Hi all,
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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.
Bio
Aurelio Sainz Pezonaga holds a PhD in
Philosophy from the University of Castilla-La Mancha and has been Adjunct
Professor of Philosophy at the same UCLM from 2016 to 2022. He is the author of
Contra la ética, por una ideología de la igualdad social (Debate, 2002),
Rupturas situacionistas. Superación del arte y revolución cultural
(Tierradenadie, 2011) and La multitud libre en Spinoza (Comares, 2021).
He has edited Escritos sobre el arte by Louis Althusser et al.
(Tierradenadie, 2011). Among other authors and subjects, he has written book
chapters and articles on Spinoza such as "Universalismo y singularidad en
la Ética de Spinoza" (in Montserrat Galcerán and Mario Espinoza (eds.), Spinoza
contemporáneo, Tierradenadie, 2008), "Spinoza y la pregunta por la
solidaridad" (in Luis Alegre and Eduardo Maura (eds.), ¿Qué es la
ilustración?, Guillermo Escolar, 2017), "Multitud libre y producción
del deseo común" (Araucaria 21 (42), 2019), "Reciprocidad y utilidad
común en la filosofía política de Spinoza" (Ágora 40 (1), 2020),
"Naturaleza y libertad en Spinoza". (Contrastes 26 (1), 2021),
“Finitud y objetividad desde la ontología de Spinoza” (Revista Anales del
Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía 38 (3), 2021), or “Where is Spinoza’s Free
Multitude Now?”, Stasis, 12 (2), 2022. He has translated Warren Montag’s Bodies,
Masses, Power. Spinoza and His Contemporaries (2005) and Jason Read’s The
Micro-Politics of Capital: Marx and the Pre-history of Present (2016). He
is a member of several editorial boards and secretary of the Spinoza Seminar in
Spain.
CV: https://independent.academia.edu/AurelioSainzPezonaga/CurriculumVitae
Email: asainzpezonaga@gmail.com
Where is Spinoza’s Free Multitude Now? (stasisjournal.net)
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