Statesmen versus philosophers: Experience and method in Spinoza's political treatise

A commitment to method is one of Spinoza's philosophical signatures. Yet surprisingly little has been written about Spinoza's method for the study of politics. In this context, the Political Treatise emerges as a crucial text for understanding Spinoza's method, because it is the lone text in which Spinoza opines on proper approaches to the study of politics. In this chapter, Cooper examines the techniques that Spinoza employs in the Political Treatise. When compared to the Theologico-Political Treatise, the Political Treatise is notable for its abstraction, for the negligible work performed by history and experience. Cooper highlights Spinoza's abstract turn in an effort to temper some of the revolutionary fervor that surrounds Spinoza's unfinished work. In the Political Treatise, dispensing with an abstract theory of right does not usher in a permanent revolution. Rather, it licenses abstraction from historical contingency in a quest for modes of argument - whether deductive or empirical - powerful enough to forestall controversy and dissent.