Spinoza, the Epicurean Authority and Utility in Materialism Dimitris Vardoulakis Visit the book's webpage to find out more: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-spinoza-the-epicurean-hb.html Table of Topics Preface 1. Why does it Matter to Read Spinoza as an Epicurean? Different versions of Spinoza’s materialism • No history of materialism • The potential that the lack of a history of materialism creates for Spinoza • Materialism and monism (no ex nihilo) • Epicurean materialism: critique of authority and practical judgment 2. Authority and Utility: A Sketch Definition of authority • Authority as theologico-political • Tractatus de auctoritate • Authority and the structure of the Theological Political Treatise • Instrumental rationality in ancient ethics • Epicureanism and phronesis • ‘ratio utilitatis’ • Neoepicureanism: calculation of utility in materialism • Tension between authority and utility 3. On Method Immanent Critique • The ruse of the obvious • The parallel operation of the three epicurean themes: Authority – political monism – utility • Method of reading Introduction: Why is Spinoza an Epicurean? 1. ‘The authority of Plato, Aristotle and Socrates carries little weight with me’: Spinoza and Epicureanism The dialectic of authority and utility • The epicurean school • Epicureanism as sensualism • Letter to Menoeceus: phronesis • Calculation of utility in Ethics IV • Two paths to virtue • Epicureanism as Corpuscularianism (physicalism) • Monism as rejection of creations ex nihilo • Inseparability of mind and body • Letter 56 • Epicureanism and Christian metaphysics • Epicureanism, empiricism and the rise of natural sciences • Naturalism • Naturalism vs religion (Strauss) • Deleuze: Lucretius and Spinoza’s naturalism • Althusser: Spinoza and materialist politics • Guyau: Epicureanism as utilitarianism 2. The Three Themes of Spinoza’s Epicureanism: Authority, Monism, and Judgment The rediscovery of epicurean texts in modernity • Alison Brown: the three disparate epicurean themes in modernity • The synthesis of the three themes in Spinoza • Authority • Fear and superstition • Authority as impervious to argumentation • The theological and political origins of authority • Examples of authority • Authority and the Reformation • Monism • Totality precedes knowledge • The anthropological principle (mind and body) • Affect theory, new materialism, post-humanism • Practical Judgment • Totality entails practical judgment (fallibility of knowledge) • Ethics II P11 • Absurdity of monism without practical judgment (Bayle) • Phronesis • Not Kantian practical Judgment • Not Utilitarianism (fallibility and intersubjectivity) • Translation of phronesis as utility (historical context) • Utility in Ethics IV • Mutual interaction of the three epicurean themes Spinoza, the Epicurean by Dimitris Vardoulakis Table of Topics 1 3. The Dialectic of Authority and Utility: Spinoza’s Promise What is the utility of Spinoza’s epicureanism? • Formation of Society • The politics entailed by the dialectic of authority and utility • Spinoza’s promise of the good • The dialectic of authority and utility as heuristic device • The forgetting of authority in contemporary political philosophy and theory • The two kinds of authority • Authoritarianism without authority (Trump) • Sovereignty and authority • The dialectic of authority and utility and democracy • Democracy as the most natural constitution • Opposition to instrumentality • Instrumentality as symptom of neoliberalism • How Spinoza’s conception of utility offers a democratic alternative to neoliberal instrumentality • The fallibility of phronesis and democracy 1. Freedom as Overcoming the Fear of Death: The Dialectic of Authority and Utility in the Preface The strange use of the ‘freedom to philosophize’ in the subtitle’ • Freedom and the dialectic of authority and utility 1. ‘A free man thinks of nothing less than of death…’: Fear and Freedom in Epicurus The lack of definition of freedom in Spinoza • Ethics IV P67 • Fear and superstition • Overcoming fear in Epicurus • Phronesis as the balance of thought and emotion in Aristotle • Phronesis as the source of virtue in Epicurus • The epicurean rejection of creation ex nihilo and Spinoza’s monism • Ataraxia • ‘Death is nothing to us’ • Freedom as exercise of phronesis (incompatible with free will) • The problem of determinism • Causality is distinguished from instrumentality • The primacy of practical knowledge • The importance of the question of error 2. Ante‐secularism: The Construction of Authority and Human Nature in Lucretius The absence of a theory of power in Epicurus • Lucretius’s two innovations (power and history) • Religio as authority • Potestas and potential • Freedom to judge • Phronesis and history • Creation and destruction • The three stages of social formation (On the Nature of Things, book 5) • Phronesis, religio and history • Post-secularism vs. ante-secularism • Authority as both positive and negative 3. ‘Fighting for their servitude as if for salvation’: Monarchy versus Democracy Voluntary servitude as the suspension of judgment • La Boétie • Voluntary servitude as desire (Anti-Oedipus) • Overcoming voluntary servitude as the suspension of the dialectic of authority and utility (Lordon) • Seditio • Salus • Democracy as agonistic practice • No end to the dialectic of authority and utility • The parallel operation of the three epicurean themes 2. The Power of Error: Moses, the Prophets, and the People (Chapters 1, 2, and 3) 1. Moses: Prophesy as Communication The double origin of authority • Moses as the exemplary figure of authority • Spinoza’s definition of prophesy • Rosselli’s Moses • Imagination ‘beyond the limits of the intellect’ • Instrumentality and fallibility • Ferdinand Bal’s Moses • Rembrandt’s Moses • Why Spinoza does not mention Moses’s order for capital punishment • The error about prophesy and natural knowledge • The interplay of potentia and potestas 2. ‘God has no particular style of speech’: The Error about God’s Potentia God has no potestas • The prophets’ error • What is error good for • Signs and the production of authority • The prophet and the sovereign (note 2) Spinoza, the Epicurean by Dimitris Vardoulakis Table of Topics 2 3. Encountering the People: Causality and Instrumentality The error of the people • The Hebrew and the Dutch • Against Calvinist predestination • Against contractarianism • Machiavelli and the distinction of instrumentality and causality • Against Machiavelli • Against colonialism • Equality 3. Philonomianism: Law and Origin of Finitude (Chapter 4) The two definitions of the law • The epicurean conception of the law 1. Ratio Vivendi: Law and Living Different translation of ratio vivendi • The distinction of human and divine law depends on two different kinds of utility • Law as calculation of utility • Philonomianism • Antinomianism • Legal positivism and decisionism • The uses of epicurean law 2. ‘You cannot make a republic without killing people’: The Tragedy of Legitimacy without Authority in Hannah Arendt Law and foundations • Legality and constituent power • Arendt’s definition of authority • Arendt’s genealogy of authority • The modern tragedy of the legality without foundation 3. On the Origins of Finitude: History as Tragedy or Comedy? The new as ontological ground of the political • Republicanism and authority • The relation of authority and utility in Arendt • The difficulties facing Arendt’s privileging of legality over justification • Can God be conceived as a ruler? • Spinoza’s retelling of the Fall • History as comedy • Disobedience as the condition of the possibility of the dialectic of authority and utility • Antinomianism and the three epicurean themes 4. Political Monism: The Primacy of Utility over Authority (Chapters 5 and 6) What comes first, authority or utility? • Resistance and power 1. ‘Society is advantageous’: Utility and Social Formation Ceremonies as human law • The Hebrew State in the social contract tradition • Arguing from Scripture and reason • The origin of society in mutual utility • The epicurean account of the origin of society • Clastres and the principle of efficiency • Authority as an effect of utility • No absolute authority 2. Natural and Agonistic Democracy Three inferences about the priority of utility over authority • 1. Natural democracy and the state of authority • The difference from Clastres • 2. Utility as the common denominator for natural democracy and the state of authority • 3. Agonistic democracy 3. Political Monism: The Utility of Miracles Monism in Ecclesiastes • Rational rejection of miracles • Pierre Bayle’s attack on monism as apolitical • Hegel’s acosmism • Leo Strauss: either monism or miracles • Mercenary morality • Non-political epicureanism • The correlation of the three epicurean themes in the historical narratives of Scripture • The utility of miracles • Political Monism 5. Love Your Friend as Yourself: The Neighbour and the Politics of Biblical Hermeneutics (Chapters 7 to 13) Reformed authority • A new sense of obedience? Spinoza, the Epicurean by Dimitris Vardoulakis Table of Topics 3 1. Monism and Interpretation: No Meaning outside the Text Truth of meaning vs truth of things • Monism and Biblical hermeneutics • Epicurean background to Spinoza’s method of interpretation • The epicurean theory language • The usefulness of Scripture • Neighbourly love as reciprocal utility • Truth vs falsity of meaning • Scepticism • Dogmatism • Averroism • Maimonides and the rejection of monism • The people have the last