italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
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Book launch - SPINOZA THEN AND NOW :: ESSAYS - Tuesday 21 January 2020
by Antonio Negri
translated by Ed Emery
You are invited to join us for the launch of an important new book about
Baruch Spinoza, by the Italian activist, political theorist and philosopher
Antonio Negri [Polity, Cambridge, 2020].
The meeting will take place in the synagogue in the historic Jewish quarter
of Cambridge.
DATE: Tuesday 21 January 2020
TIME: 3.30-4.30pm
VENUE: Jewish Student Centre, 3 Thompson's Lane, Cambridge CB5 8AF
Continuing several decades of work on Spinoza, this book of Negri's essays
examines how the thinking of the Jewish philosopher Baruch Spinoza
(1632-1677) constituted a radical break with past ideas, and now offers an
essential tool for envisaging a form of politics beyond capitalism.
In a particularly exciting approach Negri shows how Spinoza's ideas have
facilitated radical renewal from their beginnings to the present day. It was
the democratic freedoms and spirit of solidarity fostered in the Netherlands
of the 17th century that allowed Spinoza to develop a radically new form of
thought, redefining notions of the state and outlining a republican
alternative to absolutist monarchy.
In our own era, Negri argues that the rediscovery of Spinoza was critical in
reinvigorating political theory. Instead of acquiescing to the economic
order of capitalism and abandoning the class struggle, Spinoza's ideas
enable us to reconstruct a revolutionary perspective. His treatment of
concepts such as multitude, necessity, and liberty have given us new ways of
looking critically at our present, revealing that power must always be seen
as a question of antagonism and class struggle.
The writings that make up this volume - some written from prison as Negri
fought for his own freedom - provide an important account of the enduring
relevance of Spinoza's thought, not least in the thinking of Deleuze and
Guattari. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of
philosophy and political theory, as well anyone interested in radical
politics today.
This new volume, and some of the ideas contained within it, will be
introduced by Ed Emery, the book's translator.
THE EVENT IS OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. ADMISSION IS FREE.
Further details: [log in to unmask]
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