Editors’ Introduction. Spinoza and Recognition: A Contested and Open-Ended approach

The modern idea of ‘recognition’ has a history that is often traced back to Hegel. Its prehistory includes various authors, such as Hobbes and La Rochefoucauld, Mandeville and Hume, Rousseau and Smith. Spinoza is rarely mentioned in this context. Nevertheless, themes related to what can be called recognition play a decisive (and most likely influential) role in Spinoza’s anthropology, ethics, politics, religion, and in the relationship between these domains. A study of these themes may be appropriate for better understanding Spinoza’s thought, his place in the history of Western philosophy, and for deploying a critical development of issues concerning recognition that are still relevant to philosophical debates today.