Book Section
Common assertions suppose an incompatibility between critical-dialectical philosophies and Spinozist political ontologies, and allow for an Adornian critique of Spinoza’s Ethics: to live in accordance with one’s own being is a form of compliance to dominant values. By mapping contemporary Spinozism I show that within its tensions there is a place for dialectics, one which can be read in dialogue with the Adornian gesture denouncing the purported identity between particular and universal.
Keywords: materialism; moral philosophy; ethics; logic; politics, practical; Adorno, Theodor W.; Spinoza, Baruch
Title
Materialist Variations on Spinoza
Subtitle
Theoretical Alliances and Political Strategies
Author(s)
Mariana de Gainza
Identifier
Description
Common assertions suppose an incompatibility between critical-dialectical philosophies and Spinozist political ontologies, and allow for an Adornian critique of Spinoza’s Ethics: to live in accordance with one’s own being is a form of compliance to dominant values. By mapping contemporary Spinozism I show that within its tensions there is a place for dialectics, one which can be read in dialogue with the Adornian gesture denouncing the purported identity between particular and universal.
Is Part Of
Place
Berlin
Publisher
ICI Berlin Press
Date
March 2, 2021
Subject
materialism
moral philosophy
ethics
logic
politics, practical
Adorno, Theodor W.
Spinoza, Baruch
Rights
© by the author(s)
Except for images or otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Language
en-GB
page start
25
page end
37
Source
Materialism and Politics, ed. by Bernardo Bianchi, Emilie Filion-Donato, Marlon Miguel, and Ayşe Yuva, Cultural Inquiry, 20 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2021), pp. 25–37

References

  • Adorno, Theodor W., Problems of Moral Philosophy (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001)
  • Althusser, Louis, ‘On Spinoza’, in Essays in Self-Criticism, trans. by Grahame Lock (London: New Left Books, 1976), pp. 132–41
  • Macherey, Pierre, Avec Spinoza. Études sur la doctrine et l’histoire du spinozisme (Paris: PUF, 1992)
  • Moreau, Pierre-François, Problèmes du spinozisme (Paris: Vrin, 2006)
  • Nietzsche, Friedrich, ‘To Franz Overbeck [Postmarked Sils Engd., July 30, 1881]’, in Christopher Middleton, Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), pp. 176–77
  • Spinoza, Benedictus de, The Collected Works of Spinoza, ed. and trans. by Edwin Curley, 2 vols (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1985–2016)
  • Winnik, H. Z., ‘A Long-Lost and Recently Recovered Letter of Freud’, Israel Annals of Psychiatry, 13 (1975), pp. 1–5
  • Yovel, Yirmiyahu, Spinoza and Other Heretics: The Adventures of Immanence (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989)

Cite as: Mariana de Gainza, ‘Materialist Variations on Spinoza: Theoretical Alliances and Political Strategies’, in Materialism and Politics, ed. by Bernardo Bianchi, Emilie Filion-Donato, Marlon Miguel, and Ayşe Yuva, Cultural Inquiry, 20 (Berlin: ICI Berlin Press, 2021), pp. 25-37 <https://doi.org/10.37050/ci-20_01>