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Enacting Knowledge: Spinoza's Dynamic of Politics ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output Enacting knowledge: Spinoza’s dynamic of politics https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40421/ Version: Full Version Citation: Marston, Stephanie (2019) Enacting knowledge: Spinoza’s dy- namic of politics. [Thesis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email Enacting Knowledge: Spinoza’s Dynamic of Politics Stephanie Marston Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Birkbeck College, University of London 2019 1 Abstract The central claims of my thesis are that Spinoza’s philosophy of mind and affect entails that human knowledge is distinctively creative; and that understanding this makes it possible to understand Spinoza’s political philosophy as grounded in the interplay between knowing and the effects of knowledge. I develop the arguments underpinning these claims to show that the tensions commonly perceived in Spinoza’s political philosophy are a manifestation of its dynamism and creativity. The first part of my thesis proposes that, within Spinoza’s metaphysics, individual modes should be understood as distinguished by their effects on other modes, rather than by essence. I proceed from this interpretive premise to an explication of Spinoza’s theory of knowledge: situating it within the philosophy of mind adumbrated in Part 2 of the Ethics, I develop a reading of Spinoza’s epistemology as a theory of ‘affective knowing’. I argue that his account of knowledge formation implies a necessary interdependence among the three kinds of knowledge discussed in E2p40s2, with all knowledge shaped by both the knower’s encounters with other modes and her own acting. A significant implication of this interpretation is that in Spinoza’s philosophy the political is never static but is constantly created, reinterpreted and re-formed. I show that my interpretation of Spinoza’s theory of knowledge may be used as a framework to resolve problems identified in secondary literature on Spinoza’s political philosophy, by showing that the tensions within it are productive rather than problematic. I conclude that Spinoza’s philosophy generates a situated normativity for politics without recourse to narratives of governmental legitimacy. 2 Acknowledgements My first thanks go to Sue James, my supervisor, who has provided invaluable academic advice, challenge and constructive feedback on my work as well as much-needed support and encouragement over the course of a lengthy project. I am philosophically indebted to Sue for introducing me to Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus during my MA studies at Birkbeck, without which I might never have overcome my initial revulsion to the Ethics. Thanks are also due to Sarah Patterson, of the Birkbeck Philosophy Department, who has discussed various chapters of the thesis with me and whose questions and suggestions have been a great help in improving my work. I have been fortunate enough to present papers related to this thesis at various conferences, and have benefited greatly from the insights and critical appreciation of academic colleagues from institutions all over the world. Research students at Birkbeck College have also helped me to shape my thinking in the context of both historical and contemporary philosophical considerations. On a practical note, sincere thanks go to my eagle-eyed and grammatically knowledgeable friend Julia Brandreth, who proof-read the thesis. Finally, Gareth Morris has sustained, nourished, diverted and loved me, despite or perhaps because of my refusal to discuss philosophy with him. Thank you for always believing that I would get there in the end. 3 Contents Abbreviations 7 Introduction 8 Chapter 1. Spinoza’s Political Thought: Interpretive Controversies 15 1. Spinoza’s Challenge: the Purpose and Foundations of the State 17 2. The Ontology of People and States: Composition and Precedence 20 3. An Epistemological Turn 31 Chapter 2: Essence, Expression, Effect 38 1. Deleuze: Spinoza as Expressionist 39 2. Essence and Existence 42 3. Modes, Composition and Differentiation 45 4. Effects and Partial Causes 52 5. Expression and Inadequate Ideas 57 6. Conclusion 61 Chapter 3: Effects and Affects 62 1. The Philosophical Context of Spinoza’s Treatment of Affect 63 2. Affect in the Human Mind 65 3. Theorising Affect 68 4. Affects as Active 75 5. Desire as an Active Principle 79 6. Striving, Expression and Essence 82 7. Conclusion: Receptivity, Affect and Striving 88 Chapter 4: Mind, Knowledge and Knowing 90 1. Knowledge and Reason: (Mis)Interpreting Spinoza 91 2. The Evolution of Spinoza’s Theorising of Knowledge 97 3. Mind and Knowing 101 4. Reason and the Common Notions 104 5. Spinoza’s Epistemology of Hybrid Knowing 111 6. Conclusion 118 Chapter 5: Affective Knowing 120 1. The Experience of Knowing 121 2. The Relation between Ideas and Affects 122 3. Knowing and Affective Association 126 4. Overcoming Privation 131 5. Transformation and Creativity 135 6. Conclusion 140 4 Chapter 6: Knowing as Creating the Political 142 1. Actions and Interactions 143 2. Inadequate Ideas and Actions 148 3. What Empowerment Involves 152 4. Empowerment and Creative Effects 159 5. Freedom Situated, Expressive and Expansive 162 Chapter 7: Knowing as the Dynamic of the Political 166 1. The State as Existent Mode 168 2. Understanding the State as a Mode 170 3. The Multiple Dimensions of State Potentia 174 4. Dynamics of Potentia within the State 177 5. Defusing Worries about Spinoza and Politics 183 6. Situating the Expression-Affect-Inadequacy Dynamic in Spinoza Scholarship 188 7. Conclusion: Normativity without Legitimation 192 Afterword: Knowing at the Limits of the Political 195 Bibliography 201 5 Abbreviations Works by Spinoza E Ethics (Ethica) Ep The Letters (Epistola) TIE Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione) TP Political Treatise (Tractatus Politicus) TTP Theological-Political Treatise (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus) Unless otherwise stated, quotations of Spinoza’s works are from Edwin Curley’s The Collected Works of Spinoza, Volumes I (1985) Volume II (2016). References to the Ethics are in the format e.g. E2p40s1 and use the following abbreviations: E1, E2 etc. = part a = axiom App = appendix c = corollary d = definition Def.Aff. = Definitions of the Affects Exp = explanation L = lemma n = note p = proposition post = postulate Pref = preface s = scholium References to the TTP denote the chapter and paragraph numbers (Curley translation) and are in the format e.g. TTP16[8]. References to the TP denote the chapter and paragraph numbers and are in the format e.g. TP2.6. References to the TIE denote paragraph numbers from the Curley translation and are in the format e.g. TIE§16. Works by Descartes Med Meditations on First Philosophy (References are in the format e.g. Med 1) PS Passions of the Soul (References to Articles in are in the format e.g. PS§1) Pr Principles of Philosophy (References are in the format e.g. PrII.14) 6 Introduction Spinoza declares in the concluding chapter of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus that the purpose of the state is really freedom (TTP20[12]). True freedom, he proposes, consists in people1 being able to follow ways of life in which they use their reason, avoid unnecessary conflict with one another and treat each other fairly. According to Spinoza, the state is the context in which people are most free (E4p73); it is therefore perhaps unsurprising that interpretations of Spinoza’s political philosophy have been oriented around questions of whether his political analysis and prescriptions are indeed commensurate with freedom, and how the civic freedoms of the state relate to the human freedom which is the subject matter of Part 5 of the Ethics. My thesis is motivated by the existence of divergent strands in the interpretation of Spinoza’s political philosophy, between those commentators who emphasise the relative ontological standing of the state and of people and those who read the political works through the lens of Spinoza’s epistemology. Each of these strands can be illuminating in its own right; my concern is that the differences in orientation threaten to lose the force of Spinoza’s political philosophy by sidestepping its grounding in the holistic system of the Ethics. I aim to take steps towards remedying this interpretive dilemma by proposing that, for Spinoza, knowing – the way in which people form the ideas that they do, and how they make use of those ideas – is importantly constitutive both of the shared ways of life cultivated within social formations and political systems and of the people who live within those systems. My thesis therefore moves to close the gap between ontological and epistemological perspectives, by exploring how ontology and epistemology work together in Spinoza’s philosophy. I argue for an interpretation of Spinoza’s political writings as embedded in a dynamic of knowing and being. 1 In this thesis I take Spinoza’s references to ‘men’ usually to refer to human beings; this seems most consistent with his philosophical system and arguments, despite his treatment of women in the notorious final chapter of the Tractatus Politicus. 7 The theme of dynamics is present in much Spinoza scholarship, in treatments of the metaphysics of the Ethics as well as the political works2. However, both the operation of the apparent dynamic at work in Spinoza’s political writings and the philosophical foundation of that dynamic are under- explored. In this thesis, I seek to establish that the dynamic present in Spinoza’s philosophy is actual, rather than metaphorical; and that it operates in the same way throughout his system, from the formation and persistence of complex bodies to the constitution of political entities and the particular ways of life they cultivate.
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