The Ethica of Political Economy in Baruch Spinoza

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to draw a basic framework of Spinoza’s understanding of the political economy, which is not discussed enough in the literature, and to explain whether this framework relates to a neo-liberal political economy. In this direction, the main target of the study is to reveal what the basic postulates determining Ethica of the Spinozaian political order are and whether these postulates are compatible with the so-called basic postulates of the neo-liberal market economy. The study hypothesizes that a Spinozaian economic-political order based on the priority of individual freedoms is incompatible with the main postulates of the current neo-liberal market economy.