Hi all,
Best,
Joseph, Nejat, Dylan
Title: Democracy and the Free Multitude in Spinoza
Abstract
I
approach the concept of the multitude through Spinoza's theory that the
multitude has a power of acting qua multitude and that this power determines
the right of the imperium. After defining this concept, I defend a
Spinozian theory of democracy as the production of the multitude’s
self-government (democratization).
I
develop this notion of democratisation as a process conditioned by five
factors: the structure of one of the three political regimes, the
irreducibility of conflict, political emendatio,
the vital and affective conditions of the multitude, and the realism of theory.
I explain all five conditions but focus on the last one. The realism of theory
means that we must face the double character of the Spinozian hypothesis. We
must struggle for multitude’s freedom, but we must be extremely realistic
about the conditions and results of this endeavour.
The
excluded multitude unveiled in chapter XI of the Political
Treatise reflects the uneasy coexistence of three tendencies in Spinoza's
political thought: the hope effect, rhetorical declension, and realist
determination. Spinoza did not resolve the coexistence of these three
tendencies. However, he did provide us with two lessons. First,
the free multitude is the living foundation of the institutional
structures of freedom and equality. Second, democratization must extend to all the social relations that compose
the multitude.
