Until recently, Baruch Spinoza's standing in Anglophone studies of philosophy has only seemed to confirm Heinrich Jacobi's assessment of him as "a dead dog." However, an exuberant outburst of scholarship on Spinoza has of late come to dominate work on early modern philosophy. While the 26 essays in this volume-by many of the world's leading Spinoza specialists-grapple directly with Spinoza's most important arguments, these essays also seek to identify and explainSpinoza's debts to previous philosophy, his influence on later philosophers, and his significance for contemporary philosophy and for humanity.
