For more than a century after its appearance on the modern philosophical scene, Spinoza’s philosophy was considered surprising and even scandalous for its assertion of the oneness or singularity of substance. From Bayle’s early Dictionary article to Hegel’s Lectures on the History of Philosophy, the core of Spinoza’s philosophy was said to be its unprecedented gesture of making God the sole res that could be thought through the concept of substance. Substance, according to definition 3 of part I of the (...) Ethics, is “that which is in itself and is conceived through itself.” The enormous emphasis placed on this move by the interpretative tradition almost into the twentieth century managed, however, to obscure every other dimension of Spinoza’s thought, so that Spinoza’s thought was simply a metaphysics of the oneness of substance. It is this coupling of Spinozism and the metaphysics of substance that I want to undo. In line with a series of interpretative developments in France over the last thirty years, I want to dispel this identification by employing a paradoxical formulation. Far from being a metaphysics of substance, I contend that Spinoza’s philosophy is instead an ontology of relation. By emphasizing his negation of the substantiality of what he calls res singulares, we can locate Spinoza’s originality less in having posited the existence of a single substance—Letter 50 in fact suggests that substance can only “improperly” be called “single” or “one”—than in having laid out the foundation for this ontology of relation. (shrink)

The paper examines Althusser’s readings of Gramsci, from the first critical notes and annotations to his writings on the crisis of Marxism. It highlights the profound ambivalence of Althusser’s interpretations. On the one hand, Gramsci is presented as a precursor, as the only figure within the Marxist tradition deemed to have attempted to think the superstructure, and in particular the political. On the other side, the Gramscian corpus is criticized as the paradigmatic instance of a conception of temporality and politics (...) with which Althusser is in disagreement. Regarding the Althusserian critique, we here identify two distinct phases starting out from a critique of the lack of knowledge of the specific status of science in general, especially of the science of history, characteristic of the second half of the sixties, Althusser would, in the late seventies, formulate a critique of the Gramscian concept of hegemony which, in his view, erases the question of class domination. (shrink)

Plural Temporality traces out a dynamic historical relationship between the texts of Spinoza and of Althusser. It interrogates Spinoza's text through Althusser and vice versa regarding the question of materialism.

O autor estabelece uma comparação entre Althusser e Derrida a partir da questão da temporalidade, por meio da leitura que os dois autores propõem de Marx sub specie theatri. A partir disso emerge uma teoria da temporalidade em Althusser que está além tanto da teleologia da tradição hegeliano-marxista, quanto do messianismo sem messias proposto por Derrida em sua releitura benjaminiana de Marx. Nesse sentido, a escatologia em Althusser só é pensável à la cantonade.

In this paper, I analyse the problem of monstrosity as a key point of Lucretius’s theory through the opposite interpretations of Bergson and Canguilhem. According to Canguilhem, Lucretius’s philosophy can be described as follows: before the constitution of the ‘pacts of the nature,’ forms proliferate in the kingdom of Chaos. Following the pacts, the Kingdom of the form and of the Cosmos is established. Following Bergson, on the contrary, Lucretius’s pacts of nature represent the ‘kingdom of necessity’ and the ‘eternal (...) law of nature.’ Not in the sense that the persistence of forms is ensured, but rather in the sense of the necessity of the combinations of atoms. Hence, the form’s constitution is not secured by the pacts of nature, and a monster is not an exception to them. Both interpretations paradigmatically illustrate what is at stake in the concept of monstrosity, namely the meaning of Lucretian determinism and its relation with chance. (shrink)

Can the Marxist tradition still provide new resources for thinking the specificity of historical time? This volume proposes to transform our understanding of Marxism by reconnecting with the 'subterranean currents' of plural temporalities that have traversed its development. From Rousseau and Sieyès to Marx, from Bloch to Althusser, from Gramsci to Pasolini and Postcolonialism, the chapters in this volume seek both to valorise neglected resources from Marxism's contradictory history, and also to read against the grain its orthodox and heterodox currents. (...) Privileging not the single time of historical development, but the plural temporalities that intertwine in and constitute any given historical conjuncture, and arguing against merely subjectivist theories of temporal multiplicity, this volume studies the articulation of the real, plural temporalities of mass political action. Comprehending their dynamics is a necessary precondition for a renewed politics of emancipation.Contributors include: Luca Basso, Stefano Bracaletti, Mauro Farnesi Camellone, Fabio Frosini, Augusto Illuminati, Nicola Marcucci, Vittorio Morfino, Luca Pinzolo, Peter D. Thomas and Massimiliano Tomba. (shrink)

The essay takes its point of departure from Monod's reading of dialectical materialism in Chance and Necessity. A passage of Engels's Dialectics of Nature, which identifies Spinoza's concept of causa sui with the Hegelian concept of interaction [Wechselwirkung], provides the opportunity to examine the consequences of Monod's claims more closely. Using Spinoza's philosophy as a litmus test, the essay attempts to demonstrate the debt of Engels's materialism to Hegel's Science of Logic by tracing the development of the concept of Wechselwirkung (...) in classical German philosophy. A profound difference between the Spinozan and Hegelian concepts becomes apparent: while the concept of Wechselwirkung implies a totality present to itself as simultaneity, permitting the flow of a linear, homogenous and empty time upon which stages of development can be inscribed, the concept of causa sui implies a totality without closure, a totality whose eternity is identified with the necessary and infinite network of modal durations. The essay concludes by suggesting that Spinoza's concept of causa sui allows us to rethink the relation between freedom and necessity in the Marxist tradition in conjunctural and aleatory terms. (shrink)

Analysing the notebooks and the references to Lucretius in Marx's works, Morfino concludes that it is possible to excavate a major discontinuity in Marx's interpretation. The Lucretius of the juvenile notebooks on Epicureanism, who functions as a model of abstract self-consciousness, is overtaken, in the scattered references from the period of Die deutsche Ideologie and Das Kapital, by a Lucretius for whom nature becomes a continuous process of transformation of its parts - a process in which the human species (...) is itself immersed. (shrink)

Vittorio Morfino draws out the implications of the dynamic Spinoza-Machiavelli encounter by focusing on the concepts of causality, temporality and politics. This allows him to think through the relationship between ontology and politics, leading to an understanding of history as a complex and plural interweaving of different rhythms.

Trata-se de investigar a tese marxiana acerca do papel da violência na história, tal como enunciada em O Capital, analisando sua sintaxe de matriz hegeliana e o modo como Engels articula tal tese, para então defender uma interpretação não-teleológica da violência, segundo a qual esta apresenta uma pluralidade de formas, um caráter totalmente difuso e uma pesada materialidade.

The article considers some explicit or implicit and yet fundamental references to Althusser in Balibar’s text about transindividuality. Of particular significance is the attempt to think of an articulation of ideology and the unconscious which brings into play the three authors Balibar evokes—Spinoza, Marx, and Freud—so as to reactivate them beyond Simondon’s own theory of transindividuality.

In this essay I consider the fundamental features of Althusser’s reading of Machiavelli in its historical development, starting from the 1962 lecture course, passing through the 1972–76 course published with the title of Machiavel et nous as well as the writings of 1977–78, concluding with the group of writings written during the 1980s. I show that any teleological reading that sees in the final writings the truth finally revealed of the path of Althusser’s reading of Machiavelli should be rejected, and (...) instead present the thesis that Althusser, through the figure of Machiavelli, theoretically reworks his relationship with the Party. (shrink)

A partire dagli anni Settanta del secolo scorso è stata sottolineata a più riprese l’originalità del concetto spinoziano di imaginatio e allo stesso tempo il suo ruolo chiave all’interno del sistema. Nella storia del pensiero Occidentale, da Aristotele a Wittgnestein passando per Kant, l’immaginazione costituisce una soglia, il punto di raccordo tra mondo e pensiero. Ma l’immaginazione costituisce una soglia anche in un altro senso: per la modernità filosofica l’immaginazione costituisce la soglia tra interno ed esterno.Ora, che cosa accade dell’immaginazione (...) una volta che si rifiuti la mossa cartesiana della separazione di un interno e un esterno, mossa che senza dubbio fonda la linea filosofica dominante della modernità? Come deve essere ripensata? Per comprenderlo è necessario rileggere Spinoza nell'ottica di una ‘ontologia della relazione’. (shrink)

Um dos mal-entendidos mais persistentes que cercam a filosofia leibniziana consiste, sem dúvida, em querer ver nela uma forma de espinosismo. Por outro lado, toda oposição que se faz entre Leibniz e Espinosa no plano teórico aparentemente não ultrapassa a visão hegeliana da relação entre os dois filósofos como oposição entre universalidade e individualidade. Pretende-se aqui, diferentemente, confrontar os dois filósofos em relação à questão da individualidade confrontando os seus prolongamentos teóricos do século XX. De um lado, a intersubjetividade husserliana (...) como prolongamento teórico da monadologia; de outro, o conceito simondoniano de transindividualidade que, com Balibar, permite-nos prolongar o pensamento espinosano na contemporaneidade. Tentar-se-á marcar toda a distância que separa estes dois sistemas segundo uma abordagem que não se limita a repetir o velho refrão hegeliano. (shrink)

Among the Althusserian writings of the 1980s, the authors focus their attention on the most significant one, “The Underground Current of Materialism of Encounter”, which deals mainly with the theme of encounter - rather than those of emptiness or nothingness, considered as secondary by the authors. In this perspective, it is paradoxically the work of Darwin which becomes a crucial reference, helping a Marxist theory of History to emancipate itself from any teleological paradigm.

This paper analyzes some of the theoretical formulations of Ernst Bloch, Antonio Gramsci and Louis Althusser that indicate the way in which the problem of plural temporality appears in the marxist tradition of thought. Acknowledging that the term “plural temporality” is not used explicitly in the work of these authors, it is seeked to show that, however, marxism has not always thought of history in a univocal and stable way, but has been able to recognize, in different ways and at (...) different times, the complexity of the plurality of historical time. The aim of the work is to account for certain traces of plural temporality within marxist tradition that contribute to strengthening a critique of the linear and progressive model of historical time. (shrink)

Il testo che qui presentiamo riproduce l’Introduzione al volume miscellaneo Il transindividuale. Soggetti, relazioni, mutazioni, a cura di E. Balibar e V. Morfino, Mimesis, Milano 2014.

The Radical Machiavelli: Politics, Philosophy and Languageoffers a partial and even partisan reading of Machiavelli, whose thought continues to divide interpreters, forcing them to confront their responsibility as contemporary thinkers in a global society.

Reading 'Capital''s promotion of the Spinozist sources of Marxism has stimulated a series of important studies in several major zones of Marxist theoretical work. A more general reassessment of Spinoza's thought in the project of a 'radical Enlightenement' provides the opportunity to consider critically the contribution of these studies to the elaboration of Marxist political theory. Vittorio Morfino, well known Italian scholar of Spinoza and Althusser, proposes to study Engels's reading of Spinoza in the context of the inheritance of (...) classical German idealism in the Marxist theory of history. He argues that Spinoza provides resources for rethinking Marxist notions of temporality and structure. The result is a theory of conjunctural analysis, in distinction from 'normative' and 'prescriptive' perspectives. (shrink)

Resenha de: Vittorio Morfino, Intersoggettività o transindividualità. Materiali per un’alternativa, Castel di San Pietro Romano, Manifestolibri, 2022.

Trata-se da resenha do livro O tempo e a ocasião, o encontro Espinosa Maquiavel, de Vittorio Morfino.

Resenha do livro "A ciência das conexões singulares", de Vittorio Morfino.

Scholars have cited the influence of Lucretius on Machiavelli as important to framing Machiavelli’s position on the freedom of political agents. Some scholars like Roecklin and Rahe argue that Machiavelli was a determinist based on Machiavelli’s rejection of the clinamen; others argue with Brown and Morfino that Machiavelli’s affirmation of Lucretian natural principles left room for the freedom of agents. However, this paper takes a different approach by arguing that Machiavelli successfully resists identification with either of these positions. I (...) argue here that Machiavelli affirms a notion of agency that reflects the influence of the Lucretian notion of mixed bodies where human actions emerge from an irreducible multiplicity of subjective and objective factors. I also argue that Machiavelli structures the narratives describing the actions of his agents in a way that supports interpreting their actions as both contingent and necessary. (shrink)

La Monadologie est au même temps une oeuvre du philosophe allemand G.W. Leibniz entitulée ainsi par un éditeur qui inventa le mot, et une théorie. Les essais réunis ici en concernent l'origine, l'histoire et l'enjeu philosophique. F. Piro analyse le développements de la conception de l'individuation chez le jeune Leibniz. M. Fichant étudie en détail la constitution du concept de monade. La nature limitée des monades créées est ramenée par G. Mormino à la doctrine leibnizienne de la contingence et de (...) la création. E. Pasini reconstitue la genèse de la Monadologie, prototype du traité monadologique, pour montrer que sa nature n'est pas dans son origine. La monadologie va même inviter les détournements matérialistes du jeune Feuerbach - l'essai de V. Morfino porte sur les insuffisances de sa reformulation purement transcendantale chez Husserl, face à la théorie du transindividuel. (shrink)

El artículo recorre el tratamiento que Louis Althusser ofrece acerca de la noción de Darstellung, en el marco de su proyecto de dar forma al concepto de causalidad estructural en la teoría marxista. Retomando investigaciones anteriores de Étienne Balibar, Vittorio Morfino, George Hartley, Warren Montag y Aurelio Sainz Pezonaga, se reconstruyen algunos de los problemas hilvanados en la serie que articula, en la escritura althusseriana, las categorías marxistas de Darstellung, Verbindung y Gliederung con la metáfora del teatro sin autor. (...) El artículo tiene como objetivo exponer la condición cismática de la noción althusseriana de representación, escindida por una singular idea de performatividad que va de lo escénico a lo inconsciente. Con este recorrido me propongo aportar ayuda a la formulación de la pregunta por las posibilidades de la crítica en la coyuntura del pensamiento algorítmico. (shrink)

The point of departure is the paradoxical finding that Spinoza is sometimes presented as the a-historical philosopher par excellence, while his Theological-Political Treatise is truly an historian’s work. The paper develops the hypothesis that historiography, as Spinoza himself practices, is a task of political ethics, analogous to the one to be found in the first section of the fifth part of the Ethics. Against interpretations developed by Vittorio Morfino, drawing on Althusser, historical knowledge is not a knowledge of the (...) third kind but of the second kind. (shrink)

L’article part du constat paradoxal que Spinoza est présenté parfois comme le philosophe anhistorique par excellence, alors que son Traité théologico-politique est un authentique travail d’historien. Est alors développée l’hypothèse selon laquelle l’historiographie, telle que Spinoza la pratique, est une tâche d’éthique politique, analogue à celle que l’on trouve dans la première section de la cinquième partie de l’Éthique. Contrairement à ce que des commentateurs comme Vittorio Morfino ont soutenu à la suite d’Althusser, la connaissance historique ne relève pas (...) du troisième genre de connaissance, mais du deuxième. (shrink)

A última fase do filósofo Louis Althusser desperta amplo interesse pela resolução da maioria das questões suscitadas desde suas primeiras publicações na década de 60, dentre as quais a mais relevante delas sobre a teleologia no materialismo histórico. No entanto, suas publicações sobre o chamado “Materialismo de Encontro” só apareceram post mortem e, ainda, o fatídico episódio da morte de sua esposa contribui para o repúdio e esquecimento do autor. O materialismo de encontro, ou aleatório, é o empenho resultante da (...) tentativa de compreensão dos processos históricos isentos da teleologia. O materialismo de encontro é, ainda, a realização de um projeto mais ambicioso que é o estabelecimento de uma filosofia para o marxismo. No caso, uma filosofia assistemática aberta aos eventos histórico e também impulsionadora de um projeto político de transição. Filosofia que se estabeleça de maneira a escapar à interpelação dos indivíduos em sujeitos, um desvio à Ideologia dominante. Trataremos, então, da categoria de clinamen como o desvio do assujeitamento e, sobretudo, como categoria habilitadora de uma ação política. Observaremos as principais linhas de fundamentação, como núcleo invisível, da assertiva teórica althusseriana do aleatório no seio do materialismo de Charles Darwin, na análise elaborada pelo professor Vittorio Morfino. Numa conjectura, a questão da dialética e seu papel reservado à Teoria, à Ideologia, às formações sociais e a possibilidade de uma ação política inscrita no clinamen. (shrink)

(CONTENIDO: LA FILOSOFÍA DE ALTHUSSER A 50 AÑOS DE LIRE LE CAPITAL Pedro Karczmarczyk, 3; DISCURSO Y DECRETO: SPINOZA ALTHUSSER Y PÊCHEUX Warren Montag 11; ALTHUSSER LECTOR DE GRAMSCI Vittorio Morfino 43 LAS ABSTRACCIONES, ENTRE LA IDEOLOGÍA Y LA CIENCIA João Quartim de Moraes 67 ELOGIO DEL TEORICISMO. PRÁCTICA TEÓRICA E INCONSCIENTE FILOSÓFICO EN LA PROBLEMÁTICA ALTHUSSERIANA, Natalia Romé 85 MARXISMO Y FEMINISMO: EL RECOMIENZO DE UNA PROBLEMÁTICA1 115 Luisina Bolla* / Pedro Karczmarczyk* 115 RRESEÑAS El materialismo de Althusser. (...) Más allá del telos y del Eschaton de Vittorio Morfino, por Valentín Huarte 153; El sujeto en cuestión, Pedro Karczmarczyk (ed.) por Constanza Storani; 159 La posición materialista. El pensamiento de L. Althusser entre la práctica teórica y la práctica política, de Natalia Romé, por Ingrid Sarchman y Carolina Collazo 164. (shrink)