new scholars investigating the TTP. We were very fortunate to bring together researchers working from across Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Australia. This page is a collection of recordings from the conference presentations.

I hope you enjoy these recordings, as much as we enjoyed the conference.

Dan Taylor
Lecturer, Social and Political Thought, The Open University

An introduction by Dan Taylor
 

Transcript 76.1 KB

Antonio Salgado Borge: 

“God or natura naturata?"
 

Transcript 55.2 KB

Emanuele Costa: 

"Spinoza on prophecy and belief justification"
 

Transcript 57.0 KB

Jimena Solé: 

"Truth, obedience and freedom in Spinoza's TTP"
 

Transcript 80.9 KB

A roundtable discussion: 

Martin Saar and Mogens Laerke on democracy, public reasoning and the imagination
 

Transcript 156.3 KB

Yifan Song:

"The radicalization of action and social transformation: A Spinoza-Hess-Marx triangle"
 

Transcript 118.0 KB

Beth Lord:

"Hobbes and Spinoza on equality, equalization, and equilibrium"
 

Transcript 96.4 KB

Dimitris Vardoulakis:

"On the sources of Spinoza’s account of social formation"
 

Transcript 86.9 KB

Ahmad Bostani:

"Political philosophy and the imagination from Al-Farabi to Spinoza"
 

Transcript 77.7 KB

Matthieu Angevin:

"Spinoza against Hippocrates?"
 

Transcript 125.0 KB

Ki-myoung Kim:

"What would the institution of the universal faith in democracy look like?"
 

Transcript 79.1 KB

Gil Morejón:

"Imaginary authority and critical immanence: Spinoza’s critique of miracles"
 

Transcript 81.3 KB

Steph Marston:

"Recognition-rebellion-freedom: emergent identities in Spinoza’s political philosophy"
 

Transcript 118.5 KB

Nicolas Lema Habash:

"Spinoza’s political exception? The problem of sovereign interruption in the TTP"
 

Transcript 78.2 KB

Marie Wuth:

"Daily invectives: The state of bitter hate in Spinoza's TTP"
 

Transcript 126.8 KB

Hasana Sharp:

"'I dare not mutter a word': Truth, lies, and political violence in Spinoza"
 

Transcript (151.2 KB)