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1 SPINOZA AND THE ETHICS OF POLITICAL RESISTANCE Erik H. Stephenson Department

1 SPINOZA AND THE ETHICS OF POLITICAL RESISTANCE Erik H. Stephenson Department of Philosophy McGill University, Montreal November 2010 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Erik H. Stephenson, 2010 978-0-494-78707-6 Your file Votre référence Library and Archives Canada Bibliothèque et Archives Canada Published Heritage Branch 395 Wellington Street Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Direction du Patrimoine de l'édition 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada NOTICE: ISBN: Our file Notre référence 978-0-494-78707-6 ISBN: The author has granted a non- exclusive license allowing Library and Archives Canada to reproduce, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, communicate to the public by telecommunication or on the Internet, loan, distrbute and sell theses worldwide, for commercial or non- commercial purposes, in microform, paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Privacy Act some supporting forms may have been removed from this thesis. While these forms may be included in the document page count, their removal does not represent any loss of content from the thesis. AVIS: L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou autres formats. L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur et des droits moraux qui protege cette thèse. Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement reproduits sans son autorisation. Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la protection de la vie privée, quelques formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de cette thèse. Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. 2 3 To Henrik. Nil volentibus arduum. 4 Abstract My dissertation examines the question of the justification of political resistance in Spinoza’s philosophy. More specifically, its purpose is to determine whether or not Spinoza regards political resistance as harmonizing with the dictates of reason, where the latter amount to prudential counsels for maximizing one’s “power to exist”. Having demonstrated the partial validity of the ‘conservative’ interpretation of Spinoza’s ethico-rational politics – according to which reason commands strict obedience to political authorities – I go on to challenge its near- hegemonic status in the secondary literature by extracting from Spinoza’s Ethics and political treatises a conditional, ethico-rational justification for political resistance. The ultimate criterion for the ethico-rational validation of an act of resistance is the empowerment of its agent(s). Since one’s true empowerment is, in Spinoza’s view, inextricably related to the empowerment of all those with whom one’s life is intertwined, and the chief source of personal empowerment is the rational understanding of nature’s causal order, it follows that any act of resistance ought to contribute to an increase in the cognitive powers of the greatest number (including, ideally, those against whom it is directed). On the basis of the fact that, by Spinoza’s own reckoning, the philosophical critique of prejudices through the development of adequate ideas regarding their constitution can serve to undermine the disempowering forms of rule that depend upon them, I contend that the critique of prejudices is the ethico-rationally justified form of resistance par excellence. Thus, a State is only organized rationally if it secures institutional ‘spaces’ for the exercise of this form of resistance as part of its normal functioning. Finally, I maintain that active civil disobedience subverting a political regime that prohibits the continuous exercise of resistance-as-critique is not only justified but is akin to a duty if individuals are to live up to Spinoza’s paradigm of rationality, the “wise” or “free” person. 5 Résumé Notre travail se penche sur la question de la justification de la résistance politique dans la pensée philosophique de Spinoza. Plus exactement, il a pour but de déterminer si, selon Spinoza, la résistance politique s’accorde avec les préceptes de la raison, ces derniers étant compris comme conseils prudentiels en vue de la maximisation de notre « pouvoir d’exister ». Après avoir démontré la validité partielle de l’interprétation conservatrice prédominante de la politique « éthico-rationnelle » de Spinoza – selon laquelle la raison recommande une obéissance absolue à toute autorité politique – je lui dispute son statut hégémonique dans la littérature secondaire en dégageant de l’Éthique et des traités politiques de Spinoza une justification éthique conditionnelle de la résistance politique. Le critère de légitimation ultime d’un acte de résistance est que ce dernier contribue à augmenter le pouvoir de son (ou ses) sujet(s). Puisque, d’abord, l’augmentation de notre pouvoir est, aux yeux de Spinoza, étroitement liée à l’augmentation du pouvoir de tous, et qu’ensuite, la source principale de cette augmentation réside dans la compréhension rationnelle de l’ordre causal de la nature, il s’ensuit que n’importe quel acte de résistance politique doit contribuer à l’augmentation du pouvoir cognitif du plus grand nombre possible (incluant, idéalement, ceux et celles contre lesquels l’acte est dirigé). Partant du fait que, selon l’avis de Spinoza lui-même, la critique philosophique des préjugés par moyen de la formation d’idées adéquates quant à leur genèse serait à même de saper le pouvoir des régimes qui en dépendent, nous suggérons que la critique des préjugés est la forme par excellence d’une résistance éthiquement justifiable. Par conséquent, un État n’est organisé de façon rationnelle que s’il se porte garant d’espaces institutionnels permettant le déploiement de cette forme de résistance au sein de son fonctionnement normal. Finalement, nous affirmons que la résistance politique active ayant pour objectif le renversement d’un régime politique qui pose 6 obstacle à l’exercice continu de la résistance-cum-critique est non seulement justifiée, mais se veut un devoir moral – dans le sens que Spinoza prête à ce terme – pour quiconque souhaiterait incarner, dans la mesure du possible, le modèle spinoziste de l’homme libre, du Sage 7 Acknowledgements I would like to take this opportunity to thank professors Hasana Sharp and Calvin Normore for agreeing to supervise the writing of this thesis. The latter would not be what it is were it not for the guidance and encouragement I have received from them – though the fault for whatever shortcomings it may have lies solely with me. I am particularly indebted to my primary supervisor, Hasana Sharp, who has been of invaluable assistance to me through every step of the thesis process, and whose graduate seminar in the winter term of 2006 first sparked my interest in Spinoza. I have benefited immensely from her enthusiasm, her constructive criticism, her open- mindedness, and her knack for making some of the most difficult texts in the history of philosophy both clear and relevant. I can think of no better way to express my gratitude to Martin Desrosiers, Don Beith, Julien Villeneuve, Philippe Stephenson, Eduardo Ralickas, W.R. Newell, and Carol Collier, than to quote a passage from Xenophon’s Memorabilia that I consider the motto of our friendship: Just as others are pleased by a good horse or dog or bird, I myself am pleased to an even higher degree by good friends (…) and the treasures of the wise humans of old which they left behind by writing them in books, I unfold and go through them together with my friends, and if we see something good, we pick it out and regard it as a great gain if we thus become useful to one another (I.6.14). In this vein, special thanks are owed to professor D. Gregory MacIsaac at Carleton University’s College of the Humanities, from whom I have learned so much over the years about the study and teaching of the history of philosophy. My deepest debts are, of course, to my wife, Cynthia Ralickas, and to my parents, Donald Stephenson and Jocelyne Béland-Stephenson. Every graduate student should be so lucky as to have a partner and parents so loving, so patient, and so supportive. If I have enjoyed the nearly eight years I have spent as a graduate student so much, it is in large part because my loved ones 8 have made sure I keep things in proper perspective – reminding me whenever necessary that there is life outside the library! Finally, I would like to acknowledge the generous financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and of the Groupe de Recherche Inter-Universitaire en Philosophie Politique. 9 List of Abbreviations Spinoza’s Works: E Ethics Demonstrated in Geometric Order (…) (Ethica…) App Appendix Ax Axiom C Corollary D Definition Def. Affs. Definition of the Affects Dem Demonstration Lem Lemma P Proposition Pos Postulate Pref Preface S Scholium Ep Correspondence (Epistola) KV Short Treatise on God, Man, and His Well-Being (Korte Verhandeling…) TIE Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione) TP Political Treatise (Tractatus Politicus) TTP Theological-Political Treatise (Tractatus Theologico-Politicus) Quotations uploads/Litterature/ spinoza-and-the-ethics-of-political-resistance-e-h-stephenson.pdf