RUAN DE SOUSA GABRIEL

In the preface to the Theological-Political Treatise, Spinoza names its addressee — the philosophical reader — and states that the work will be “extremely useful” to those who “would philosophize more freely if they weren’t prevented by this one thought: that reason ought to be the handmaid of theology”. The TTP, therefore, presents itself to the reader as an invitation to philosophy. Based on this observation, our research aims to investigate Spinoza's text in order to understand how it forms its reader as a philosopher. To fulfill our intent, we will study the status of the philosophical reader in the book; how theology is described as an obstacle to the freedom to philosophize; and how Spinoza's analysis of prophecy introduces both the critique of theology and the defense of philosophy as an autonomous production of the intellect.