ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the eco-ethical reading of Spinoza which appears in contemporary comments on Spinoza and nature and as developed from Arne Naess' initiative to connect the ecological ethical debate with Spinoza's metaphysics. With the aim to render more explicit the Reports' arguments pointing to an alternative metaphysics and ethics, it shows how this eco-ethical reading must deduce normative consequences from Spinoza's metaphysics which are not present in his own political philosophy. The chapter evaluates the theoretical consistency of the Reports' call for a new metaphysics in so far as this call indeed depends on an eco-ethical reading of Spinoza. It discusses some of the general challenges attached to a practical use of Spinoza's political philosophy in the service of environmental protection, in light of the overarching goals and conditioning premises of that philosophy.
