An online seminar series led by Jason Read, Andrew Goffey and Jeremy Gilbert
At least since the 1960s, a particular strain of radical thought has explored the relationships – potential and actual – between the ‘Marxist’ tradition and the philosophy of Baruch Spinoza and others influenced by him. The modern turn to ‘affect’ as a theme in many branches of the humanities and social sciences would arguably not have happened without this philosophical current; yet much contemporary ‘affect theory’ makes little effort really to think through the implications of this encounter or the relationships between questions of affect and those of power, economics and sociology.
At the same time, in socialist and communist thought, the radical implications of Spinoza’s materialist psychology often go overlooked in favor of the familiar clichés of Freudianism. Yet some of us would argue that ‘Spinozist Marxism’ is the most useful framework through which to understand many aspects of the relationship between self and society today. It’s a theme that often comes up on Jason’s and Jeremy’s podcasts,
So our aim in this series of seminars is to explore these issues as thoroughly as possible, in a way that will be both accessible to people coming to them for the first time, and valuable to those studying them at the most rarefied levels.
The series will be led by Jason Read, Andrew Goffey and Jeremy Gilbert, but will feature guest speakers when we can get them, and it will take the form of roughly 1-3 hour online seminars happening approximately monthly. We have topics in mind ranging from materialist feminism to music theory, that could well keep us going for a few years, but for now, we’re just going to list the first few topics
The series will be hosted by Jeremy’s Culture, Power, and Politics project and recordings of the seminars will appear in the Culture, Power and Politics podcast feed. But we would definitely encourage ‘live’ attendance so that you can ask questions, tell us we’re wrong, and make jokes. We’ll send out occasional updates about the series to the Culture, Power and Politics email list (that you can join on its webpage).
Access for anyone will be completely free and we are not receiving any funding or institutional support, including from our employer institutions. Omnia sunt communia. There are costs associated with the project, though, so if you can contribute, please consider doing so by following the links here.
To attend, you’ll need a Zoom link. We’ll send out the link to the Culture, Power, Politics email list about an hour before each session starts. You can join the list here.
0) What is ‘Marxism’ anyway?
November 18th 17:30 GMT
We’ll discuss what we actually mean by ‘Marxism’. What is historical and what is materialist about historical materialism? Does it matter what Marx himself thought about anything? Is Marxism a philosophical school or a political programme?
We’ll consider the history of philosophical supplements to, and re-workings of Marxism; and we’ll ask what has provoked the turn to Spinoza on the part of Marxist thinkers in the past and recently.
- Why would radicals read Spinoza?
December 2nd 2023 17:30 GMT
How does Spinoza fit into the history of Western (and world) philosophy? To what is he relevant outside of academic philosophy? Why did he become a hero to a certain strand of Marxist / post-Marxist thinkers in the late 20th century? Why was he ignored by others? This is what we will discuss in this session.
- Spinoza’s Philosophy
December 16th 2023 17:30 GMT
In this seminar we’ll finally lay out and discuss the core topics from Spinoza’s major philosophical works, and discuss some of the issues involved with trying to read a 17th century Dutch philosopher who wrote in Latin when you’re a 21st-century Anglophone with a life of your own to live.
Here’s the recording
- Spinozist Marxism: the organic philosophy of the contemporary left?
January 6th 2024 17:30 GMT
In this session, we will be joined by none other than Etienne Balibar to discuss the history and present state of dialogue between Marxism and Spinozism. Is Marx already a Spinozan? Is Spinoza already a Marxist?
Here’s the recording
Apologies that we had to cancel the seminar scheduled for February 3rd due to illness – we have rescheduled that seminar for March 23rd, and Jeremy also recorded a special emergency podcast, ‘Introducing Affect’, to introduce some of the themes.
4. When Marx Met Spinoza
March 2nd 2024 17:30 GMT
In this session we will be joined by Tracie Matysik to discuss the very idea of a Spinozan philosophy beyond the writings of Baruch Spinoza himself, and particular in the work of Marx . To what extent is there a consistent tradition of materialist monism that can be traced back to Spinoza and necessarily or possibly informs historical materialism? What is the nature of the Marx / Spinoza Encounter?
Here’s the recording
5. The Affective Turn
March 23rd 2024 17:30 GMT
In this session, we’ll be joined by Erica Tucker look at the so-called ‘affective turn’ in the humanities and social sciences since the late 1990s. We’ll consider the multiple forms which this ‘turn’ has taken, in both political terms (from libertarian accelerationists to radical communists) and disciplinary ( from film theory to geography). We’ll ask how Spinozan it all is, and whether that matters anyway.
6. The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work
Wednesday June 12th, 17:30-20:30 BST
In this session we will be discussing Jason’s own new book, The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work .
You can watch an introductory video featuring Jason and Jeremy discussing the book here.
We hope to have plenty of time for questions, and that the session will be accessible even if you haven’t read the book.
7. Spinoza and Ideology Critique with Warren Montag
Wednesday July 17th 2024, 19:30-21:00 BST
In this session we will be joined by one of the doyens of Anglophone Spinozist Marxism, Warren Montag, to discuss the relationship between Spinozan thought and the historical materialist tradition of ideology critique.
8. Saturday November 2nd 2024, 17:00-19:00 GMT
Questions and Discussion Session!
In this open session we will simply discuss any questions, topics or issues that you wish to put to us or to other participants in the seminar.
Anyone is free to simply join and raise a point or question in person, or to email us a question or discussion topic in advance. It would help if you could email questions or topics to us even if you plan to attend online, but if you don’t then that’s fine.
To email a question please send it with the subject line ‘seminar question’ to jemgilbert@culturepowerpolitics.org.
9. Monday December 2nd 2024, 17:00-19:00 GMT
The Australian Deleuze, Materialist Feminisms, Affect in the Anthropocene
We’ll discuss these three topics and the relationships (or non-relationships) between them with Claire Colebrook, author of many books including Death of the Posthuman: Essays on Extinction
10. Wednesday January 15th 2025, 19:00-21:00 GMT
Regimes of Violence
with John Protevi, author of Political Physics (2001), A Dictionary of Continental Philosophy (2006), Political Affect (2009), Edges of the State (2019), Life, War, Earth (2013) and the forthcoming Regimes of Violence.
John is a world-renowned expert on continental philosophy, particularly in the Spinozist and Deleuzian traditions. He’s going to talk about his forthcoming book and probably various other things.
11. Saturday March 1st 2025, 17:00-19:00 GMT
The Personality of Power: A Theory of Fascism for Anti- fascist Life
Brian Massumi‘s contributions to Anglophone ‘continental’ philosophy and to social, political and cultural theory are too numerous to count, having been the original translator Deleuze & Guttari’s A Thousand Plateaus, one of the foundational figures of contemporary affect theory, and the author of such major works as Parables of the Virtual and Politics of Affect. In this seminar, Biran will discuss his new book with Jason Read, Andrew Goffey and Jeremy Gilbert.
12. Saturday October 18th 2025 17:00-19:00 BST
(rescheduled from July)
From Superstition to Mythocracy: Yves Citton and the Politics of Mediation
In this seminar we will talk with Yves Citton about his books Mythocracy: How Stories Shape Our World, Mediarchy, and Spinoza et les Social Sciences: De la Puissance de la multitude à l’économie des affects (co-edited with Frédéric Lordon), and about the myths that dominate contemporary thought, how they are disseminated, and how and understanding of the intersection of affects, attention, and imagination might help us combat the right wing myths of individuality, nation, and race that dominate modern thought.
Among many other things, Spinoza was a critic of the superstitions of his time such as the idea of an anthropomorphic god, miracles, and the divine providence of states, revealing where these ideas came from and how they reinforce existing power structures. As astute as his criticisms were, they often seem relegated to a different time in which scripture was the primary source of intellectual authority, and the written word was the means of transmission of superstition. What does Spinoza’s understanding of superstition, imagination, and the affects mean in an age of digital video and social media?
13. Saturday February 21st 2026 17:00-19:00 GMT
Spinoza in Post-Marxist Philosophy with Katja Diefenbach
With respect to contemporary Marxism or Post-Marxism Spinoza is one philosopher, infinite interpretations: Louis Althusser, Antonio Negri, Pierre Macherey, Etienne Balibar, Gilles Deleuze, and Alexandre Matheron all draw from Spinoza, but in fundamentally different ways. Althusser’s use of Spinoza to develop a theory of ideology as the imaginary representation of the relationship to their real relations is fundamentally different from Negri’s use of Spinoza to construct a theory of the multitude as the political subject, which is in turn different from Deleuze’s examination of the affective dimension of politics. Up until now no one has really examined these different interpretations in relation to each other, investigating how they emerge from tensions within Spinoza’s work. Katja Diefenbach’s Spinoza in Post-Marxist Philosophy is the first book to appear, at least in English, that examines the different and diverse strands of Spinozist Marxism, examining how they overlap and diverge from each other.
For each seminar, we will send the Zoom link for the seminar to the Culture, Power and Politics email list about an hour before the start, so please sign up to the list and check your spam filters if you would like to attend.
These seminars don’t necessarily take place at regular intervals, and we’re currently in the process of planning the next few.