Philosophy and Religious law in Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise: Admist Averroism and Textualism
Subject Areas : Geneology of philosophical schools and Ideas
1 - Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Shahid Beheshti University
Abstract :
Given the Multi-cultural nature of the development of philosophical systems, it can be claimed that Baruch Benedict de Spinoza formulated his view of the problem of the possibility or impossibility of concurrence of philosophy and religion in line with the tradition of Latin and Jewish Averroists. A major part of his Theologico-Political Treatise is devoted to responding to this problem. Spinoza’s philosophical thoughts were influenced by several philosophical and political traditions. Inspired by the naturalist philosophers of the Renaissance period, he advocated the radical republican tradition and played a significant role in developing the radical Enlightenment heritage. In unity with such trends and while being influenced by the Protestant religious reforms tradition and having a Jewish educational background, Spinoza was continually occupied with the important problem of the possibility or impossibility of reconciling theology and philosophy or religion and rationality. This radical philosopher of the Enlightenment Period encountered holy texts in the light of the Islamic and Jewish legacies of rational thoughts. In order to provide an answer to this problem, he openly dealt with the rationalist and textualist trends of Judaism. Given the huge contribution of Islamic rational thoughts to the rise of the Middle Age Jewish philosophy, his thoughts also dragged him to the domain of Islamic rational philosophy. In comparison to Muslim and Jewish textualists and rationalists of the Middle Ages, he chose the middle way and defended the reasons for his choice in the theological parts of his Theologico- Political Treatise: he argued that neither is philosophy at the service of religion, nor is religion at the service of philosophy. Based on this Spinozist idea, two hypotheses can be postulated: 1) the impossibility of the unity of philosophy and religion in Theologico-Political Treatise does not necessarily indicate providing some secular principles for the public domain; 2) following the historical hermeneutic approach to holy texts, this treatise provides a fideist theory which frees the vast field of living in the modern world from meaningless sterility and coldness.
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