Description
Book SynopsisBy situating Spinoza's thought in a materialist Aristotelian tradition, this book sheds new light on those who inherit Spinoza's thought and its consequences materially and historically rather than metaphysically.
Trade Review'For Idit Dobbs-Weinstein, Spinoza is neither the secular liberal he is for Jonathan Israel and Steven Nadler, nor the anatomist of power he is for Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. He is, rather, the first critical theorist. In support of this interpretation, she places Spinoza in a materialist tradition that privileges praxis over theoria. This tradition includes Aristotle, Averroes and Maimonides on the one hand, and Marx, Benjamin and Adorno on the other. At its centre is Spinoza's critique of religion, the political significance of which lies, for Dobbs-Weinstein, in the resistance to all forms of teleology rather than in the establishment of a public sphere.' Andrew Cutrofello, Loyola University, Chicago
'This signal intervention demonstrates Spinoza's profound significance for Marx, Benjamin and Adorno. In a striking tour-de-force, Dobbs-Weinstein shows how many of the critical motives in Marx, Benjamin and Adorno gain their full thrust when seen in the context of the seminal role Spinoza plays in Marx and how the engaged and intense discussions between Benjamin and Adorno bear out the critical force of this legacy. Dobbs-Weinstein's book is an engagingly argued study that highlights the deep and hidden but decisive presence of Spinoza's thought in critical theory.' Willi Goetschel, University of Toronto
Table of ContentsIntroduction: whose history, which politics?; 1. The theologico-political construction of the philosophical tradition; 2. The paradox of a perfect democracy: from Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise to Marx; 3. Judgment Day as repudiation: history and justice in Marx, Benjamin, and Adorno; 4. Destitute life and the overcoming of idolatry: dialectical image, archaic fetish in Benjamin's and Adorno's conversation; 5. Untimely timeliness: history, the possibility of experience, and critical praxis; Afterword: the possibility of political philosophy now.
