Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 09:44:12 +0100
From: Hugh Rodwell <m-14970-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se>
Subject: M-TH: Re: Althusser = Spinoza -- true???


Chris B writes:

>Warren Montag in his essay on Spinoza and Althusser in The Althusserian
>Legacy says that Althusser said very little directly about Spinoza in his
>published works, and emphasises  the word "directly".
>
>However he then goes on to expand on just one aspect - Spinoza's theory of
>reading.
>
>Spinoza is poorly respected in the English speaking world. I think we will
>have to look further for an Althusserian who will argue the interesting
>interpretation Jim gives. I wonder if Jim's sources are verbal and at
>second or at third hand, because although this might seem an obscure
>textual point it potentially reflects back on the link between marxism and
>the universe, and in what sense Marx was dialectical and a materialist.

It seems as if almost nobody says anything directly about Spinoza, but his
influence is pervasive -- as emerged in my brief exchange with Justin S on
the subject a few weeks ago.

On the other hand, Hegel too, though not the dead dog he has been, seems to
be pretty much a closed book in the official realms of state-sanctioned
thought.

My dream of a course introducing modern philosophy would be to start with
Macchiavelli (we assume the basics on Aristotle, Democritus and the others
have been done) and then go on to Descartes, Spinoza and Hobbes (I can't
even mention their names without hearing the head of Charles I thudding
into the basket in 1649!) to round off with Rousseau and Hegel (including
the Kant that is absolutely necessary to understand Hegel) and the head of
Louis XVI thudding into the basket in 1793. Of course this run-through
would be studded with cameo appearances by Galileo, Milton, Newton, Hume,
the Encyclopaedists and so on. We could call it Bourgeois Philosophy I
"Head-to-Head"! Might even be a snazzy logo in there somewhere...

Christ I wish someone had been running a course like that in my day!

Cheers,

Hugh

PS The last king has still not been hung in the entrails of the last priest.

ciao4now,

H





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