Publications

In this chapter, I discuss the figure and myth of Odysseus as depicted on the cover illustration of the first edition of Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum (1620), in the Canto 26 of Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia (±1307-26), in Max Horkheimer & Theodor W. Adorno’s Dialektik der Aufklärung (1944/1947) and in Primo Levi’s Se questo è un uomo (1947). This exploration of the figure and myth of Odysseus is an experiment in narrative or poetic ...

Review of special issue on Spinoza's thought through editions of his works

In the latter half of the seventeenth century, Spinoza effected a reversal in the relationship between philosophy, politics, and religion, thereby laying the foundation for modern democracy. This shift, and his plea for philosophical critique, did not pass unchallenged. The idea that there is no equality without freedom, and no freedom without equality, was maligned by those who insisted it would lead to rebellion and anarchy. Still, Spinoza was ...

In this article, the focus will first be on the distinction Spinoza makes in his Tractatus theologico-politicus on the different strivings of human beings and the two different conceptions of law—natural and ad arte—in relation to freedom. Proceeding from these distinctions and Spinoza’s objective with his philosophical enquiries, I will then consider whether a change occurs between the earlier TTP and the later unfinished Tractatus politicus. ...

Analysis of the concept of Multitude in the oeuvre of Spinoza

This contribution investigates Spinoza’s concepts and reasoning from two crucial places, namely, firstly, the propositions 15 to 33 and the definitions of affects 8 and 33 in part three of the Ethics, and, secondly, propositions 29 to 37 in part four. These are two lines of thought that go hand in hand, that refer to each other and in which Spinoza tries to do something radically new. In the first, he wants to show that under the concept of ...

This article investigates the anthropology of Spinoza as a strategy for happiness, political as well as individual. Inspired by the readings, comments, and perspectives of Matheron, Deleuze, and Balibar, I will analyze Spinoza’s theory of the affects as the basis for this strategic anthropology. These authors all share an ontological and political vision organized around the concepts of multitude and the transindividual which result directly ...

The conversation between R. Carbone, S. Lavaert and P.F. Moreau is about philosophy as critique, and how the critique of modern philosophy can be linked to the early critical theory and to current themes necessitating this philosophical critique.

In this essay is explored the relationship between Spinoza's philosophy and the aesthetic theory and artistic practice of Mondrian and the avant-garde movement of De Stijl. First, Spinoza's explicit presence in the texts published in the journal in the early years and his implicit presence in tacit paraphrases, in the analogy with the geometric method and the ontological and epistemological ideas set forth in the Ethics are examined. ...