Agonistic Equality in Rancière and Spinoza

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Published: May 1, 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/syn.16222
Keywords:
Jacques Rancière Spinoza agonistic equality ontology democracy monism the political
Dimitris Vardoulakis
Western Sydney University
Abstract

Jacques Rancière’s conception of equality as an axiomatic presupposition of the political is important, because it bypasses the tradition which defines equality in terms of Aristotle’s conception of geometric equality. In this paper, I show that Rancière’s theory both espouses a monism, according to which inequality implies equality, and relies on a concept of the free will, which is incompatible with monism. I highlight this tension by bringing Rancière’s theory into conversation with the great monist of the philosophical tradition, Baruch Spinoza.


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Author Biography
Dimitris Vardoulakis, Western Sydney University

Dimitris Vardoulakis is the Deputy Chair of the Philosophy Research Initiative at Western Sydney University. He is the author of The Doppelgänger: Literature’s Philosophy (Fordham UP, 2010), Sovereignty and its Other: Toward the Dejustification of Violence (Fordham UP, 2013), Freedom from the Free Will: On Kafka’s Laughter (SUNY P,2016); and The Ruse of Sovereignty: Democracy and Stasis (2017). He has also edited or co-edited numerous books, including Spinoza Now (U of Minnesota P., 2011) and Sparks Will Fly: Benjamin and Heidegger (SUNY P, 2015). He is the director of “Thinking Out Loud: The Sydney Lectures in Philosophy and Society.” 

 

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