A Companion to Spinoza

"My general impression is that this is a very well thought out proposal, bringing together some of the finest established experts and some of the most promising younger scholars on the subject. I fully concur with Melamed's assessment of the recent interest among Anglophone philosophers in metaphysics being a major asset for a renewed focus on Spinoza in the US. I am also in agreement with Melamed's views on the possible market for a Blackwell Companion to Spinoza. In my experience students tend to prefer Companions, Guides, Readers, and what have you to your average edited volume, and they're right, of course. This particular Companion appears to cover nearly all the truly essential aspects of Spinoza's work, so should Blackwell be able to keep the volume affordable, I have no doubt it will sell really well. To tell you the truth I would be amazed to find out Blackwell would not accept this extremely convincing proposal: both the editor and the authors involved are ideally suited to produce this volume."

Wiep van Bunge, Erasmus University Rotterdam



"Yitzhak Y. Melamed is one of the leading historians of philosophy of the new generation. His work on Spinoza is well known and highly respected. Notably, Melamed is doing ground-breaking work on Spinoza and German idealism, and on Spinoza and Jewish thought. These aspects of his work are visible as welcome, distinctive features of this book proposal. What he has already accomplished as an editor suggests that he will be excellent in overseeing this project and shepherding it to completion. There seems to be space in the market for another Companion / Handbook on Spinoza. I expect that several chapters included in the volume could become required reading in UG and PG courses. The volume as whole is likely to be a recommended text."

Maria Rosa Antognazza, King's College London



"The organization and coverage is excellent. My guess is that all academic libraries will want to have a copy of this book as will specialists and teachers of early modern philosophy. I can imagine teachers assigning a particular chapter or other if it were made available as an electronic resource (so that students could access a particular chapter without buying the whole work). I have no doubt that Yitzhak is the ideal person to edit this volume. He certainly has the ability and is well situated to bring this project to completion. He also has an impressive track record of shepherding editorial projects. If you could waive a magic wand and pick anyone to edit this volume, I'd recommend picking him."

Jeff McDonough, Harvard University

Yitzhak Y. Melamed is the Charlotte Bloomberg Professor of Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He works at the intersection of philosophy, Jewish and religious studies, the history of science, and contemporary metaphysics. He has been awarded the ACLS-Burkhardt, NEH, Fulbright, and Mellon Fellowships. He is the author of Spinoza's Metaphysics: Substance and Thought (2015), and a large number of studies on early modern philosophy, medieval philosophy, and German idealism.

Y. Y. Melamed, Johns Hopkins University