Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-hvd4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-15T11:02:50.784Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

44. - Democracy

from D

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2025

By
Ericka Tucker
Edited by
Karolina Hübner  and
Justin Steinberg
Karolina Hübner
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Justin Steinberg
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Get access

Summary

In the TTP, Spinoza famously argues that democracy (democratia) is the best and most natural form of government (TTP16[36]). Critiquing Hobbes’s model of the social contract in Chapters 16 and 17, Spinoza argues that while Hobbes tries to subsume the power of the people or multitude in the sovereign, transferring their right and power to this figure or assembly, this kind of transfer is impossible. Individual humans – inside a state or outside of it – retain an amount of their natural power to live and think that can never be completely transferred to the sovereign (TTP17[2]). Since power cannot be fully transferred to any one person or group, it must remain in the individual humans that make up a state. The power that this multitude retains makes them a threat to any sovereign and form of state except a democratic one.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Spinoza Lexicon , pp. 110 - 113
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Recommended Reading

Balibar, E. (1998). Spinoza and Politics. Verso.Google Scholar
Blom, H. W. (1995). Morality and Causality in Politics: The Rise of Naturalism in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Political Thought. CIP Gegevens Koninklijke Bibliotheek.Google Scholar
Feuer, L. (1987). Spinoza and the Rise of Liberalism. New edn. Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Prokhovnik, R. (1997). From democracy to aristocracy: Spinoza, reason and politics. History of European Ideas, 23(2–4), 105–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mugnier-Pollet, L. (1976). La philosophie politique de Spinoza. J. Vrin.Google Scholar
Matheron, A. (1997). The theoretical function of democracy in Spinoza and Hobbes. In Montag, W. and Stolze, T. (eds.), The New Spinoza (pp. 171–207). University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Sacksteder, W. (2001). Communal orders in Spinoza. In Lloyd, G. (ed.), Spinoza: Critical Assessments (pp. 20–38). Routledge.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×