Reconceiving Spinoza

Book excerpt: Samuel Newlands provides a sweeping new account of Spinoza's metaphysical system and the way it shapes and is shaped by his moral project. Newlands also shows how Spinoza can be read fruitfully alongside recent developments in contemporary analytic philosophy. According to Newlands, conceptual relations form the backbone of Spinoza's explanatory project and enable him to do everything from reconciling monism and diversity to motivating altruism within egoism. Spinoza's conceptualism culminates in his call to a radical form of self-transcendence. Readers will be invited to reconceive not only Spinoza's project, but also the world and perhaps even themselves along the way.