Instructor: D. Vardoulakis
Spinoza Theological-Political Treatise shocked its readers when it was first published because it was seen as an attack on established religious dogmas and practices. In the religious reaction provoked by the text, and subsequently renewed in various iterations, another, even much more profound gesture has often been overlooked. Namely, Spinoza argues that democracy is the basis of every other constitutional formation. This primacy of democracy has been subsequently adopted by a number of radical thinkers, such as Marx (in his notes on Hegel’s Philosophy of Right), Negri and Balibar. In addition, the primacy of democracy can be understood as the basic tenet of the idea of radical democracy. In this subject, we will return to Spinoza’s fundamental text to examine the arguments which allow Spinoza to arrive at the idea of radical democracy. In order to do so, we will search for resonance between Spinoza’s ideas and contemporary political concerns, such as the idea of biopolitics, conceptions about laws and rights, as well as theories of meaning and interpretation.
