Field, Sandra Leonie:
Potentia : Hobbes and Spinoza on Power and Popular Politics

Oxford [e.a.] : Oxford University Press, 2020. - 320 pp.

Literature type: Monographs
Language: English
Thematic areas: Theory of society, Philosophy of politics and law, Comparison of theories
Subject (individuals): Hobbes, Thomas

Reviews: Steinberg, Justin (2022)

English commentary: Abstract: "This book offers a detailed study of the political philosophies of Thomas Hobbes and Benedict de Spinoza, focussing on their concept of power as potentia, concrete power, rather than power as potestas, authorized power. The focus on power as potentia generates a new conception of popular power. Radical democrats—whether drawing on Hobbes’s ‘sleeping sovereign’ or on Spinoza’s ‘multitude’—understand popular power as something that transcends ordinary institutional politics, as, for instance, popular plebiscites or mass movements."

Link to this page: http://spinoza.hab.de/detail.php?id=20728&LANG=EN