André Tosel
Abstract: This text by André Tosel, “On the ‘Marxist’ Uses of Spinoza – Lessons of Method,” originally published in O. Bloch (ed.), Spinoza au XXe siècle, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris 1993, investigates the multiple and contradictory uses of Spinozism within the Marxist tradition. Tosel distinguishes between the orthodox use – from Plekhanov to Soviet philosophers – which interprets Spinoza as the founder of a monistic materialism functional to the construction of a partisan worldview, and the critical use, inaugurated by Antonio Labriola and revived by Louis Althusser, which values Spinoza as a tool for the deconstruction of subjectivist metaphysics. The article formulates three methodological lessons: to historicize the uses of Spinoza, to identify their ideological function, and to distinguish between dogmatic and critical appropriations. In Althusser, finally, Tosel recognizes a dual Spinozist legacy: on the one hand, a radical critique of the subject and of ends; on the other, a more fragile pars construens of structural causality.
Keywords: Spinozism; Marxism; Subjectivity; Ideology; Historicization.