Unravelling the subject with Spinoza: Towards a morphological analysis of the scene of subjectivity

Contemporary Political Theory 16 (3):342-362 (2017)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Whilst the concept of the subject has been called into question by many diverse approaches within contemporary political and social theory, there remains a focus upon agency, now attributable to reformulated subjectivities or assemblages. I query the persistence of this grammar of agency and ask whether politics can do without a ‘scene of the subject’. Spinoza’s philosophy, in particular, his conception of conatus, has inspired and offered some basis for rethinking agency. I examine two such prominent positions and argue that ultimately neither captures the political promise of Spinoza’s philosophy. Configuring a concept of morphology to analyse this scene, my argument detaches the conatus from a narrow focus upon human desire, and focuses attention upon the scene of the subject as it folded into a wider complex body. My approach also returns a study of power to the discussion: the conatus is the power to persist, but it is also a differential force and site of conflict. By placing the spotlight on the scene of subjectivity in this way, the contemporary political theorist avoids the false antinomy between agency and structure, whilst continuing to track the production and composition of subjectivity in new political forms.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Nature's metabolism: On eating in Derrida, Agamben, and Spinoza.R. J. - 2003 - Research in Phenomenology 33 (1):186-217.
Nature's Metabolism: On Eating in Derrida, Agamben, and Spinoza.Julie Klein - 2003 - Research in Phenomenology 33 (1):186-217.
Substanz und subjekt.Walter Jaeschke - 2000 - Tijdschrift Voor Filosofie 62 (3):439-458.
The Philosophy of Subjectivity from Descartes to Hegel.Marina Bykova - 2007 - The Proceedings of the Twenty-First World Congress of Philosophy 10:147-153.
In Search Of The Other: Jaques Derrida’s Philosophy Of Subjectivity.Błażej Baszczak - 2012 - Studia Philosophica Wratislaviensia 7 (2):123-137.
Spinoza's methodology.Hubertus Gezinus Hubbeling - 1964 - Assen,: Van Gorcum & Comp..
Manifestation and the paradox of subjectivity.James Mensch - 2005 - Husserl Studies 21 (1):35-53.

Analytics

Added to PP
2016-09-17

Downloads
42 (#332,036)

6 months
4 (#319,344)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Distributed agency, responsibility and preventing grave wrongs.Danielle Celermajer - 2020 - Contemporary Political Theory 19 (2):188-210.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things.Jane Bennett - 2010 - Durham: Duke University Press.
Undoing Gender.Judith Butler - 2004 - Routledge.
The psychic life of power: theories in subjection.Judith Butler - 1997 - Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.
Giving an account of oneself.Judith Butler - 2005 - New York: Fordham University Press.

View all 30 references / Add more references