Chapter 1 - What Is Real about “Ideal Constitutions”?

Summary

This chapter asks four questions about Spinoza’s political theory. First, what is the nature of Spinoza’s so-called “realism” about politics? Second, what is the ideal civil order or constitution? Third, what does it mean for a realist about politics to speak of ideal constitutions? Fourth, what is the relation of the TTP to the TP? Some have argued that Spinoza’s account in the TP is more “scientific” than in the TTP and eliminates artifices like the social contract and narrative. Rosenthal claims that the TP still depends upon them in crucial ways. He argues the same tri-partite structure of explanation is found in both the TTP and the TP: the descriptive or sociological (third-person); the juridical or normative (second-person); and the narrative (first-person). The goal of this chapter is to provide answers to the first three questions concerning how realism is compatible with idealization in terms of this tri-partite account.