Between Hegel and Spinoza A Volume of Critical Essays

by Sharp, Hasana; Smith, Jason E.

• ISBN13: 9781441184047
• ISBN10: 144118404X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-12-06
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Recent work in political philosophy and the history of ideas presents Spinoza and Hegel as the most powerful living alternatives to mainstream Enlightenment thought. Yet, for many philosophers and political theorists today, one must choose between Hegel or Spinoza. As Deleuze's influential interpretation maintains, Hegel exemplifies and promotes the modern "cults of death," while Spinoza embodies an irrepressible "appetite for living." Hegel is the figure of negation, while Spinoza is the thinker of "pure affirmation". Yet, between Hegel and Spinoza there is not only opposition. This collection of essays seeks to find the suppressed kinship between Hegel and Spinoza. Both philosophers offer vigorous and profound alternatives to the methodological individualism of classical liberalism. Likewise, they sketch portraits of reason that are context-responsive and emotionally contoured, offering an especially rich appreciation of our embodied and historical existence. The authors of this collection carefully lay the groundwork for a complex and delicate alliance between these
two great iconoclasts, both within and against the Enlightenment tradition.

Author Biography

Jason E. Smith is Assistant Professor of Graduate Studies in Art at the Art Center College of Design, California, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Between Hegel and Spinoza The Editors \ Section I: The Individual and Transindividuality between Ontology and Politics \ The Misunderstanding of the Mode. Spinoza in Hegel's Science of Logic (1812-1816) Vittorio Morfino \ "Desire is Man's Very Essence": Spinoza and Hegel as Philosophers of Transindividuality Jason Read \ The Problem of the Beginning in Political Philosophy: Spinoza After Hegel Andre Santos Campos Section II: Hegel's Spinoza \ Hegel, sive Spinoza: Hegel as his own True Other Warren Montag \ Hegel's Treatment of Spinoza: Its Scope and Its Limits Vance Maxwell \ Hegel's Reconciliation with Spinoza John McCumber \ Section III: The Psychic Life of Negation \ Affirmative Pathology: Spinoza and Hegel on Illness and Self-Repair Christopher Lauer \ Of Suicide and Falling Stones: Finitude, Contingency, and Corporeal Vulnerability in (Judith Butler's) Spinoza Gordon Hull \ Thinking the Space of the Subject between Hegel and Spinoza Caroline Williams \ Section IV: Judaism Beyond Hegel and Spinoza \ The Paradox of a Perfect Democracy: From Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise to Marx's Critique of Ideology Idit Dobbs-Weinstein \ Spinoza, Hegel, and Adorno on Judaism and History Jeffrey A. Bernstein