SPINOZA FOR THE PERPLEXED
by Luce de Lire

25th&26th April 2026

Seminar /// 2PM- 6PM

Spinoza was the European enfant terrible for 200 years after his death in 1677. In recent years, he has made yet another philosophical comeback. Why is that? In Spinoza, argumentative rigor meets hot takes. Among them: there is only one thing in the world, which is called "God" - and yet, his contemporaries called Spinoza an atheist. 

Everything happens with absolute necessity. There is no free will. Body and mind are one and the same thing. All political theory and ethical reasoning should be conducted through an analysis of the affects and not through evaluation of what is right and wrong. 

Political power and political legitimacy are one and the same. Yet a mysterious form of grassroots democracy is supposed to be the most stable form of government - that 'democracy' remains for us to be spelled out because Spinoza died before he could finish writing up his political views. 

Some called it 'communism'. However, Leibniz, Wolff, Kant and Hegel all judged Spinoza both a genius and a threat. Today, political theorists, psychologists, sociologists and philosophers of various schools re-evaluate Spinoza's philosophy in the light of contemporary debates. 

Post-marxists, post-structuralists, psychologists, affect-oriented political theorists, new materialists are more pick up on where Spinoza left off when he died. And so will we: In this first crash course, we will take a deep dive into some of Spinoza's metaphysical claims and draw some political consequences from them. Fasten your seatbelt. This will be fun.

hosted by Callaz & Ana Letunić