Abstract

With the redefinition of the origin and function of the state by the contractarian theories, the problem of resistance ceased to be subsumed to the medieval discussion of tyrannicide. Spinoza was one of the authors that gave a greater political significance to the right of resistance - despite the dispersed and often cryptographic way in which this theme emerges in his work -, connecting it directly to the sovereign power of the multitude. This article thus aims to make explicit the theory of resistance implied in Spinoza’s approach and sketched, particularly, throughout the Political Treatise. In addition to showing how the representation of the right of resistance as right of war reflects the replacement of the legal figure of contract by consensus, we will also try to underline the constitutive role assigned to resistance within the framework of the political ontology developed by Spinoza.