Narrazioni teologico-politiche e fratture del moderno tra Hobbes e Spinoza

This thesis aims to investigate possible continuities in the use of the biblical narrative as a (pseudo)historical source in Hobbes and Spinoza - perhaps the two leading political philosophers of the 17th century. It was intended to suggest that Spinoza may have read the Leviathan before finishing the composition of his Theologico-Political Treatise and thus may have drawn on Hobbes' work in terms of his choice of form for the Treatise. This possible formal continuity is, however, accompanied by a discontinuity of content, due to the Spinozian attempt to think of a radically democratic political society, not repressive and not fixed in precise legal dynamics. To investigate these issues, three specific themes or ‘figures’ have been chosen: teaching, natural law and representation. In addition, an attempt has been made to reconstruct the debate on these issues also by reconstructing their sources and the polemical targets that drove the two to confront each other in the relationship between theology and politics.