Michael Mack
Hasana
Sharp, Spinoza and the Politics of Renaturalization, University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, 2011, 242 pp.
Spinoza's philosophy becomes
increasingly relevant for a critique and revision of traditional humanism. The
term humanism describes the attempt to elevate human life over and above that
of the merely natural. On this view nature names a lack (hence the expression
'merely natural'): it lacks rationality which distinguishes humanity. A divide
between the natural and the human characterizes the concept of humanism. In
this sense humanism concurs with the philosophical school of compatibilism
which assumes that the contingent and merely natural aspect of our existence is
compatible with being ruled by its opposite: the adjudicating and governmental
human mind. Most contemporary philosophers adhere to a compatibilist view of
humanity. This is the point of departure for Hasana Sharp's intriguing book
about Spinoza's contemporary relevance for the following fields of inquiry:
post-humanism, feminism, ecological thought and political philosophy.
The starting premise of this
brilliant book is that Spinoza's thought diverges from philosophies (those of
Kant and Descartes) which posit a compatibility of our naturalist tendencies
with a rationalist ideal of subduing and controlling natural urges, feelings
and inconsistencies. By departing from compatibilism Spinoza is at odds with
most philosophers who have come after Descartes and Kant. As Sharp points out,
"most philosophers today maintain a 'compatibilist' idea of the person, a
view of moral agency in which freedom of the will is seen to be compatible with
natural determination" (p. 2). The view that we can exert our rational
free will despite natural determinations holds sway in social thought and thus
exerts a strong influence on politics.
For there to be compatibility
between two disconnected entities there needs to be some form of a divide
between them in the first place. As I have shown in Spinoza and the Specters
of Modernity, Spinoza radically outdoes the duality between nature and
reason (or free will). There is continuity rather than a duality between affect
and concept, between desire and thought, between reason and nature. Building on
Spinoza's thought, Sharp attempts to counter our current form of politics with
a new one of "renaturalization". What does this mean for our
understanding of humanity and its social habitat, politics? Sharp argues that
Spinoza at once questions the grandeur with which traditional humanism endows
the term 'humanity' and re-enforces the value of human life in its diversity.
Spinoza "redefines human agency as entirely natural, locating it within a
system that reserves no special status whatsoever for humans" (p. 4). This
devaluation of the eminence of humanity within the larger context of nature of
which we are only a tiny part does, however, help alleviate human suffering.
