Absolute Multitude and Intuitive Science: An Analysis of Spinoza’s Political Project from his Theory of Knowledge

Abstract

This paper aims to provide an interpretation of Spinoza’s political project from a gnoseological perspective. Based on the defense that the mind of the multitude can be guided, just like individual minds, by imagination, reason, and intuitive science, it will be shown that these three modes configure different ways of understanding the political community. When the multitude is guided by imagination, it perceives itself in its individual parts without being able to access the common that unites them; when directed by reason, it is conceived in what is common living aside the singular; when guided by intuitive science, the multitude comes to understand itself in its completeness as a union of the singular and the common. The materialization of these three forms gives rise, correspondingly, to what Spinoza refers to as the state of nature, monarchical and aristocratic states, and democracy.