Spinoza in Badiou’s Briefings on Existence

Abstract

In his Briefings on Existence, Badiou proposes a reading of Spinoza which essentially differs from a traditional reading in one specific point. Hegel, along with other German Idealists, criticized the mathematical structure of Spinoza’s Ethics. Deleuze and many others took on the task of defending Spinoza, however they did not deny Hegel’s thesis that the abstract and formalist system of mathematics is unsuitable for producing philosophical truths. Rather, they pointed out that the mathematical order of demonstrations only played a limited role in Spinoza’s work. In contrast, Badiou seems to defend a very exceptional position, arguing in favour of the mathematicity of being in Spinozism. As it turns out, though, Badiou differentiated between the axiomatic and the event model of thought-operations over being, and considered Spinozism to be limited to the axiomatic model where the event is excluded. But this means that he, just as Hegel before him, criticized Spinozism for the rigidity of its system of thought. In conclusion, the paper proposes an original way to conceive the level of event in Spinozism.