Spinoza and the Rise of Systems

This book contributes to the ongoing debate on the contemporary relevance of Enlightenment philosophy by examining through the lens of the French reception of Spinoza in the Eighteenth century crucial themes such as virtuous atheism, freedom of conscience, and the tension between the ‘spirit of system’ and the ‘systematic spirit.’

Diego Donna retraces the resistances, conflicts and interpretive ambiguities that the Enlightenment brought to bear on Spinoza’s work. These are all hallmarks of a philosophical freedom that rejects all systems and authorities in the name of a new systematic reason. Donna therefore presents the notion of ‘system’ as essential both for understanding the historical development of Spinozism and assessing the evolution of modern philosophical debate, from the encyclopaedic culture of the Eighteenth century to the systemic rationality of the twentieth century.

Author Biography

Diego Donna is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Bologna, where he focuses on the history of modern and contemporary philosophy. His research ranges from early modern philosophy – especially the thought of Descartes and Spinoza – to contemporary philosophy and epistemology, on which he has published numerous articles in international journals. He has been a Visiting Scholar at several international research centres, including IRPhiL (Université Lyon III), Birkbeck College (London), Princeton University and Utrecht University. He is the author of I diagrammi della filosofia. Una storia eretica della filosofia contemporanea in Francia (Mucchi, 2024); Contre Spinoza. Critique, système et métamorphoses au siècle des Lumières (Georg, 2021); Hermeneutics and Conflict. Spinoza and the Downfall of Exegetical Interpretation (Brill, 2021); Dispersione, ordine, distanza. L’Illuminismo di Foucault, Luhmann, Blumenberg (Quodlibet, 2020); con P. Schiavo [eds], Ragione e mito. Hans Blumenberg e la costituzione della razionalità moderna (Mucchi, 2018). Brent Waterhouse received his PhD in Musicology from University of Bologna/Paris IV Sorbonne. He is the translator of Luca Bragalini, From La Scala to Harlem. Duke Ellington’s Symphonic Dreams, Oxford: Oxford University Press (forthcoming), Monica Massari and Vittorio Martone (ed.), Mafia Violence. Political, Symbolic and Economic Forms of Violence in Camorra Clans, NY: Routledge, 2019, Monia Cappuccini, Austerity and Democracy in Athens. Crisis and Community in Exarchia, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. He is the author of Références à la musique et au sonore dans l’oeuvre de Deleuze, in Pascale Criton, Jean-Marc Chouvel (ed.) Gilles Deleuze. La Pensée-musique, Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine: Paris 2015 and Tracce di una cultura musicale ne Le Grand Voyage du Pays des Hurons di Gabriel Théodat Sagard, in Paola Dessi (ed.), Per una storia dei popoli senza note: atti dell’Atelier del Dottorato di ricerca in musicologia e beni musicali (F. A. Gallo): Ravenna, 15-17 October 2007, Bologna: Clueb, 2010.