Power, Necessity and Freedom in Spinoza

Two key features mark out Emilia Giancotti’s approach as unique: with a Marxist background, she focused heavily on political themes – liberty, democracy, power, the state and the individual; she also developed a historiographical approach and engaged in philological work to establish solid and reliable texts as the very basis of her interpretation of Spinoza’s thought. Hers is the most authoritative Italian translation of the Ethics.

Giancotti’s specific contribution to Spinoza studies was t...