Although there are as many different opinions about Spinoza scholarship and exegesis as there are Spinoza scholars, there is a broad consensus that the greatest work of modern (20th century) commentary on Spinoza is the vast, unfinished magnum opus of Martial Gueroult, ‘Spinoza’, in 2 volumes (vol 1: DIEU and vol 2: L’AME).
Deleuze said of these volumes that they constituted the foundations of the modern scientific study of Spinoza. I fondly recall the great Stuart Hampshire thrusting both volumes into my nervously perspiring hands at our preliminary doctoral supervision in the late 70s, whilst earnestly incanting the benediction ‘these will be essential if you are serious about Spinoza’.
Unfortunately these volumes have never been translated into English (except for a small fragment on Spinoza’s ‘Letter on the Infinite’, translated by Kathleen McLaughlin for Marjorie Green’s excellent collection of edited readings in 1973).
I think it an urgent desideratum that a Gueroult translation project be undertaken in order to translate these two volumes into English. The translation should be complete (including all footnotes and appendices) and of the highest scholarly quality.
The advantages for serious students of Spinoza will be considerable for it is an unfortunate fact that all too many simply don’t have sufficiently good French at their command , ditto many teachers as well, in order to savour the profound delights of Gueroult’s painstaking analysis of the Spinozan architectonic. Spinoza studies in the English speaking world urgently require a deeply considered and substantial work of Spinoza exegesis which will create a gravitational field of attraction around which seriously minded and scholarly newcomers to Spinoza will orbit. Ideally a new monograph in English would be forthcoming but I know of no current project on Spinoza that approaches Gueroult’s opus in size and richness of detail.
The problem is that most English and American academic publishers go weak at the knees should one suggest translating 1300 pages of dense philosophical prose. The translation cost alone is considerable and in addition to this it is a widespread perception on the part of philosophy publishers that Spinoza just doesn’t sell, or at least not sufficiently well in comparison with Plato, Decartes, Kant and Hegel. They moan about their bottom line, short print runs and ‘niche’ markets and end up coming to the predictable conclusion that the project is simply not financially sustainable.
Things are of course changing (this blog and the SRN are obviously a case in point) with monographs appearing spasmodically, two Spinoza biographies having appeared in English over the last 6 or 7 years and Jonathan Israel’s work having created a place for Spinoza at the beating heart of the ‘Radical Enlightenment’. However, we still have a long way to go before the teaching of Spinoza in courses devoted exclusively to his thought, before exegetical monographs and papers focussed on his ideas and historical context, reach the critical mass which characterises exegesis of other master thinkers of the western tradition. That is why I feel passionately that this translation is such an urgent desideratum.
Its unlikely someone could be found to take on the translation as a labour of love and so remove this as a publishing cost, although if someone out there is willing to do it (or possibly more than one lone individual) that would be superlative.
It is possible a publishing subvention might be found (European/French cultural institutions, deep pocketed cultural philanthropists) which could defray the translation costs.
A few years ago I did canvass a sample of Spinoza scholars in the UK, France, Netherlands and the US about such a translation project and I received a 99% positive response.
I’d be interested to know if other members of the Spinoza community are similarly bullish about the prospects, and need for, a Gueroult translation.
I’ve been attracted to this site as an amateur Spinoza enthusiast.
The project I have in mind is, I’m afraid, quite non-academic. The aim is to present some of his ideas (particularly the Ethics) in a digestible form for a 21st century lay audience. In particular, to take the ideas that appeared most challenging, especially to his contemporaries, and relate them to subsequent developments in many disciplines that seem (to me, at least) to substantiate them. Reading Spinoza always gives me the sense that his ideas were so far ahead of his time that he simply lacked the vocabulary – and shared experience – to communicate them to his contemporaries as clearly as he himself understood them.
I see the challenge of this project as being three fold: firstly, to achieve a clear enough understanding of Spinoza so that I feel competent to present his views accurately. Secondly, to present the intervening developments and science in an understandable way to show how they support what he said. While my background in science and engineering will help with this, a lot of research in other disciplines (eg cognitive, social and environmental science) is needed to complete this part. Thirdly, to wrap all this up in a story format that will entertain and attract readers. As this will be my second novel-length piece of fiction, I am aware of the work that will be entailed.
The project is at an early stage, researching and putting some shape on the structure of the piece. I’d welcome any comments on either its objective, or the proposed approach.
BdS in any form for all audiences sounds absolutely fantastic to me! It seems you would need flying stone types from every discipline to accomplish your task. I too am a newbie, but feel the more I learn about BdS in every form, or in any way possible, the more I begin to understand some of what he was trying to share with us.
Although there are as many different opinions about Spinoza scholarship and exegesis as there are Spinoza scholars, there is a broad consensus that the greatest work of modern (20th century) commentary on Spinoza is the vast, unfinished magnum opus of Martial Gueroult, ‘Spinoza’, in 2 volumes (vol 1: DIEU and vol 2: L’AME).
Deleuze said of these volumes that they constituted the foundations of the modern scientific study of Spinoza. I fondly recall the great Stuart Hampshire thrusting both volumes into my nervously perspiring hands at our preliminary doctoral supervision in the late 70s, whilst earnestly incanting the benediction ‘these will be essential if you are serious about Spinoza’.
Unfortunately these volumes have never been translated into English (except for a small fragment on Spinoza’s ‘Letter on the Infinite’, translated by Kathleen McLaughlin for Marjorie Green’s excellent collection of edited readings in 1973).
I think it an urgent desideratum that a Gueroult translation project be undertaken in order to translate these two volumes into English. The translation should be complete (including all footnotes and appendices) and of the highest scholarly quality.
The advantages for serious students of Spinoza will be considerable for it is an unfortunate fact that all too many simply don’t have sufficiently good French at their command , ditto many teachers as well, in order to savour the profound delights of Gueroult’s painstaking analysis of the Spinozan architectonic. Spinoza studies in the English speaking world urgently require a deeply considered and substantial work of Spinoza exegesis which will create a gravitational field of attraction around which seriously minded and scholarly newcomers to Spinoza will orbit. Ideally a new monograph in English would be forthcoming but I know of no current project on Spinoza that approaches Gueroult’s opus in size and richness of detail.
The problem is that most English and American academic publishers go weak at the knees should one suggest translating 1300 pages of dense philosophical prose. The translation cost alone is considerable and in addition to this it is a widespread perception on the part of philosophy publishers that Spinoza just doesn’t sell, or at least not sufficiently well in comparison with Plato, Decartes, Kant and Hegel. They moan about their bottom line, short print runs and ‘niche’ markets and end up coming to the predictable conclusion that the project is simply not financially sustainable.
Things are of course changing (this blog and the SRN are obviously a case in point) with monographs appearing spasmodically, two Spinoza biographies having appeared in English over the last 6 or 7 years and Jonathan Israel’s work having created a place for Spinoza at the beating heart of the ‘Radical Enlightenment’. However, we still have a long way to go before the teaching of Spinoza in courses devoted exclusively to his thought, before exegetical monographs and papers focussed on his ideas and historical context, reach the critical mass which characterises exegesis of other master thinkers of the western tradition. That is why I feel passionately that this translation is such an urgent desideratum.
Its unlikely someone could be found to take on the translation as a labour of love and so remove this as a publishing cost, although if someone out there is willing to do it (or possibly more than one lone individual) that would be superlative.
It is possible a publishing subvention might be found (European/French cultural institutions, deep pocketed cultural philanthropists) which could defray the translation costs.
A few years ago I did canvass a sample of Spinoza scholars in the UK, France, Netherlands and the US about such a translation project and I received a 99% positive response.
I’d be interested to know if other members of the Spinoza community are similarly bullish about the prospects, and need for, a Gueroult translation.
Harvey Shoolman
I agree and will support you in any way possible.
Chris R.
Hello
I’ve been attracted to this site as an amateur Spinoza enthusiast.
The project I have in mind is, I’m afraid, quite non-academic. The aim is to present some of his ideas (particularly the Ethics) in a digestible form for a 21st century lay audience. In particular, to take the ideas that appeared most challenging, especially to his contemporaries, and relate them to subsequent developments in many disciplines that seem (to me, at least) to substantiate them. Reading Spinoza always gives me the sense that his ideas were so far ahead of his time that he simply lacked the vocabulary – and shared experience – to communicate them to his contemporaries as clearly as he himself understood them.
I see the challenge of this project as being three fold: firstly, to achieve a clear enough understanding of Spinoza so that I feel competent to present his views accurately. Secondly, to present the intervening developments and science in an understandable way to show how they support what he said. While my background in science and engineering will help with this, a lot of research in other disciplines (eg cognitive, social and environmental science) is needed to complete this part. Thirdly, to wrap all this up in a story format that will entertain and attract readers. As this will be my second novel-length piece of fiction, I am aware of the work that will be entailed.
The project is at an early stage, researching and putting some shape on the structure of the piece. I’d welcome any comments on either its objective, or the proposed approach.
BdS in any form for all audiences sounds absolutely fantastic to me! It seems you would need flying stone types from every discipline to accomplish your task. I too am a newbie, but feel the more I learn about BdS in every form, or in any way possible, the more I begin to understand some of what he was trying to share with us.