Spinoza’s Theologico-Political TreatiseThe Twilight of Servitude

Originally published in 1984, André Tosel’s ground-breaking first book on Spinoza represents a landmark in 20th-century French Spinoza scholarship

• Offers the first and only book length translation of André Tosel into English
• Provides an accessible introduction to Spinoza’s philosophy by way of his controversial Theologico-Political Treatise
• Includes important historical context for the development and flourishing of studies on Spinoza’s materialism and the relation between Spinoza and Marx

Tosel, one of the first thinkers to pursue the systematic study of Spinoza’s relation to Marx, provides an innovative and accessible reading of Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise as a way of entering into Spinoza’s notoriously difficult philosophical system.

A manifesto for intellectual and political liberation, Tosel explores how Spinoza strategically intervened in the theologico-political debates of the late 17th century in order to galvanise the nascent philosophical powers of heterodox Christians living in the Dutch Republic.

Complete with a substantial introduction written by the translators, this English translation introduces Anglophone readers to Tosel’s important scholarship – which arguably went the furthest in systematically investigating the connections between Spinoza, Marxism and materialism famously signalled by Tosel’s teacher Louis Althusser – through his first major publication.