Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (Gephardt Edition 1925)

Rating:
Summary: Well translated entry into moden times
Review: Spinoza meant his Tractatus to pave the way for his magnum opus, the Ethics. The latter was too revolutionary to be published right away; Spinoza had it published after his death. He realized that if he did not try to win support for his point of view (in one formula: God and nature are the same), his Ethics would overshoot and not get the attention it needed to have.
Now, don't draw the conclusion that you may just skip the Tractatus and get to the Ethics right away. Between each line in the Tractatus, you can see Spinoza working for the political and theological implications he knew his work was about to have.

I did not read the original, so I cannot tell whether Elis' translation is correct. But it certainly makes reading the Tractatus easy.

Note: Spinoza takes knowledge of some bible-passages for granted. Perhaps too much so for a modern reader. It is worthwile to have a bible at arms length. There are only a few of these passages and the way Spinoza puts them to work to gain support for his point of view is at times breathtaking (even for an atheist like me).