Ebook: The Spinoza-Machiavelli Encounter: Time and Occasion

Vittorio Morfino draws out the implications of the dynamic Spinoza–Machiavelli encounter by focusing on the concepts of causality, temporality and politics. This allows him to think through the relationship between ontology and politics, leading to an understanding of history as a complex and plural interweaving of different rhythms.

This extraordinary book opens up new avenues for understanding both Machiavelli and Spinoza as well as early modern political philosophy and materialism.

Vittorio Morfino is an Associate Professor in the History of Philosophy at the University of Milan-Bicocca and Director of programme at the Collège International de Philosophie, Paris. He has published extensively on Spinoza, Machiavelli, Marx, German Idealism, Leibniz and Althusser. His most recent book is Plural Temporality: Transindividuality and the Aleatory Between Spinoza and Althusser (Brill, 2014).

Dave Mesing is a PhD candidate in philosophy at Villanova University, where he is preparing a dissertation on strategy and political theory.