“In the TTP, Spinoza famously argues that democracy (democratia) is the best and most natural form of government (TTP 16[36]). Critiquing Hobbes's model of the social contract in Chapters 16 and 17, Spinoza argues that while Hobbes tries to subsume the power of the people or multitude in the sovereign, transferring their right and power to this figure or assembly, this kind of transfer is impossible. Individual humans - inside a state or outside of it - retain an amount of their natural power to live and think that can never be completely transferred to the sovereign (TTP17[2]). Since power cannot be fully transferred to any one person or group, it must remain in the individual humans that make up a state. The power that this multitude retains makes them a threat to any sovereign and form of state except a democratic one. In a democracy, each individual retains their power of acting and thinking and the job of those ruling the state is to coordinate the power of these individuals - the multitude - in such a way that their collective power can serve the goals of the state, which, in turn, becomes more powerful when it creates the conditions for optimal individual flourishing.” Link to entry

Freedom, for Spinoza, can be gained individually, but is meaningless without the freedom of others. In this paper, I examine Spinoza's concept of power and joining with others as his contribution to the idea of relational autonomy and collective emancipation. Link to paper.

Knowledge is essential for the workings of democracy, and community radio has been used in development work to help create healthy democratic communities and culture. In this paper, I show how democracy theorists can understand the epistemic and political benefits of community radio for democracy. Link to paper.

Spinoza's naturalism is a resource for feminist philosophers seeking a naturalistic account of human power. Link to paper.

Spinoza's theory of emotions is essential reading for those who understand the importance of human emotions in political theory. In this paper, I show how, for Spinoza, human emotions are shaped by political and social institutions. Link to paper.

Spinoza's 'free man' needs society. In this paper I show how from Spinoza's affect theory to his writings on democracy we can find a theory of individual and collective empowerment. Link to paper.

Reflecting on the practice of being a Spinoza scholar and Spinozist in Trump's Pandemic America, I argue that we can find consolation in Spinoza's insistent norm -- to understand. Link to paper.

Spinoza's democracy theory does not end at the boundaries of the state. Rather, his metaphysical and epistemic arguments for democracy suggest that states should be as large as possible. Link to paper.

The 'multitude' of Spinoza has come to signify a variety of ideas, particularly in the work of Hardt and Negri. In this paper, I go to the source of Spinoza's concept -- Hobbes. What we find in Spinoza's changing ideas of the 'mob', 'people', and 'multitude' is the development of his own ideas about the need for collective empowerment for individual freedom. Link to paper.

“Spinoza begins using "absolute" in a political context in the TP, his final work and second work devoted to political philosophy. He writes there that democracy is the most "absolute" form of state, but also sets out ways in which other forms of state can become "more absolute" (TP3). The goal of the TP is to apply the developments of the Ethics to the questions of politics (TP2.I). Specifically, he will apply his new theory of human power, including his theory of emotions or "affects" and human motivation, to the question of the state.“ Link to entry

Can we ever have politics without the noble lie? Can we have a collective political identity that does not exclude or define ‘us’ as ‘not them’? In the Ethics, Spinoza argues that individual human emotions and imagination shape the social world. This world, he argues, can in turn be shaped by political institutions to be more or less hopeful, more or less rational, or more or less angry and indignant. How to create the former and fight the latter has become more pressing in times of Trump. Link to paper.

All of my publications are available on PhilPapers. Link to PhilPapers profile.