Conflict, Power, and Multitude in Machiavelli and Spinoza: Tumult and Indignation

by Filippo Del Lucchese

Overview

Conflict, Power and Multitude in Machiavelli and Spinoza explores Spinoza's political philosophy by confronting it with that of Niccolò Machiavelli.
Filippo Del Lucchese conducts a study of the relationship between Machiavelli and Spinoza from a perspective at once philosophical, historical and political.
The book begins by showing how closely tied the two thinkers are in relation to realism. Del Lucchese then goes on to examine the theme of conflict as a crucial element of an understanding of Machiavelli and Spinoza's conceptions of modernity.

The book concludes with an examination of the concept of 'multiplicity' and 'plural' expressions of politics, namely Machiavelli's popolo and Spinoza's multitudo. Overall, the Machiavelli-Spinoza axis offers a fruitful perspective through which to analyse the relationship between contending ideas of modernity from a historical point of view, and provides an original point of departure for discussing some key theoretical, political and juridical notions that have resurfaced in contemporary debates.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441150622
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/27/2009
Series:	Continuum Studies in Philosophy , #61
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Filippo Del Lucchese is Adjunct Professor and Visiting Researcher in English and Comparative Literary Studies at Occidental College, USA, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Picardie, France.

Table of Contents

Introduction

1 Realism

i Sky, Sun, Elements, Men: Necessity and Occasion in the Realism of Machiavelli and Spinoza

ii 'Freedom' and the 'Common Good', or Tyranny

2 Conflict

i Philosophy as Resistance

ii Jerusalem and Rome

iii Iustitia and Army

3 Multitude

i The 'Battle Cry' of Spinozism

ii Being Individual Multiple

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index