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Politics and Ontology in Baruch Spinoza: Individuation, Affectivity and the Collective Life of the Multitude Castelli, Ljuba

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Politics and Ontology in Baruch Spinoza: Individuation, Affectivity and the Collective Life of the Multitude Castelli, Ljuba View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Queen Mary Research Online Politics and ontology in Baruch Spinoza: individuation, affectivity and the collective life of the multitude Castelli, Ljuba For additional information about this publication click this link. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/jspui/handle/123456789/2504 Information about this research object was correct at the time of download; we occasionally make corrections to records, please therefore check the published record when citing. For more information contact [email protected] 1 Politics and Ontology in Baruch Spinoza: Individuation, Affectivity and the Collective life of the Multitude Ljuba Castelli Queen Mary, University of London A thesis submitted for the degree of PhD November 2011 2 Abstract The thesis examines the linkage between ontology and politics in Spinoza, and considers the extent to which his philosophy discloses novel materialist conceptions of nature, history and society. It explores the distinctive paradigm of the individual proposed by Spinoza emerging from his materialist ontology, and the ways in which this impacts effectively upon the constitution of the multitude as a political category. Arguing that Spinoza’s ontology unveils a complex process of vital and psychic individuation, I develop a contemporary interpretation of Spinoza’s writings through Simondon’s notions of collective being, disparation, emotions and transindividuality. The study of Spinoza’s ontology in the light of Simondon is crucial for re-considering the central role of affectivity within the development of human beings. This refers to the redefinition of affectivity as a powerful source of psychic and political individuation, which is the cornerstone of relation, power and transformations. The understanding of Spinoza’s process of affective and collective individuation constitutes the basis for analysing his political theory. The inquiry focuses to the emergence of the political status of the multitude from this complex process of collective and affective individuation, and considers the extent to which the multitude impacts concretely upon the realm of the political. Specifically, the discussion draws attention to the affective state of the multitude, and the ways in which this produces fundamental relational events, meanings, power and problematic political individuals. The argument then turns to examine the model of democracy proposed by Spinoza and the role of the multitude within the constitution of the democratic body. It sheds light on the pivotal part played by the multitude within the production of democracy, and investigates the interface between affectivity and democracy more broadly. 3 Abbreviations and Translations The translation adopted is Spinoza B, (2002), Complete Works, (Indianapolis, Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company) [trans. S. Shirley]. References to Spinoza’s texts follow the abbreviations shown below: E = Ethics TTP = Theologico-Politicus Tractatus (Theological-Political Treatise) TP = Politicus Tractatus (Political Treatise) EP = Epistles References to the Ethics follow the conventions indicated below: prop. = Proposition dem. = Demonstration schol. = Scholium Def. = Definition ax. =axiom postul. = postulate Def. Aff = the definition of the affects at the end of Part III. Roman numerals before these abbreviations describe the parts of the Ethics. References to the TTP include chapter and page number. References to the TP contain chapter followed by the paragraph. Page number of the TTP and TP refer to Shirley’s translation (2002). In chapters III and IV I have adopted the following rule of capitalisation of the terms. Conceptual personae are named and cited in capital letters- e.g., the Apostles, the Devotees of the prophet, the Subjects of Moses and the Citizens of democracy. For the capitalisation of conceptual personae, I refers to Deleuze and Guattari’s style (1994). 4 Contents Abstract 2 Abbreviations and Translations 3 Introduction: Understanding the social through Spinoza’s philosophy: New directions in contemporary political theory 7 A detour of politics via Ontology 8 Reading Spinoza in the light of Simondon’s ontology of individuation 13 Chapter I: Contemporary studies on Spinoza: New perspectives and problems 22 Introduction 22 1. The Ethics: Inheriting problems and objectives 25 1.1 The thesis of monism: 28 1.2 The ontology of humankind: Mind and body, affectivity and rationality 35 2. Spinoza and his readers: The Ethics in the rationalist and continental traditions 47 2.1 Spinoza according to the analytic tradition of thought: The Ethics between panpsychism and materialism 50 3. Reading the Ethics in twentieth-century continental thought 64 3.1 Re-thinking materialism in the light of Spinoza 67 4. Spinoza’s anomalous ontology of the actual 80 Chapter II: Spinoza’s philosophy of individuation: The collective life of the individual 90 Introduction 90 5 1. Re-positioning the question of individuation in contemporary thought 93 1.1 Simondon’s ontology of individuation 98 1.2 Ontology of relation 103 2. Spinoza’s paradigm of the individual 114 2.1 Geometry of the affects and its problems 116 3. A detour of Spinoza via Simondon 133 4. Thinking the individual in a Spinozist way 143 4.1 The anatomy of the affects 145 Chapter III: Tractatus Theologico-Politicus: The affective tones of the political 158 Introduction 158 1. The plan of the Theological Political Treatise 163 2. The conceptual personae of the Theological Political Treatise: Guidelines for re-reading affectivity within Spinoza’s politics 169 3. The Devotees of the prophet 174 4. The Subjects of Moses 185 4.1 The time and the becoming of the Jewish people 189 5. The Apostles 204 5.1 “The Good News”: Life 208 Conclusions: Towards a life in common 220 Chapter IV: Time for democracy: Towards a life in common 222 Introduction 222 1. The political turn of the multitude: Re-theorising the ‘common’ today 225 2. Spinoza’s political strategy: Democracy, sovereignty and the multitude 233 2.1 Contemporary approaches to Spinoza’s politics 236 3. Citizens of democracy: Sovereign life and common good 243 6 3.1 Anatomy of the Citizens of democracy: Demons, evils and the virtuosi of community 245 Conclusions: Towards a new grammar of democracy 269 Conclusion: The individual as a powerful problem 271 Bibliography 278 7 Introduction Understanding the social through Spinoza’s philosophy: New directions in contemporary political theory There is an unexplored political reality alongside the recognised body politic: a political reality that articulates various commonalities, new gestures of insurgence and cohesion. It is situated in the zones of intersection between authorised and non-authorised places for political praxis and thought such as the state, public and civil spheres, the market and the body of law, and its political strategy is constructed around an alternative paradigm of relation. This paradigm, and the constitutive power to which it corresponds, does not originate from tensions between extant social forms, such as the inequality and rivalry between social groups, but rather from their action and thought, which exceeds the fixity of social, political and economic class. Although not identified within consolidated models of society, the emerging subjectivities that arise from this political reality are extremely productive of meaning, knowledge and power, and impact concretely upon our socio-political context. These subjectivities have actualised a fracture between the political and politics, between the philosophy of praxis and real action, and between society and community. It is to the political cogency of this unrecognised reality that this thesis draws particular attention. The focus is to re-construct a novel materialist paradigm of the political field from the plenitude of actions, thoughts, and relational forces embodied by this other political actuality. My aim is to re-locate the centrality of a materialist ontology of individuation within contemporary political theory and philosophy. A materialist thought of individuation, I argue, might provide our search with crucial theoretical instruments for re-constructing the anatomy of the social from the zones of intersection indicated above. The study of the theme of individuation is conducted by examining the ontology and politics of seventeenth-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, and determines through his categories of thought the political stakes of contemporary 8 forms of association. Attention is given to Spinoza’s affective and political process of individuation, and the extent to which his thesis might offer a more innovative account of the material process that lies at the very basis of every community. The focus on Spinoza’s theory of individuation introduces a new awareness of the relation between affectivity and politics, the genesis of mass movement and the meaning of democracy. I refer to an extensive understanding of the political role of affectivity within the construction of democracy and the constitution of the multitude as a powerful individual. It is to this linkage between affectivity and politics, I claim, that contemporary theories of democracy and community should pay greater attention. The return to Spinoza’s philosophy advanced here is situated within the general tendency inaugurated by continental thought, which has proposed re- founding the paradigm of the political through its conclusion within the ontological field. The resurgence of interest
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