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LATOUR ON SPINOZA
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
A differend arises when Spinoza examines @AIMEproject's take on exegesis: they agree on the
constitutive role of exegesis in religion [REL]
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
but Spinoza does not endorse the same role of exegesis in science. He can accept religion does
not transmit universal unsituated information
A DAY AGO
https://storify.com/TerenceBlake/latour-on-spinoza
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
In brief, for Spinoza religion can be regarded as a mode of enunciation but not science.
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
This disymmetry is founded on the presupposition that an enunciative mode is not also an
ontological mode. Religion is tolerated, on this
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
on this model only insofar as it remains purely enunciative. This is a hypocritical, intolerant form of
"tolerance" according to Latour.
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
One admits that an enunciative mode has its own existence and specificity, but denies that it
transports anything ontologically crucial.
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Religion on this view teaches the weak, who cannot acceed to Reason, obedience to authority and
love of one's neighbour.
A DAY AGO
https://storify.com/TerenceBlake/latour-on-spinoza
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
It's a mode that is both respected as enunciation and crushed in its ontological quality.
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Proclaiming a diplomatic principle of "respect" for a mode while denying it any ontological quality is
a profoundly disrespectful act.
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
This amounts to claiming that if we were all philosophers then we would have no need of religion. A
disrespectful secularism.
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Latour's perspective on such Spinozan moves is that they are forms of "intolerant tolerance"
because they respect a mode as mode of speech
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
https://storify.com/TerenceBlake/latour-on-spinoza
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
One possible response to Latour would be to argue that this shows that religion is not a separate
mode, but a variety of MET.
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
MET is the mode of metamorphosis, of psychogenic networks. In Stieglerian terms it is the mode of
psychic and collective individuation.
A DAY AGO
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
For Latour Spinoza's ETHICS is a Pauline text. It begins with the God of NET (networks) and ends
with the God of REL (religion).
15 HOURS
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
There is a God for each of the modes of existence, Latour tells us.
15 HOURS
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
ALL the work of the first 4 books of the ETHICS has been to establish the continuity of cause and
effect, without the addition of anything.
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Then suddenly appears natura naturans, and we ascend by degrees to eternal beatitude. Spinoza
is not a pantheist according to Latour.
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https://storify.com/TerenceBlake/latour-on-spinoza
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
With @AIMEproject we do not interest ourselves in the term "God", which is completely different in
the first four parts and the fifth.
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
The first God is a God of NET, deus sive natura. This establishes the contrast with the later God of
eternity and beatitude, of REL.
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
If we can get to a God freed of its two successive instantiations, Jewish and Christian, then "we are
in business" exclaims Latour.
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
There are 2 Gods in this affair, the God of natura naturata, of NET, is immanent. But it is there only
to provide a contrast with the God of
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
natura naturans. Deus dei AUT deus naturae. In fact there are many Gods, the civic God, the God
of Mosaic Law. As many Gods as modes.
15 HOURS
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https://storify.com/TerenceBlake/latour-on-spinoza
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Paradox of Spinoza: extracting the specificity of religious enunciation, freeing it from the
successive superstitions of the Jewish and
14 HOURS
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Christian faiths, and from the scientific enunciation of REL, yet expressing it not in its own
language of predication but more geometrico,
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
McKenzie Wark
@mckenziewark
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Latour accuses Spinoza of being a troll, and declares concerning his condemnation: "il l'a bien
cherch", he was really looking for it.
14 HOURS
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https://storify.com/TerenceBlake/latour-on-spinoza
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
@aime Latour accuses Spinoza of being a troll & declares concerning his condemnation: "il l'a bien
cherch", he was really looking for it.
14 HOURS
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Giovanni Fanfoni
@GiovanniFanfoni
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
For Latour "diplomacy" means being able to talk about the different modes without anyone being
"chagrined".
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
This means being able to talk about religion in a way that does not chagrin the bishops.
14 HOURS
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Given his extraction of REL, what does it have to do with Church officials? The semiotic ascent is
followed by a reductive ontic descent.
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Spinoza chagrined where he should have been diplomatic, according to Latour. In opposition with
Deleuze: do not chagrin vs fight stupidity.
14 HOURS
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https://storify.com/TerenceBlake/latour-on-spinoza
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
A student asks if we must be content with Spinoza's beatitude or must we return to inquietude, and
thus to more dynamic authors (eg. Hegel).
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Latour replies that this raises the question of "reprise", of taking up a philosopher's work again. He
claims that philosophy has little to
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
say on reprise, on the way to take up its work again, whereas the prophets know a lot about this
question, as do religious institutions.
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
I would argue that Nietzsche considers this question of reprise, but his answer is not institutional.
13 HOURS
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Latour's argument is based on the presupposition that REL is a mode. I was shocked that noone in
the seminar questioned this @AIMEproject
13 HOURS
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https://storify.com/TerenceBlake/latour-on-spinoza
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Latour says in effect if you accept that REL is an enunciative mode, you must acknowledge its
ontological weight.
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
I have argued on many occasions that it is not evident that religion is a mode:
academia.edu/25303057/DE-BR
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
@AIMEproject Latour gives a brilliant reading of Spinoza, concentrating on his treatment of the
modes of science (REF) and religion (REL).
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Latour accuses Spinoza of being "asymmetric" in his treatment of science as compared to his
analysis of religion.
6 HOURS
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Terence Blake
@TPBlake
https://storify.com/TerenceBlake/latour-on-spinoza
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
Terence Blake
@TPBlake
@mhowardthomas This is a seminar from 19 May 2016, over 2 hrs long. I did a tweet summary,
and will say more on my blog. No translation yet.
2 HOURS
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https://storify.com/TerenceBlake/latour-on-spinoza