Francesco Toto

The figure of Moses recurs within Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise within the discussions of all the key themes of the work: prophecy, election, law narratives, miracles, and so on. Yet Spinoza’s uses of this figure are not always consistent, and readings of it offered by interpreters can be deeply discordant...

The article compares Descartes’ and Spinoza’s theory of passions through an analysis of their treatment of pity or commiseration, envy, favor and indignation. By analyzing these affects, the article seeks to accomplish two objectives. on the one hand, it aims to show that complexities of the relationship between Spinoza’s Ethica and Descartes’s Passions de l’ame are ignored if the latter is considered simply as a polemical target of the former. on the other hand, it aims to clarify how Spinoza, starting from anthropological premises opposed to Descartes’, can present a model of a strong or generous man that has many elements in common Descartes’.